Leupold Mark 4HD Now Ships Illuminated PR2 and PR3 Reticles

Leupold expanded the Mark 4HD line on July 10, 2026 with three new illuminated reticle options: PR2-MOA, PR2-MIL, and PR3-MIL. Each reticle is offered in the 6-24x52 and 8-32x56 chassis, both first focal plane on 34mm maintubes with a 4:1 zoom ratio. The announcement matters because the PR2 and PR3 patterns have been Leupold's most-requested Mark 4HD reticles and had never been offered with factory illumination in this line.

Illumination is push-button operated and paired with Leupold's Motion Sensor Technology. MSG kills the reticle glow after five minutes of inactivity and wakes it up as soon as the scope moves, which matters more on a bolt gun in a shoot house or a mid-stage hold than on a bench. The chassis carry over from the existing non-illuminated Mark 4HD: waterproof, fogproof, shockproof, ZeroLock elevation turrets, side focus parallax, machined and assembled in Beaverton, Oregon, backed by Leupold's lifetime performance guarantee.

The PR2 and PR3 reticles are Leupold's minimalist precision patterns, sharing a small center aiming point with holdover and windage marks radiating from it. PR2 is the tighter layout, with marks spaced for shooters who prefer a clean sight picture and use the reticle for calls and short-notice holdovers rather than a full grid. PR3 adds more marks and reference points, closer to a traditional Christmas-tree style, for shooters who want dense reference at high magnification. All three are first focal plane, so subtensions scale with magnification and holdovers stay accurate at any power.

The MIL versus MOA split is measurement-only. PR2-MIL and PR3-MIL work in milliradians, matching the vast majority of PRS-style match dope. PR2-MOA works in minute-of-angle, which many hunters and older shooters still prefer because the unit maps cleanly onto common yardage-inch relationships. Every reticle in this launch keeps Leupold's stated design goal: enough information for rapid corrections without cluttering the low-power sight picture. Illumination now lets that aiming point stay visible when the reticle otherwise goes gray at 24x on a shadowed target. For a deeper look at how precision reticles map to matches and hunts, see our ballistics guide. If you are still choosing between MIL and MOA for a first precision rifle build, read our 6.5 Creedmoor rifle guide which covers dope conventions by division.

The 6-24x52 is the lower-magnification Mark 4HD in this launch and the more versatile of the two. Six-power on the low end is not a true LPVO, but it holds a workable field of view for closer target transitions during positional stages and covers most PRS and NRL Hunter distances at the 24x top end. The 52mm objective is easier to mount low on the receiver of a bolt gun, and the 27.5 oz weight keeps it competitive with mid-priced 6-24 precision scopes.

The 8-32x56 pushes the top end to 32x for shooters who want more magnification on distant steel or the smallest targets in NRL Hunter. The 56mm objective gathers more light at high power, which pairs well with the new illumination in the same darker glassing windows. The tradeoff is a higher scope ring height requirement and a slightly narrower field of view at the low end (8x versus 6x). Buy the 6-24x52 for a do-everything precision rifle; buy the 8-32x56 for a dedicated distance rifle. Compare either against other precision optics in our side-by-side compare tool to see how the Mark 4HD stacks against the Mark 5HD 3.6-18x44 and competing FFP scopes in the same price band.

The existing Mark 4HD chassis ships with Leupold's M5C3 ZeroLock elevation turret, which is what the illuminated variants inherit. M5C3 provides 30 MILs of elevation across three revolutions, with a locking mechanism that has to be pulled up before the dial rotates. That lock stops accidental turret bumps from moving the zero, a real problem on precision rifles that live in cases and racks between range days. Select Mark 4HD variants pair the M5C3 elevation with a matching ZeroLock windage; on the base configurations the windage is capped instead.

Click values are 0.1 MIL on the MIL reticles and 1/4 MOA on the MOA reticle. Elevation travel is 36 MIL total on the 6-24x52 chassis, with 18 MIL of windage. That is enough to reach past 1,500 yards on a 6.5 Creedmoor or 6mm precision load without a canted base, but shooters chasing extreme long range should still plan on a 20 or 30 MOA rail so the turret starts near its mechanical zero. For a walkthrough on zeroing a precision scope, see our ballistics and precision setup guide.

The illuminated Mark 4HD is the right buy for shooters who see their reticle go dim in real conditions and know it. That is primarily dawn-and-dusk hunters, PRS and NRL Hunter competitors who shoot dark targets in tree shadow, precision rifle owners using the scope for both matches and general practice, and any LE or duty precision rifle where a lit reticle solves a genuine low-light problem. The push-button plus Motion Sensor Technology control scheme fits those workflows: the shooter never manually turns illumination on or off, and the battery is not draining while the rifle sits in a case.

The non-illuminated variant is still the smarter buy for two groups. First: pure daylight target and steel shooters, where a crisp black reticle on a bright plate is already the ideal visual. Second: anyone building a precision rifle to a fixed budget where the illumination premium (Leupold has not published the number yet, but expect a several-hundred-dollar delta based on prior Mark 4HD and Mark 5HD illuminated pricing) would push the total build past what the rifle warrants. If you are wiring up a first precision build, take a look at our best 6.5 Creedmoor rifle guide and match the scope to the host, not the other way around.

Illumination is the second material Mark 4HD refresh in twelve months. The line already picked up new low-power SFP variants at SHOT Show 2026 and now covers first focal plane 6-24x52 and 8-32x56 with illumination across the three most-requested PR reticles. The Mark 4HD strategy is to close the gap between Leupold's VX-6HD hunting glass and the flagship Mark 5HD precision line at a lower price point, and the illuminated variants tighten that positioning.

Above the Mark 4HD, the Mark 5HD 3.6-18x44 stays the lightweight precision option at 26 oz on a 35mm tube with a wider reticle catalog (TMR, PR1-MIL, PR2-MIL, PR1-MOA, PR2-MOA, CCH, H59). The Mark 5HD wins on chassis weight and reticle selection; the illuminated Mark 4HD wins on the specific 6-24 and 8-32 magnification bands and now on illuminated PR2/PR3 availability in the line. For coverage of the rest of the 2026 optics releases, see our SHOT Show 2026 optics roundup and our Holosun 2026 availability tracker for red dot and prism updates on the same timeline.

Adding illuminated PR2-MOA, PR2-MIL, and PR3-MIL reticles to the Mark 4HD 6-24x52 and 8-32x56 chassis is a targeted refresh that fixes a real gap in Leupold's precision line. The PR2 and PR3 reticles are already the ones shooters ask for on Mark 4HD SKUs, and the lack of factory illumination on those specific patterns was the last legitimate reason to walk past the Mark 4HD toward a Mark 5HD or an outside brand.

The buying decision hinges on a single question: do you actually shoot in low light? If yes, the illuminated variant is the right call the moment Leupold publishes MSRPs, and the Motion Sensor control scheme means you get the low-light aiming point without the battery-management overhead of older push-dial designs. If no, the non-illuminated Mark 4HD 6-24x52 PR2-MIL at $1,599.99 stays a strong value in its price band. Either way, pair the scope with a proper 34mm mount, a solid zero, and the range time to learn the PR reticle's subtensions before the scope starts paying off. For a broader look at rifle setup around a precision optic, use our rifle builder to sketch the full BOM before you commit.