Recently I was able to spend some time on the range with the new Leupold CQBSS optic. The new CQBSS is a front focal plane 1.1 x 8 power optic built on a 34 mm tube using a Horus 27 illuminated dot reticle. The CQBSS was specifically designed for law enforcement and military use, which is very obvious by its robust and well designed features. The windage and elevation adjustment dials are large with a pinch release style locking adjustment system to allow quick and secure adjustments even with gloves. The dials also have built-in zero stops. The windage and elevation reticle adjustments are .10 mil per click. The illuminated dot was also visible during bright sunlight. The power adjustment ring is a large and knurled bezel so you do not have to hunt for it. A nice feature of this scope is that when the power adjustment is on 1.1 the Horus reticle all but disappears and the only thing you see is a horizontal reticle line with an illuminated red dot in the middle.
Once the scope was mounted I dry fired it around the building to see how the illuminated reticle worked indoors. The reticle worked as expected indoors and the clarity of the glass was outstanding. I found the large brightness adjustment dial has clean discernable clicks at every level of adjustment. After a couple of days I was finally able to get out to the range to see what I could get out of this optic. Because of other activity on the range, I was only able to get it back to 100 yards so I was limited on distance which was disappointing. Once on the range I zeroed the CQBSS at 100 yards. The zeroing process was made easy by the pinch style locking windage and elevation dials with this style of adjustment dials it eliminates the need for a multi-tool or coin to make the adjustments. The adjustment dials are very easy to adjust and when released are locked in place without having to worry about them moving when the dial is brushed against gear or other items.After obtaining a solid zero I made several windage and elevation adjustments only to find the reticle to track perfectly which was no surprise. Once I finished checking the tracking of the reticle I started working my way in to the 7 yard line. While on the range I was able to shoot a few slow fire drills and a few rapid fire drills as I worked my way across the range. During the course of shooting with the scope I adjusted the power of the scope several times so I could get a feel for the front focal plane optic as this is the first time I have used a front focal plane optic. When I was able to get in close where I could service several targets during rapid fire drills this scope really showed how versatile and fast it actually can be. When at the 7 yard line with the scope set on 1.1 power and shooting with both eyes open it was amazing how fast you could transition from target to target. I think the reason for this is because it is very close to being very close to a true 1x optic. The red dot reticle is suppose to be a 5 moa dot however, when the power is set on 1.1 it appears to be 2 moa or smaller. The dot appears so small that it’s tough to acquire during multi target speed drills. Since this was a gen 1 version, there were some issues with the dot reticle. The dot reticle was not quite a refined as it should be and it was a bit small on 1.1x. The dot in the gen 2 is suppose to be a 10 moa dot so there will be a very noticeable difference in the size of the dot on the 1.1 power setting but, it will not be overwhelming. The gen 2 version of the CQBSS is currently in production in small numbers for testing. Look for an update once I get my hands on the gen 2 version to confirm what changes have been made.
I think this optic has a lot to offer to the LE and military community because it is so versatile with its wide range power, ease of power adjustment, ease of elevation and windage adjustments and its reticle. Hopefully this optic will be made available by Leupold in the near future and should be displayed at the SHOT Show.
Reticle on 1.1x
Higher power setting
