Rifle scopes with Zeiss ZM/VM mounting rail

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Introduction

Among other manufacturers who started offering railed scopes on the market, Zeiss is definitely one of the most known. In company of other premium European manufacturers of railed rifle scopes, Zeiss chose its own path with their own ZM/VM mounting rail. This rail was invented in 1990 which means that is in use for a very long period of time. This also means that their rail standard was one of the first if not the first one to replace very well known LM rail standard. Comparing an old LM rail with the ZM/VM rail, the solution from Zeiss does not require any drilling which is a huge advantage for the user besides nicer aesthetics.

The ZM/VM rail is also known as

"Zeiss rail",
"inner rail" or
"M rail" (Zeiss basically put a letter "M" to all of their scopes with integrated rails and therefore, you can always know that you are dealing at a railed Zeiss scope if there is letter "M" involved in the model name).

It is important to know that ZM/VM rail standard is used by many brands nowadays, not only Zeiss.

Zeiss Conquest V6 1.1-6x24

Properties of Zeiss ZM/VM Rail standard

Rifle scopes that are made for using a ZM/VM rail mounting solutions, have an internal dovetail rail on the bottom part of the scope. In this rail there are at least two wedge nuts, milled under 45° angle that are able to slide along the rail (and reach different positions). The scope mount can be attached to these wedge nuts with a use of torx, allen or hex key.

ZM/VM rail mounts normally reach the height between 7-9 mm (for hunting rifles), but can also be higher (up to 23 mm) for modern AR rifles.

Drawing of scopes

Drawing of scopes with (left) and without (right) Zeiss rail, both connected with Picatinny interface

(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss_rail)

Pros

It is somehow strange that rail mounting of rifle scopes is not more popular or at least as common as mounting with rings. In majority of cases, rail mounting is far better solution. One of the main reasons for it is that using rails offers better stability of the rifle scopes. Such mounts deal with recoil much better, also because of their robustness and reliability. There is no stress or tension provided to the scope tube while mounting or after mounting during the normal lifetime of the equipment.

We should not forget to mention that perfect horizontal alignment between the scope and the rifle is always achieved. There are no subjective factors during reaching horizontal alignment, because everything is already there and prepared for you. You just have to tighten the screws and the scope will be horizontally aligned, perfectly. If you will ever think about changing the scope or putting your old one on the other rifle, there will be no mounting marks on the scope. Sliding the scope on its rail forward or backwards, usually means that it is also quite easier to adjust the perfect eye relief.

Cons

There are really not a lot of disadvantages when using a ZM/VM rail. We have to mention that in some configurations, the setup can be a little high, compared to the same setup using mounting rings. Also, the truth is that German rail solutions are not the cheapest ones.

Brands that use this rail standard

Nowadays, ZM/VM rails are produced also by other European manufacturers besides Zeiss. Let us show you the list of some of the most recognized manufacturers:

Leica,
Steiner,
Noblex,
Meopta,
Blaser,
Schmidt&Bender (only in some of their scopes),
Minox,
Kaps and
Nikon.

These are all the brands that found sense in adopting the ZM/VM rail standard for their scopes. Knowing that all these well reputed brands using the same rail standard from Zeiss, it looks quite promising, right?

Blaser Infinity 2.8-20x50

Conclusion

The reputation of ZM/VM rail is well deserved and probably this is so because we are talking about one of the best and most common rail standards available. We also (always) recommend that if you are in a situation when you can choose between mounting rings or mounting rail, you should always choose rail. All of the advantages are definitely worth it.

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VIDEO

Hunting riflescopes are the most common type of riflescopes. For this reason, this is the biggest category on our website. Even though there are many types of hunting-riflescopes, there are some characteristics that many of them share.

A rifle with optics - hunting riflescope

Mounting solutions - Ring and Rail mounts

Both ring and rail mounting options are available. This is the only category where rail mounting is available, but it is only available with some middle-class and premium scopes. There are four rail mounting standards altogether (the rail option offered depends on the manufacturer):

LM rail (optical devices with this rail are no longer manufactured but mounts for it are still produced)
Zeiss ZM/VM rail
Swarovski SR rail
Schmidt & Bender Convex rail

Schmidt & Bender Polar T96 2.5-10x50 with a S & B Convex rail

Tube diameter

Tube diameters of 30 mm and 25.4 mm are the most common.

Scopes with a 34mm tube are rare – Schmidt & Bender Polar T96 series is one of the few that use it.
Zeiss Victory V8 and Blaser Infinity are equipped with a 36mm tube,
whilst Swarovski dS is equipped with a tube that measures 40 mm in diameter.

It is important to note that tube diameter does not affect the light transmission rate.

Turrets

Riflescope for hunters is equipped with low-profile, capped elevation and windage turrets. After a scope is zeroed (at 100 m), most users won't make any further adjustments to the windage and elevation. For this reason, the turrets are capped to prevent unwanted rotation.

As such optics is commonly used in forests where one can quickly bump the riflescope somewhere, capped turrets are the best way to avoid the unintentional shifts of the point of impact.
Furthermore, these are among the most delicate parts and can break if hit too hard.
Caps are used to prevent that.
With some modern, premium optics, there is an option of purchasing an uncapped, BDC elevation turret which allows the user to quickly compensate for the bullet drop at longer distances by setting the turret to the number for the corresponding distance (1 – 100 m, 2 – 200 m, 3 – 300 m, etc.)

The reticle

Most riflescopes are equipped with a hunting-oriented reticle. Usually, the reticle is a crosshair with thicker lines at the sides and narrower lines towards the center.

There are no holdovers or hash marks because it is meant to be simple to use.
The reticle is mainly in the second focal plane, meaning that it appears to be of the same size regardless of the magnification, providing minimal coverage of the target.
Blaser Infinity with first focal plane reticle configuration is an exception to the rule.

FFP-hunting optics were used in the past but are gradually dying out. Commonly, the riflescope is equipped with an illuminated central dot, the intensity of which depends on its purpose.

Magnification

The magnification is either

fixed or
variable.

A few decades ago, fixed magnification optical devices were the prevalent type, now it is the other way around. In England, Scotland, South Africa, and some other countries, many users still prefer the fixed type over the variable type. Entry and middle-class riflescopes have a 4–6x zoom factor, whereas the premium ones boast a 6–8x zoom factor.

Parallax

Parallax is typically fixed at 100 m.
If magnification is above 12x, a riflescope is usually equipped with an adjustable parallax setting (side focus).

Swarovski Z8i 2.3-18x56 has an adjustable parallax turret (on the left)

Subcategories

There are many subcategories:

Best Hunting-riflescopes

Riflescopes of the highest quality are produced by the renowned European sport optics manufacturers such as:

Such devices are equipped with:

an illuminated reticle,
commonly a fine, central illuminated dot.

The zoom factor is 6x or greater. There is an option of purchasing an uncapped BDC turret on most. Reticles are in the second focal plane, except with the Blaser Infinity series which features an FFP-configuration.

Premium optics boast:

an exceptional field of view,
impressive resolution,
a high light transmission rate, and
a high degree of colour fidelity.

They are difficult to compare because there are only small differences among them, but each series has its own strong point (Leica Magnus series, for example, is known for its incredibly wide field of view).

The middle-class devices are not to be overlooked since its popularity has risen considerably in the last few years.
Most of these devices are made in Japan and highly popular because of their excellent price to performance ratio.
Some European-made devices can also be found in this class.

A short presentation is available here.

Short Presentation | HuntingRiflescopes | Optics Trade from Optics-Trade

Rifle scopes with Zeiss ZM/VM mounting rail

Sub Categories

VIDEO

Introduction

Properties of Zeiss ZM/VM Rail standard

Pros

Cons

Brands that use this rail standard