issues with luepold???

[salmonchaser]

Since joining this forum I've been unable to find what has caused the apparent wholesale movement away from luepold scopes. I bought my first one in 1967 with money made from bucking hay bales and never looked back. Have I missed something significant or is this perceived trend a matter of good value created through solid competition? I'll be honest, I won't pay for Swarovski and otherwise I've never shopped other then within luepold lines.
Now I'm trying to figure out why I need a vortex scope. So is my lovely bride.

 

[Elkman]

I own more Luepold scopes than any other brand. But there are better quality scopes our there for a little more money. I have sent three Luéopold scopes, back to the manufacture for service in the last three years. So, my perspective is that, quality is down slightly, the glass is good but there are some better, I want the best I can reasonably afford.

 

[salmonchaser]

Bill,
This is the information I guess I haven't been picking up on, blind customer loyalty I guess. Time to start paying attention and shopping I guess.

 

[SJB358]

Same problems as Bill. I do have a new VX6 but I think they could've done a better job with their turret. It isn't a budget priced scope so I expected much more from it. I do like Leupolds though. They have a solid niche in some of their offerings where you cannot find much else out there.

 

[DrMike]

I like Leupold; I have a few and will likely own a few more in the future. The quality seemed to slip in the past several years, and some other brands were sufficiently competitive to push Leupold hard. Consequently, Zeiss with their Conquest line and Vortex were producing a product that was superior in some respects at a very competitive price. I'm willing to pay a little more to have a little better glass. Consequently, in recent years, when I buy Leupold, it has been either a VX6 or a VX7 (for the couple of years they were made).

 

[salmonchaser]

I have had good luck with my luepold scopes, mostly VXIII. I am a believer in good glass, but have not stepped up to the 6, perhaps it's time to get out more. I spent some time on the Vortex website, I do like some of their features. I believe the 2.5x10 viper interested me the most.
I'll spend some time going through the optics thread and get myself up to date.

 

[truck driver]

I have had good luck with my luepold scopes, mostly VXIII. I am a believer in good glass, but have not stepped up to the 6, perhaps it's time to get out more. I spent some time on the Vortex website, I do like some of their features. I believe the 2.5x10 viper interested me the most.
I'll spend some time going through the optics thread and get myself up to date.

I have one of the new Diamond Back HP series 3-12X42 on my 35 Whelen and I like the scope a lot. Been hunting in the rain and gloom this week and it has been very clear and bright. Granted it's not as good as My Zeiss Conquest but then I didn't pay but half of what the Zeiss cost. The 35 Whelen has right around 70# of recoil with the 225gr bullet at top end loads and it handles it easily with plenty of eye relief.

 

[Thebear_78]

I only own two scopes that are not leupold, a ziess conquest and trijicon accu point. The rest are all leupold and I don't plan on changing. I think a lot of the interest in vortex is that they have a lot of options for less money than any of the lower price leupolds. As a hunting scope I don't think the leupolds have any peer.

Leupolds are lighter and more compact than any of their competitors, have excellent glass, and gold standard in warrantee. I prefer a lighter more compact scope on hunting rifles so I have a lot of gold rings in my gun safe.

The current trend in lower price tactical scopes is where people are moving towards other brands. You can't get a luepold with turrets, and tactical restocked for 3-500 minutes dollars, and those willing to spend over a grand are generally looking to higher end tactical glass like Nightforce, and schmit/bender.

For a straight hunting scope there isn't much that can compete with vxII and vxIII

 

[Anonymous]

I own mostly Leupold scopes..which is hardly surprising since I really prefer fixed powers and Leupold is one of the few players in that game anymore.

I think a couple other things happened...in the last few years ALL glass has gotten better. So much better that the gulf between a $150 scope and a $500 Leupold isn't nearly as significant as it used to be.

I've also noticed that the top end stuff isn't priced as high as it used to be. Zeiss makes a bunch under a grand and you can get into a Z3 for a hundred or so more $$$ than a VX3.

So the bottom end got better and the top end got cheaper- lots of folks competing for the middle ground which has been Leupold's playground for a lot of years.

 

[salmonchaser]

Now I'm feeling better

 

[Oldtrader3]

I still own (3) Leupold scopes for my rimfires and for my 9.3x74R, a 1.5-5x22 VX3.

 

[wvchevy3]

I still own More Leupy's than any other brand. Always have been a Leupold Man.Lee

 

[Elkman]

As I said earlier, I still and will continue to own several Leopold Scopes. My other three are Ziess Conquests, a really great glass. Also the majority of the scopes are 3.5 X 10 or 14, by 40 mm or 44.

 

[Oldtrader3]

Bill, the 3.5-10x44 or similar sized scopes are great focal length hunting scopes. I have a Conquest 3.5-10x44, a Kahles 3.5-10x50, a Minox ZA5 HD 2-10x40 and a Leica 2.5-10x42 ER. I can't say enough about that focal length for a plain old hunting rifle for deer or elk. No muss, no fuss, those scopes do the job at hand!

 

[RiverRider]

I've bough nothing BUT Leupold over the last couple of decades, and I don't have plans to change. As mentioned by others, for a pure hunting scope they're hard to beat. Great eye relief, light in weight, very good glass, reliable as stones, and a great warranty all appeal to me very much. I think that the interest in long range has opened up a niche for Vortex and they've taken good advantage of it...I'm just not going to be convinced they're committed to being a long-term competitor in the market until they invest in manufacturing facilities.

 

[Oldtrader3]

Leupold slipped for several years and their quality went down. They have always had a solid warranty which has kept many Americans loyal to them despite their losing the technology battle for several years, over pricing the product to cover their warranty costs and sending the cheaper lines to China! I had solid Leupold scopes and binoculars for over 30 years. Then I switched to Conquests and other European scopes as better quality. I own some of both now and I will buy what I can get the with best quality for the best cost. I do prefer American scopes but they all sold out to the Japs and Chinese and are struggling to get market share back.

I tried during the period where they were slipping in quality to start a dialogue with them and they refused to answer my emails, snail mail or discuss this issue politely on the phone. Then they decided to be rude to me and not respond. So, I stopped buying their scopes for about 10 years. I have bought one recently (a VX3) and it is a better scope value then when I stopped buying them. As for their attitude, if they can't be honest with themselves and be polite to long standing customers who had owned 10 or so of their scopes., I have no use for them! Besides, many of their cheaper scopes are still Asian junk! I don't owe them anything especially since they started selling Chinese junk!

I worked in China for seven years helping build their medical tech and the plik bastar-s spied on me for 10 years afterward, screw them! I won't buy Chinese ever again. Nothing personal with anyone here, I just don't like being spied on!

 

[Guy Miner]

In forty years of using Leupold scopes, I've only had issues with one of them, about 15 years ago.

It was the Vari-X III, 4.5-14 target/tactical scope on my real-world SWAT rifle. The windage adjustment failed. I sent it to Leupold, they had it permanently fixed and returned it to me at the police department for free, in less than 10 days!

I only have a few scopes other than Leupold:
20x Lyman on an old Winchester target rifle
2-7x Redfield (1970's or 1980's) on my .30-06 Rem 700 (good scope!)
2-7x Tasco that came on a used rifle I bought a while ago and I think may end up on a .22 one of these days
6-24x Vortex that I recently got. It's pretty impressive...

OT3, I didn't know that Leupold made scopes in China for a while. I don't think they are anymore. I know there are cheap Chinese knockoffs/imitations of Leupold available. They even say Leupold on them!

Overall, I've been very happy with my Leupolds, it seems to be about the best scope for my purposes within my budget.

Had a very high dollar US Optics scope on my sniper rifle for a 6 month field test. Optics were excellent and the scope was very heavy duty. I was offered a substantial discount on buying it at the end of my six month trial, and they were flabbergasted when I returned it instead of buying it, and replaced it with my good old 4.5-14x Leupold. I considered the Leupold at a fraction the cost, to be a better scope for SWAT duty. Hmmm... Maybe cost isn't all that good of an indicator of usefulness!

Guy

 

[Elkman]

Yesterday while rummaging I found two letters from Leupold service, one in 07 and the other in 10. Both showed the overhaul, of the mechanism that regulates the elevation and windage. One was a 2.5 X 8 and the other 3.5 x 10. I believe I have one more at the other house. I started using Leupold's in the late 70's.

 

[Oldtrader3]

Many of the optics companies will say on the product: Assembled in USA. This usually means that their components are made elsewhere, normally in some cheap labor country. I can't honestly say where all Leupold's are made because I stopped buying them for about ten years and only started again lately. I do know from reading optics articles that several Leupold binoculars and scopes are made in Asia now. I don't know which models because Leupold does not publish that information.

My largest complaint with some optics companies is harvesting. Harvesting is a marketing term for a company which, by making small incremental improvements, manufactures the same product line for much longer than competitors do. For instance, how many years did Leupold make the VXII and VXIII lines? As nearly as I can tell they produced these lines for about 20 years. However, Leupold also marked up prices every year on the VX lines about 20%. For what? They were not making any technology changes except maybe in lens coatings? They used market position to harvest.

Harvesting is not a crime. the Germans do it as well. However, it can be over used though and if prices are raised 20% each year, the customer loses. Market leaders tend to over harvest and that dynamic is what drives the changes in market leadership with technology advances and incorporation into products by competitors in order to leap frog marketing position.