Of course there aren't as many SS sold as Leupold or Swarovski. But I'll bet there are as many SWFA SS as there are/was AV's sold. But that wasn't the point. I just used examples for JeffO of scopes that break and scopes that don't.
I won't presume to have your level of google-fu <grin> but I'm sitting here waiting for my 13-yr-old daughter to finish the Eternal Shower so I can take a dump, and I googled both "Swfa Super Sniper Problems" and "Swarovski AV problems" and guess what, SS's DO break. And the AV hardly comes up with tons of stuff.
I did run across this, on the OpticsTalk forum:
"FWIW -- Custom rifle builder Jim Borden recommends Swaro AV scopes on his superlight mountain rifles, which includes some heavy kickers.� I'm sure if you do an exhaustive enough search on any brand of scope, you'll find someone who's had one fail.��A couple years ago,�my rifle topped with a Swaro AV slipped off my shoulder while I was climbing into an elevated blind and fell�about 10 feet, landing scope first�onto a large rock.� It was a very violent impact that bent the eyepiece, yet when I checked zero later that morning, it hadn't shifted at all!� "
In point of fact, the overwhelming majority of AV owners have had great luck. I ran a thread over on that forum and at least one thread here asking about them, and in that case as well, many many people with no problems.
Since that dovetails nicely with my personal experience, on a sharp kicker no less, that's the lens I see the data set through. A rosy one.
I was afraid to google "Leupold problems". Thought my iPhone might blow up.
It may be that the Wizened Ones have decreed that AV's crumble in the hand, and it may be pissing against the wind to report otherwise, but I'm a stout-hearted man of Viking stock. I shall stand firm.
<grin>
