UKdave,
You left out King Edward VIII who also married an American.
I have, over the years, returned a few Leupold scopes for service of one type or the other, but I don't recall ever returning one for repair due to breakage or part failure. Early Leupold's were finished with a glossy blue finish that had a tendency to turn purple after a few years. That had no effect on the performance of the scope, but purple is not my favorite color for scopes, or anything else for that matter. None of the Leupold scopes that have come my way in the last 25 years or so have demonstrated that tendency and I've concluded that they fixed that issue long ago.
It has been my observation that to get better optics than I get in my Leupold's, I must spend twice as much for a much uglier scope -- optically superb, but ugly as sin. At my age, I doubt that I'll be needing to buy any more scopes, but if I do, I'd guess they would be Leupold's. My dad taught me many years ago, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
