Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Leupold vs. Burris

It seems to be a matter of "religion" on the net that Leupold makes the best scopes.

Is there any evidence that Leupold is any better than Burris. Specs and warranties seem to be the same except that the Leupold 1.5-5 comes with a 20mm objective and the Burris equivalent, which is actually 1.5-6, comes with a 40mm objective. With an illuminated reticle it costs less. Even without the illuminated reticle, it should be better in low light conditions. For mounting on a magnum, why shouldn't the Burris hold up equally as well?

Don't look at the specs, look through the scopes. You'll see the difference........................DJ

Then there's the warranty......

Gave a 223 and 3-9 Burris to my rancher buddy in Wyoming.Got out there one year later,and riding around in the pickup and shooting had shaken the ocular lense loose......it was trashed.

That's about all I had to see.Game over for me.

I think they both are pretty fine scopes and what little CS i've used with them both are excellent.

MY first and only Burris was a 4x that I mounted on a 44Mag Marlin lever rifle. I think it was shot six or seven when the crosshair broke. First letter I received after returning the scope was that it was a discontinued model???????Just bought it NIB. They did repair it for no charge but I sold it as soon as I could.Rick.

I would not buy a toilet paper holder made by Burris! I will carry a grudge against them until I breathe my last breath.

I own 27 Leupold scopes and a pair of binoculars, in addition to Weavers, Swaros and Schmidt & Benders as well.

My 13 or so year old Leupold binoculars gave up the ghost after a tough career....I was entirely satisfied with them, but the internals were jumbled and it would not focus...time to get a new pair. After a long comparison, I decided on a pair of Burris, which I ordered. I gave them to myself for a Christmas present and shortly afterward (BEFORE New Years day)the Burris binoculars were "cross eyed" and failed to focus. For those few days they were treated with kid gloves and not abused in any way. I mailed them to Burris and the gentleman on the phone with their warranty department told me not to worry, he would be replacing them and they should cross in the mail.

Turns out he was a liar or forgetful. I have no idea which description fits. Two weeks later, no binocs...but I do get a letter from me saying that the 3-5 day old binoculars were not warrantied, and it would cost me $52 to get them back! Huh? Less than a week old and no warranty, plus its gonna cost me to get them back? I sent them a nice letter again explaining that I had talked to the head dog of the warranty dept and #1) did not receive the replacement he promised,#2) They were less than a week old and #3) How on earth could they not be warrantied?

Got a nice letter back from them saying "$52 please before we work on it". In the meantime I had sent back my 13 year old Leupold binoculars to them explaining that I was entirely satisfied with them, but the pair had reached the end of their functional life and if they needed the binocs for parts for other repairs, have at it and thanks a bunch. One week later I get the Leupold binoculars back from the factory and they are as good as new! The repair slip had Leupold's usual reply in the amount due section of the repair slip....."N/C" and a short note telling me to let them know if everything's OK.

I sent a copy of Leupold's repair slip to Burris and pointed out the differences between their warranty service and Leupold's. I also told them to keep their 3-5 day old piece of junk and refund my money, and I would be telling anybody I could how they did business.

Naturally, I never received my check, nor any acknowledgment of any kind from them.

The whole Burris factory can fall into a sinkhole as far as I am concerned..the sooner the better. Y'all have a nice day.

Both are great scopes but only one is affordable to most guys.

Well that didn't take long..

To my eyes the Burris scopes are brighter and sharper, and I have quite a few now...to go with my Many Loopies.

Burris Warranty does suck, however, and they are notorious for that. Too bad, too. They make a fine product for the most part. Their EuroDiamond line is excellent and moderately priced, given the quality.

Seems like the foregin made Burris scopes have lost some quality. I used to own several but am now down to 1 Colorado made 4.5-14...not sure what will happen when it fails...

The two Leupolds are good glass...only gripe is the power adjustment is stiff to turn..

When I was technical Editor for a magazine, I got more complaints/enquiries about Burris scopes than every other brand combined.

The consumer has spoken.

JW

Burris is owned by Beretta, that should tel you all you need to know about their customer service, really non customer service.

That's like comparing oranges and rotton apples. I don't know how many Leupold items we own. I am third owner for a spotting scope I once returned with a note simply saying the images were not overly crisp. I shipped it on a Monday, it was back on a Friday, and there was no charge. They replaced the entire front end.

I had a bad experience with Burris CS myself. Sent a 2-7 Compact in for flecks of stuff floating around inside. It took a couple MONTHS to get it back- but what was worse is that they did the cardinal sin of CS, which is saying several times "it's shipped!" when in fact it wasn't, and wasn't even going to be for weeks!

Oh, and the flecks came right back.

Burris Optics is a sponsor at Predatormasters.com and the guys there have received outstanding customer service from Burris - recently. Maybe recently something has changed and Burris decided to do something about the complaints of their customer service?

Now they have added Steiner to the mix. I wont own any more!

This always make for a good pissin' match!

I think I can be fairly objective on this issue. These are the two brands I run. Both make good scopes in my opinion. Here are some of my observations.

I have had at least 6 Leupold failures. To be fair, they have all been on either a slug gun or a 416 Rigby. I have never put a Burris on a slug gun. The posi lock signature safari on my Rigby holds up perfectly. When I have used Leupold service, they have been perfect.

My only Burris failure was a Signature 3.5 x 10 I head to send in for service and I received it back in about 3 weeks. I know some of you have Burris service horror stories. Perhaps I lucked out, perhaps they corrected their issues.

My one complaint about Leupys is doing the "Leupold dance": move 2 clicks, nothing; move 2 more, nothing; move 2 more; POI moves 10 clicks. My Burris scopes change POI when I move the adjustment.

Again in the interest in being fair, once you get a Leupy zeroed, it normally stays.

This morning I carried a Vari x III 2.5x8 on my slug gun and this afternoon I will carry a VX-III 2.5x8 B&C on my muzzle loader.

All in all, I prefer the dependability of Burris' click adjustments and ability to hold zero. But I'm not getting rid of my Leupys. BTW, my next purchase will probably be a Zeiss Conquest.

405wcf

Thinkin' you'll like the Conquest. The 4" eye relief models in particular are very friendly scopes to use. The 3-9x40 and 1.8-5.5x38 are two personal favorites. I have found them to track very reliably.

I will Mirror what 405wcf has said.

I run more of both than anything else. One Burris and 4 leupold failures (5 if you count a power ring that needed channellocks to turn, slight exageration)

Leupold CS was fast and perfect, Burris was perfect but slower.

I have likes and dislikes from each. I feel like you get a little better glass per dollar with the Burris, part of that is the way Burris sells it scopes and that you often buy them well below MSRP. I feel like the Burris are perhaps a bit tougher (at least the variables), but Leupolds are lighter and have more eye relief at least at the low end of the magnification range.


So far I have found the fixed scopes from both to be bombproof.

I have a couple of favorite scopes from each company. Leupold FXII 4x and 6x and 2.5-8

On the Burris side I really like the 1.75x5 sig safari and the 1.5-6 ( both the sig and ED)