Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Are Leupold MK 4s made in China?

I asked Leupold if my 2-7x28 Ultralight had Chinese glass and they responded that "we use has always been imported from overseas. In order for us to obtain the quantity that we need and the quality, this has always been our best option." Thus, it is directly implied that at least a portion of their product lines use Chinese glass.

I could tolerate Japanese glass, but I'd prefer not to support China

Good luck on that these days.

NO WAY?!?!?!?!



Travis

No, it implies they use overseas glass, just as stated.
Percentage I don't know, but some portion of the glass is LOW. Again what percentage I don't know, but they buy at least some of their tubes, and erector sets. They have for quite some time, the least costing of the erectors is why those of us who asked to change the turrets; got told to pound sand. Not all MK IV's are the same/same source.

I think now nightforce has the SHV out its going to displace the mark 4's and vortex pst's. I don't trust the vortex or the leupolds.

What experiences have made you lose trust in the Mk4's and Viper PST's? What was the nature of the failures?

LOW makes just about all the glass that schott doesn't in riflescopes.....I've heard that nightforce also uses LOW glass.

And Schott has glass factories all over the world, including in China.

Not to long ago, LOW made the entire Nightforce scope. I'd be willing to wager a bet that even though Nightforce is assembling scopes here now, that the parts are still made in Japan by LOW.

10X MD SWFA is stupid good for the money.

Depends on the model. The Compacts and F1's are made in the Idaho. Some of the original models have parts from Japan and are assembled in Idaho.

What parts of the scope are actually made by them ? Sourcing parts (any amount of them) from LOW is a good thing IMO.

Really. I'm not saying SIII's are better. IMO they are just as good at tracking and resolution is damn close. I compared a few of mine at our 600 yard benchrest matches and on average my 12-42 NXS and BR Nightforces could just barely resolve bullet holes (6mm) better than my 10-50 SIII's. I've had several SIII's and no mechanical issues. I mostly run 8-32's on my rifles, but have a couple 10-50s and 6-24s. One 6-24 FFP. One 1-7 on an AR.

My eyes just "work" with the floating dot of the LRMOA reticle in the SIII. It just seems to "settle" on my POA smoother than npr1, npr2, etc. I had a couple of the NP-2DD NXS's, but the retice isn't good for holds like the LRMOA.

The kicker is the SIII is 60% of the cost of the NXS, and sometimes money gets tight.

Again, I'm not using these for hunting, so take it for what its worth.

Thanks for the explanation!

I had that one SIII 6-24x50, and it had big black donut looking thru it and was very hard to focus - just wasn't happy, sent it to Sightron and got a rude letter back telling me it was perfect and i didn't know how to focus a scope, yadda yadda. So personally decided no more for me no matter the price or quality.

I'm a leupold fan for hunting rifles with no turrets but will not use Leupold for turning turrets. I've had too many issues with my MK4 3.5-10x40 related to tracking and repeatability. If I was to choose in your price point, I'd seriously look at the SWFA SS line.

Folks say @#&¥! Leupold, they have import components! Well they also have an assload of CNC lathes turning tubes in Beaverton (too many people) Oregon. For better or for worse Leupold is indeed an American company directly employing over 600 Americans. They've made an assload of scopes that have worked plenty well enough to help kill mega-assloads of game over the years. I'm buying SWFAs without regret though.

And all these people are using their made in China computers to do that crying...Most will never accept the real truths.

I have had a Mark IV for 11 years and only shot it a couple times. It has not worked out. It is too big. I shot a couple prairie dogs with it with the above 223.

I have a Sightron SIII that I like, but the turrets are too easy to turn.
I have another SIII that the reticle is too fine for my 64 year old eyes. Don't like that.

I have a USO, but it is first focal plane. I don't like FFP.

Most of my IOR scopes are FFP, don't like that.

I have Kahles, but the turrets are in 0.1 mils, ~~ 1/3 moa to me.

I have SWFA SS 20X that is so poorly manufactured, it is unusable.

I got a Bausch & Lomb in 1995 [still made as 3000 elite Bushnell] that has the same manufacturing defect as the SWFA SS, the lenses are out of alignment.

The scope I like does not cost much. Leupold VX3 3.5x10x40 CDS.
It does not have side focus or adjustable objective for reading mirage, but I am not that advanced as a long range hunter. I seem to shoot big game at dawn when there is little wind, and out to 500 yards.

I compulsively build rifles. I am lucky my prefered scope is cheap. I buy a lot of them.

What would be a right asking price for a roughly 10 year old, excellent condition Leupold Mark 4 6.5-20x50, with standard mil dot reticle?

Thanks