Well on my trip to Alaska couple weeks ago my vortex 10-42 diamondbacks binos broke in half.. I had these things since 2013 I used them but not abused them. Anyhow sent them in on 6 September get an email on the 13th from vortex with a tracking number. I thought Leupold had excellent customer service but Vortex is right up their with them!

I actually like the razor line from Vortex, both binos and spotters. It's always interesting to me though that every time I go into Cabelas Ft Worth, and into the Bargain Cave, the case is full of refurbed vortex stuff. Not sure why.

I originally bought these for a sheep hunt in Alaska and I compared them with binos up to the $500 dollar mark and they were the best I thought. Once I got into the HD's it was a different story but man I find it hard to spend that kind of money on binos yes call me a cheap ass. But now I'm seriously thinking about getting some of the HD's just for the better glass. So call me a reformed cheap ass

Cheap Ass!

8x42 Diamondbacks are stupid good for the money.

Really like my Razor HD spotter

Don't you have a yellow Avalanche to fix

Whenever you bring it by for me to fix for you. I'll take a Ruger Charger in trade for the work, and it better come with the magazine and bipod!

Still trying to wear out my Viper 10x42, best truck bino ever.

Only recently has the hinge been slipping, but it has been warm. We will see if it tightens up when it gets colder.

I heard that you and SM are going elk hunting together this year

I hear this a lot about Vortex. Great customer service but frequent failures. Obviously anything out there can break, but if I had a necessary piece of gear fail on an expensive hunt without me damaging or abusing it, I'm not going to be a happy camper.

I'm a Vortex scope user...along with an early pair of Razor 10-42

bins....have no problems with 'em...good stuff at good prices...

C/S is super !! I stay mid range on scopes...Diamondback HP's

on RF's is 'bout low as I go..HS-T's...PST's...Strike Eagle on AR..

here's my CZ 452 17M2 with DB HP 3-12.......

So, you were in Alaska and your binos broke in half? And you're happy about it?

It's really sad how the "free" Chinese warranty has replaced rugged American goods.

I wasn't happy but I had another pair to use.

It wasnt expensive I hunt I'm a resident of ak and they broke when we were on our way out. Most expensive part of the hunt was my $469 plane ticket

Vortex, like every other optics company sends all sorts of stuff, all sorts of places; writers, reviewers, trade shows, and even customer returns and warranty items...that pile gets big when you are the largest sports optics company... and Cabela's buys every piece generated...

They've done a great job marketing their stuff, that's for sure.

I like Vortex binoculars just fine, haven't tried their spotting scopes. I'm not a fan of their scopes so much. Owned two Vipers before they were split into the HS and PST lines. They didn't break. My issue was the glass wasn't as good in low light to my eyes as some other comparably priced brands and the eye relief was pretty short.

I have a Razor Red Dot that I really like. In what you get for your money the Diamondback scopes seem pretty decent. The Crossfire and Viper lines of scopes just don't happen for me though. YMMV.

Love mine, most used tools I have

I've been considering trying one of their new Razor HD LH riflescopes.

I have a Viper 6-20 and Diamondback 4-12 scopes, have recommended them and mounted them on rifles, but wouldn't think of replacing my Zeiss Conquest scopes on big game rifles in favor of any Vortex. In my sample of 5 I've had to return 1 scope and won't say that the glass is above pretty good. Targets, varmints, and rimfires is what I use Vortex scopes for. One of my hunting partners likes his 12 power Viper binos just fine for rugged hunting and they seem to be holding up welll.

I would sooner buy a quality product than a cheap one with a free replacement warranty. No matter how good the warranty is it is useless when you're on a hunt and no longer have the product to use. Vortex has done a great job of marketing their product using their warranty and not their actual product.

Exactly

I think it's been 7 years or so since Doug first enticed me to try a Vortex scope. I've since bought 3 more, along with a spotter & a rangefinder. My first, "failure" wasn't until 2 weeks ago.

A known load began to spray into patterns, so I called to get a RMA number and sent the scope in. They called 3 days later to say it checked out 100%. A careful examination of my mounts showed a crack on the rear base. Fast forward to yesterday, where the same scope in new mounts put the groups right back where they should have been.

I'm certainly aware of the many firsthand reports of failures, but I've not yet experienced one myself. Vortex stuff may not exactly be, "world class", but I've found it to be more than serviceable, especially for the price.

In the end, we all make the best guess we can, lay down our $, & roll the dice.

FC

I have just two Vortex items a 20-60x80 Viper HD spotter for range work, I haven't had it long and within my limted experience its good glass for what I payed, will it hold up long term? hard to know but a range spotter isn't really Mission critical equipment to me.

I also have a set of 8x32 viper binos. Ok glass, what I like is that the glass is good enough for what I do and they are cheap enough that I can use them hard. Had them for maybe 6 years and used them on many hunts and scouting trips and so far they have held up.

There is a part of me that would like to buy some alpha glass, but two things hold me back, one is the cost would pay a chunk of a hunt and secondly I wonder if I would feel if I had to baby a $2000+ set of binos, which in the end might actually make them less useful for me than some thing like the vortexes that I use pretty hard.

Cheap? I remember well when Vortex released their Razor binocular at a price to match the big three and everyone said it would fail. It sold well and worked perfectly straight out of the box. Hard to see where they relied on their warranty to sell the product.

Confusing price points is what I see here.

Clearly Vortex targets stuff at different markets, big difference in the glass between the Crossfire/Diamondback stuff and the Razor line. I would hope that the its not just glass that's different that there is big difference in build quality too