Alaska hunters, guides, outfitters and all other wayward souls

Whenever I see someone singing the praise of Sightron scopes, it sends shivers up and down my spine due to my experiences with them when I worked in a gunstore.
I suspect that Alaskans tend to use their stuff harder and more than most lower 48 users, do you see many Sightrons in Alaska?
I know someone will ask, so what I saw was a whole lot of Sightrons coming back for exchange. Sightron's claims to the contrary, one common complaint was that they wouldn't hold zero.
A 6X Sightron I bought for my own use had so much distortion at 100 yards that if the user's eye was moved to one side or the other of the sight box, a 100 yard bull would appear egg shaped. When I sent it back for customer service, one of the most unprofessional sounding persons I have ever encountered told me "We cain't see nutin wrong within hit". That ended my affection for Sightron products.

Royce

Most Alaskans are Leupold sluts, including myself. I must have 10 6x42's in the safe.

I do have a Sightron Big Sky in 3.5-10x42 I picked up not long ago to see WTF. I've shot it and like it so far. I had to focus it right off the bat though. So far so good, but I haven't tossed it around much.

It's blowing 40 today with driving rain and snow. I'll bolt it on my 223AI and go shoot it this afternoon to see WTF. I'll include a few 15ft rifle tosses to see how it hold zero..

I've been on the phone with Sightron too to chat up their scopes, and they had excellent customer service.

I've offered to test other brands of scopes for folks who claim they are superior to Leupolds, including high-dollar Euro models. I can't bring myself to personally invest the funds and time to see if they will hold up equally, though, as I too am a proven Leupold slut.

Good stuff sells itself...

Dennis

Well, mostly we see Leupold, Zeiss, S&B, Svaro.

Kenny Jarrett (Jarrett Rifles) summed this up well.

If you look for the best scope for the money, go Leupold.
If you look for the best scope, go Svaro.

Not being in the money, we go Leupold, if at all. Guide rifles are not scoped in our areas. Dense bush bear hunting.

I recognize the fact, that there are other reliable rifle scopes. Take the above with a grain of salt. I do not want to enter a dicussion like B. Elite is better than Leupold Rifleman.

I personally regard the L. VX IIs as standard. You know, the "works" kind of deal. You can spend more if you like, but you should not spend any less.

(All of the above - for our type of hunting. Which is not longrange or moonshine)

Thanks.

Well, drove out on the ice to the logging road I shoot on. I was shooting factory ammo in my 223AI to fireform brass. Did about 3/4 at 100yds. Weather was [bleep] too. The rainguard actually worked very well despite rain/sleet snow.

Tossed it around a bunch against trees and stumps. Banged it a few times on the bench. Couldn't find any rocks as it was snowy. Went a bit overboard, but I tried to simulate a good tumble down a down a mountain.

Couldn't hit paper at 100. Couldn't hit paper at 25. Pulled the bolt and did a quick boresight and I was off by around two feet at 25yds.

Sighted back in and shot a 3/4" group.

I'm going to make sure everything is still snug, and go do it again this weekend.

Leupolds flat out do it for me and I have never had a reason to use anything else. Last non-Leupy scope I owned was a Tasco back in the early 80's, i never had any trouble with it and killed quite a few deer without having to do much pre-season sighting in.

Case closed- hehe

Royce

About 2 years ago I decided to change out all of my centerfire scopes to Leupolds, as I had been using a mixture of scopes for 20-30 years. Mounts were also replaced with Leupold or Talleys. Scope technology has improved. Now I have 2 of their Europeans, 2 Century's and a VXII 3x9x50.
Oddly enough, some of the old scopes had sort of a cult following such that they sold for something more than I paid them, and significantly offset my project cost. Strange world.
With the exception of a Rain Cote kit, I have been delighted and impressed with Leupolds line, including the precision of their bases & mounts.
Also nice to be "buying American."

Put a Big Sky 36X on my 6PPC recently. Like it so far, but that is a low recoil rifle. Can see the 1/8 inch dot (X)inside the 10 ring on all 4 quadrants sticking out past the fine cross hair at 200 yards. Chaz

Sightron's tecs are [bleep]!!! I have 3, 2 8x32s and a 10x50..
Well one of the 8x32s was new in the box, pulled it out and mounted it to my .260! Leupold 20MOA base and mark4 rings. bore sighted it and started shooting for the bull.. 3MOA high and 5 right. put in the ajustment, and it went 6" low and 9" left! tried everything.. Ammo, everything was tight.. diff loads.. factry loads.. I even put it on Two diff guns! Called, talked to some guy named Alan Orr. What a jack off!!! Asked me if I took the scope off and put it back on! Said he don't know why but sometimes it adjusts itself.. I said really.. Your going to tell me some BS like that? anyway he said send it in, so i did. month later I got it back with a letter saying we found nothing wrong with it, in our indoor and outdoor range.. and sent a pic of a target that they said they shot with it, 5 shot group about .6! and had a note with time date temp wind cal. shot with! Tested it the 14th and shipped it back the 23rd! lazy asses!! Well it's doing the same thing it did before i shipped it..UGH!! called had it out with the Allan guy, Asking me what kind of gun and what kind of shot I am what was i shooting off what kind of bench just all kinds of BS, after telling him I'm Highmaster FTR and F-open. he said what do you want me to do... I said stick behind your waranty "lifetime" and fix it! he said we found nothing wrong with it.. I replied, send me a new scope, and you keep this one if their isnt anything wrong with it.. anywho! It's in the F-ing Mail AGAIN! If that SOB don't send me a new scope, I'll be in NC next week!! Oh and get this, dude said he test 15-40 scopes a day for problems, and mine was fine. I said I'f you have that many scopes coming back, that you test 15-40 a day theres some bad [bleep] going on!! sorry guys had to vent, that [bleep] pissed me off.. will let you know what comes of this.

Hot or cold?

Scope mounting issue?

Are you sure these aren't Bino's???

LOL LIV2HUNT, No its a 8x32x56mm SIII, and no its not mounting issues, for i've put 3 diff scopes and the gun shoots great.. I Know its the scope, and Their customer service sucks monkey NUTTS!! Has anu one else had any prob with them, I mean their scopes are not junk.. Like I said earlyer I have 3 others and they work great.. I guess we will see what comes of this, will keep ya'll up to date.

Put a 36X on my 6PPC and took it to the Supershoot in 2010; still shoots fine. There was a time a few years ago when Leupold was having trouble with their compeition scopes ; many shooters went to the Sightron. I still see shooters finishing in the top 10 all over the US..................

Great Scopes and i still use them, just happen to get a bad 1 and think they should stick behind their warranty! ya think?!?!

I only had 1 Sightron. It's a Sightron II 3x9 on a Ruger 10-22 that I use for Richardson's Ground Squirrels. I like the fine cross hairs on the Sightron for this work.

Probably not much of a test (on a 22 rimfire) but the scope is several years old, is very clear and I've had no problems with it.

I DID look thru a Sightron I that I thought was a bit hazy.

had a 3-12x42 thought would be IT. Unusable eye relief made it go away. Gave it to a friend and it went tits up shortly thereafter on his 7400.

I have a Sightron II that won't hold zero. Originally mounted
it on a Sav M10, 308 Win. for match shooting. The bullets went
everywhere except on the target. This was before I started taking
a closer look at the Sightron. Called up Sightron and got a bunch of nonsense that my bases were the problem. Can you believe it? Anyway, got the scope back from Sightron NOT FIXED!

Of course I didn't realize at first. Mounted it on a Mauser M96,
6,5x55mm rebarreled by PAC-NOR. Needless to say it went south during the sight-in period. Replaced the scope with a Bushnell 3200, 10X, with mil-dot and immediately got on paper. Fine tuned
it, and the whole set-up shoots excllent groups for the matches
I compete in.

The Sightron II scope is setting in my reloading room. Can't bring myself throw it away; I spent too much money for it!

Sightron=Crap
Why waste your time when there's so many GOOD scopes out there?

Don't post much here, but this caught my attention. I used a lot of Sightron scopes and all had failures of one sort or another. It was a short lived affair. I used to work in the same town of their home office. So, I was able to carry them back. After the third one I was done. As I understand it the company was bought out by someone from Japan. The scopes were made there. That says it all right there. I am all Leupold now. It took a while, but I did it !

I have owned a couple. One broke, the other seems fine. They did take forever to replace my first one. Took a follow up call before they got after it. They did send me a free hat and knife though too, so their customer service was at least good.

I'm glad that some ppl had good luck with them, as i have too. Winning countless matchs with them, I still have'nt receved it back yet. Talked to the tec that was working on my scope and told me it was at the top of his list, so that was good to hear. and that Alan Orr had been dismissed from Sightron, another good word!!!!! But then he went back into talking about my mountings and rings,,UGH!! Man, as i stated in my letter along with pics,i've put the scope on 3 diff guns and would'nt shoot!! and put the same model scope on the 7mm witch the first scop was for, and it preformed like a hunting rifle should!!! what part of that "DO THEY NOT UNDERSTAND'!!!!!!? I mean I know good [bleep] and what to put on my 3 and 4000 dollar rifles.. just hope they fixes it soon.. Hope all is well, and keep it in the X ring..
Troy!

Send it back to them!!! We pay for good stuff and excect it!!!
and tell them you've sent it back before and it's not fixed and that you want anew one! dont be easy on any comp that makes good stuff,slips on a few and thinks it's you! been their with NF,and Leupold.. Their getting to the prob easnt as hard, but all scopes have bad [bleep] come out, and their warranty is what they NEED to stand behind!!

The Big Sky model Sightron's rock...

The SII are great scopes for the money IMHO...

I have two now and gave one to a friend. Zero problems with any of them. I have not heard of many negatives myself. Mine have been on a 7mm-08, a 250 AI and a 22 lr. Not exactly hard recoiling rifles, but I used to use my 7mm-08 model 7 Remington in Northern Wisconson. We hunted tag alder swamps, snow and cold weather and I never had a single problem with mu Sigthron. It was a 1.75 x 6 x 42 model......I don't think it's made any longer. I also have a 3 x 9 x 42 on my 250 AI.....it has held zero for two years and is my go to deer rifle for Montana each year ........zero problems with it and very clear optics. Just my two cents worth....goodshot.