you guys are funny, one word MARKETING. keep in mind the scopes you and I would buy aren't really what might be the best selling. In fact I bet they wouldn't be. lets establish first that a scope that is good at accurate adjustment also needs to cost more money, We should be able to agree on that. keep in mind that there is the cost to make the scope, distribute and market the scope, and finally retail sell the scope. you have 3 pieces to the pie that a product must have taken from it in the marketplace. All of those levels need to make money. I have someone in my family that took a company you could have heard about public. he told me you need 6:1 cost to retail value at the least and 10:1 is way better. That means a scope that costs $600 retail, it can't cost more than $100 for it to be made.
what is selling in the riflescope business? TACTICAL SCOPES at least ones that people are paying lots of money for. who is buying those scopes? its the guys who shoot 20 pound chassis rifles off fake barricades. These are your seal team 6 wannabees. Those scopes are marketed to the lifted black truck crowd. Basically its a crowd that thinks bigger is better. Why on early does anyone need a 34mm or even larger tubed scope? the fact is no one does. a decently made 30mm tube scope has enough adjustment to get you beyond 1 mile with any decent long range cartridge. Also many 34 mm scopes don't even have any extra adjustment internally over a 30mm. in fact one of the founders of tract told me its common for scope companys to use 1" internals and just stick them in a 30mm tube scope. bigger, beefier scopes are frankly what scope companies think people want. I would actually agree with their assessment. Higher powered scopes are being chosen, which have to be larger.
your average lifted truck, arm tatted, shamog wearing, millennial type guy who grew up playing call of duty isn't going to want a wimpy light weight scope on their gun. There are some lighter weight scopes that dial, but that depends on what you think is lightweight I suppose. I just picked up a ziess v4 and it tracks dead nuts. I am going to do a review on it soon and will post the results. Another one is huskemaw. Those scopes do track and they are half a pound lighter than nightforce. but neither of those scopes get you any street cred or IMO are selling all that well.
oh lastly I just see that you are from idaho. face it most people don't have access to public lands like you and I do. So ask yourself how much different is their typical shooting experience. are they hiking in the mountains? where is most of their shooting taking place? on a gun range 50 feet from their truck. of if they are hunting they drive a 4 wheeler up to the deer stand,
I fail to see how marketing or profit margins play into scope size, but I didn't study economics so it may be that.
What I know is that anything subject to stress is going to have to be beefier.
Seal team6 wannabes have nothing to do with weight I think. I don't think Linebackers weight 300lb due to marketing, they do because they perform better than a 155lb one would. Subject a 160lb soyboy to the stress of NFL attackers and it will crumble, no matter how well he does on flag football during the block parties with kids.
I'm sure they could make super rugged scopes out of extra light unobtainium, but wallets will also be extra light, and not too much market share would pay those prices.
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