When I started to get the hint that Leupold was falling down on the job I started buying other scopes to find an answer to the problems... I found the Bausch & Lomb/Bushnell Elite 4000/4200 were terrific scopes and had great reticle systems for my purposes and bought several of them. Stick finally talked me into the SWFA scopes and I have several now, slowly replacing all my Leupolds one at a time. The biggest problem is they haven't had anything in stock ever since the Corona virus decided to reek havoc on the supply line... Just received an Athlon I'm anxious to try but the rings I had were a tad too short so waiting on some high rings for a test run. Glass looks good and the reticle system is acceptable, but not in the SWFA league .
I have no problem with guys who want the leupold scopes for the aesthetics, I was in the same boat for a very long time and still like the looks of the gloss Leupolds on some of my rifles- most notably my rimfires. But if you're a set and forget shooter, a Bushnell Sportview would work just about as well and you could paint a cute gold circle around the bell for a lot less money than wasting it on a Leupold these days. With all the changes they are making over at the Leupold plant (5 miles from my house), they are losing business faster than they are inventing new wares- no gloss scopes any more, no custom shop work, questionable repair work, etc........ a shame really, as I and many of my buddies used to be some of their biggest fans...
Lucky for all of us there are still lots of great scopes still being made and some of them are even affordable -
Bob
