ILya,
Twenty-nine years ago Zeiss threw a factory tour for a bunch of American writers, including both hunting and bird-watching. That was back when they had three factories in Germany, and it was a week-long deal. By halfway through the trip it was obvious the hunting writers were there to be enlightened about why Zeiss scopes were the best in the world, yet American hunters were quite stupidly not buying more of them.
One of the other American hunting writers was Jim Carmichel, and he started explaining the faults of Zeiss scopes for American hunting--including the fact that like just about every other major scope manufacturer did NOT seal/purge their scopes against moisture. (One exception was Kahles, which started doing so in the 1960s.) I joined Jim in discussing that, and various other factors. The Zeiss guys were rather startled, but it evidently sunk in that the U.S. is the largest hunting-scope market in the world. It "only" took another six years for Zeiss to introduce the original Conquest line....
Where are doing your mule deer/elk hunt?
John
All of the German manufacturers have changed their way since then to varying degrees. Sometimes they admit and sometimes they don't, but they all pay attention. They have other markets to consider and they make their own decisions, but they are very aware of the feedback from the US market.
I'll be hunting in New Mexico. Mule deer on the outskirts of Gila national forest. Elk will be in the northern part of the state.
ILya
