most of the nikons are made in the Philippines, think of this as between chinese and japanese in quaility. For some reason I don't like the optical formula that most phillipene scopes have. this includes, burris, the nikons and vortex models. If the nikon is made in japan, I would be alot more interested. really japan or europe is the only place I want my optics made. Yes I am an optics snob.
