I Had a VXII that had that issue. It was so tight I was worried that I might "torque" tube. I sent it back and leupold had it back to me PDQ and now the ring is just very very tight, which is not really perfect but a big improvement.
You surface a very good point here, one I've been thinking about as a result of the initial posting on this thread.
I'll say first off, Leupold has know about this problem since it first surfaced whenever that was, years ago. So, why haven't they corrected it? And, why didn't Leupold's QC people write it us as a gig, one that must be corrected prior to a specific lot of scopes leaves the plant?
Regarding to my first question about Leupold knowing about the problem; they keep myriads of data with respect to consumer compalints. Everone at Leupold must have heard about this problem at one time or another, especially those tracking customer complaits. It's just the way companies are. They keep track of what customers complain about, and that info is passed to the highest levels of Management in the company. I worked for an optics company for two years. My feelings are, that Leupold may have taken the approach that it is too costly to fix, and that it is cheaper for them to "fix" those returns than to fix the entire fleet in production. Of course, I do not know this for sure, but it is one of the possibilities.
Now, to bring this into focus a little better. noKnees, and many others, sent their scopes back to have the power ring lightened up, only to have their scopes returned with the same problem, only marginally better than when they sent them in. This begs the BIG question, why? I can only assume that Leupold's specification PROVIDES for the difficult power ring turning that we, as consumers, are experiencing. And, that would answer my second question above about why Leupold's QC guys checking scopes at the end of the production line accep difficult turning rings.. Because the Leupold Spec allows for that turning force. So, the QC guys hands are tied by the spec. This also answers why noKnees got his scope back with a power ring still difficult to turn. Because the repair guys in Leupold's service department are bound by the same spec as their production, and QC people. What I'm sure their warranty service people do when they get a "Power Ring Adjustment" job from a dissatisfied customer is to adjust the force to the MINUMUM end of the specification range, HOPING this will placate noKnees, and all the other guys returning scopes for the same problem.
Now, why doesn't Leupold want to fix the problem in production, where it should be fixed? Why does the scope design provide for difficult power ring adjustment? I do not know the answer to these questions, but will say that it no doubt has to do with MONEY. More money than Leupold is willing to invest in correcting the problem during production. Another possibility might be, that this difficult power ring adjustment "may" be masking a bigger problem within the scope that Leupold doesn't want to address.
