I've read some posts that say when they moved production of many scopes to China, I've read others that said when Meade bought them, but I'm wondering when you all think it dropped off? Were the Meade ones better than the ones put out today?
The reason I ask this is I'd always assumed when production moved to China. However, I have an older Deerfield 3-9x32 that was made while Meade owned them. Being a lower end model it was made in China, but the quality still seems to be decent. It's held it's zero for years through lots of rough abuse. I've dropped the gun, knocked it over, banged it around, etc and it has always still shot to the same POI. The tracking also seems pretty good on it, and the glass is surprisingly good. Really, just everything about this scope has been good and I wish I had bought 10 of them.
I thought maybe I got lucky, but then started thinking about it, and the majority of guys I hunt with also use Simmons scopes. Most of theirs are also cheaper models from when Meade owned Simmons, and most of them are made in China. A few are Aetec's, etc, but most of them are the Blazer scopes. Surprisingly they have all held up pretty well and most of the owners are extremely rough on their guns. I'm talking being dropped out of trucks, throw around, bouncing around in the truck and tractor for years, and just being extremely rough. These were mostly from around the time period of when mine was made or a little earlier. These things seem to hold the POI from year to year, and also have pretty decent glass. Overall, I've actually had pretty good luck with most of the made in China scopes I've used.
Then fast forward to the recent ones we've used that were made after Bushnell took over. I've had 2 one marked Blazer that came on a gun. The glass was surprisingly decent and it did hold up well and held zero through some pretty rough conditions. However, the tracking was way off. Instead of one click moving it 1/4" at 100 yards it was more like one click per inch. I ended up using this for a while thinking for $40 it was a good scope, and sold it off to upgrade. I later got a like new Simmons 8 Point 3-9x40 in a package when I bought a used Leupold scope. He said it was brand new, but didn't have the box. I have no idea if he was telling me the truth or not, but I had no reason to doubt him as it looked new with no marks on it. I mounted it on a 30-06 and it lasted 6 shots before something that looked like a chip of paint started floating around inside blocking your view. It still held zero, but it was hard to get a good sight picture through it.
Then another friend has one he bought a couple of years ago, but after Bushnell took over, and his is an Aetec. He had trouble trying to sight it in, and come to find out what it is is that the adjustments on it are marked backwards, and it tracks horribly.
So this has gotten me to wondering if the quality dropped off when Bushnell took over, or if we just were lucky with the Meade ones, and not so lucky with the Bushnell ones? The other thing that has prompted me to ask this is every other Bushnell product I've owned has left me disappointed in some way. I've also noticed that Butler Creek flip up caps quality has really deteriorated in the last year or so, and I've seen many other posts claiming it has also. When I looked up a customer service number, guess who owns them now? Bushnell. So I just wondered if you all thought Simmons quality dropped off when Bushnell took over, or if it was before that when Meade took over, or when production moved to China?
