Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Leupold ?

Yondering,

There is a ton of reading on this site alone that I and others have written. In short- failure to hold zero, inconsistent and incorrect adjustments, dead spots in the erector, reticle shift, failure to return to zero, turret housings unscrewing, complete erector system failure.




mathman,

You are correct. Leupolds are issued scopes for some military sniper weapon systems. So is Nightforce and S&B, and while I do shoot a significant amount of ammo through rifles with Leupolds (and S&B), the weapons that I use have NF, Bushnell HDMR's and some SWFA SS's generally.

I have had good luck with Leupold

Glass/coatings, yes. Internal, no.


Casey

While I haven't had any problems with leupold I have a close friend that has had 3 2.5-10x50 swarovski scopes fail on a Weatherby Mk5 in 7mm Wby.

I have a fairly recent VX-2 3-9x40 on a Colt Light Rifle in 7RM with a Forbes stock. It's a few oz. more than your setup, and hasn't given me any problems. I have about 160 rounds down the barrel on this combo. FWIW.

GOOD to know. I mounted and bore sighted the VX-2 last evening.

Form is in a different world then most of us are in here.....he deals with and trains guys whose life depends on the reliability and dependability of the optics that they use........he sees more rounds fired in a week then most fire in a life time........He along with several others in here are people who's opinions should be highly regarded. he's not the only one who has issues with the Leopold's.....Have several folks that I know personally that have been around lots and lots and lots of rounds fired and lots of scopes all issued by good ole uncle Sam and the Leopold's are not their favorite.........just because the military uses it doesn't always mean its the best........

well put.

My Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8x36 finally died last weekend, wandering P.O.I. However my mother bought it as a Christmas present for me in High School back in 1986. Originally it was mounted on my old Ruger M-77 tang safety .338 Winchester. The smallest rifle it was mounted on was a .300 H&H, the largest was a 450/400 Nitro Express.

It was going great last weekend to on a Custom Pre 64 Model 70 Winchester in .35 Whelen. All of the sudden my groups opened up from under 1 M.O.A. too around 3. Same ammo, checked rifle over, nothing loose. Swapped out the scope with another that was zero'd on this rifle and all went back to normal.

After 30 plus years of service and hundreds of rounds of heavy kickers it had had enough. Pretty good service life I would say.

I did have a Mark 4 have adjustment problems right out of the box once. Leupold fixed it no problem. Also had a VX-3 once with debris on the interior lenses right out of the box, they took care of that too.


I have had a one Zeiss, one Nikon, one Bushnell, one Swarovski and one Nightforce scope die on me. The only trouble I had with warranty repair/replacement was with the Nikon, I will never buy another. I have seen a S&B go down on the firing line but the three that I have had have been great.

Anything made by man can and will fail at some point. Some more than others all things considered. Your mileage may vary.