Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Has Leupold fixed tracking & zero retention?

See the same at almost every range visit. Now more likely than not it is with people shooting the M16 class of rifles. Some-most in fact-have good rifles with the worst of scopes and keeping shots inside a 12-inch target is the exception. They are shooting .223, no spotting scope, can't see their holes, and want to walk down range every 5-10 shots to see their target. Then there was the guy, and when you saw him set-up you knew he was different. He was punching out 3-5shot .5 +/- groups with regularity.

I used to use Burris. After too many failures I switched to Tasco and the failures stopped. That was with rifles. The .454 was a whole different game. All brands failed with that in the late 1980's and early 1990's. When more money was available I purchased Swarovski and went back to failures. Then I switched to Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X and the failures pretty much stopped. I say pretty much because two were bad right out of the box. Sightron and Nikon have been good except they don't have the hydrophobic coating Bushnell does. Minox 5-25X56 and Zeiss 5-25X50 low light performance was not up to the standard set by the Bushnells so they were returned to sellers.

I don't know about missing a deer inside 200 if the shooter aimed in the middle of the front half.

One had a side parallax adjustment that wouldn't stay set shot to shot even though the knob itself didn't move. Another had a horizontal adjustment with a dead spot in it. The adjustments in another didn't break outright, but they got loosey goosey and groups opened up at the same time.

It may well be a lot of avid hunters are casual shooters range wise. They may not be possessed of rifles that can resolve a change from half moa groups to one moa groups.

Thanks,

Enough reports out that Leupold obviously has some issues. How does the failure rate compare to other scopes is the unknown question. Complete breakdown or off enough that for the majority of hunting situations it would not be noticed?

However, Leupold would be wise to address the issues. Nothing to be lost by doing so. They most certainly have someone tuned into the various optics forums.

One Leupold that stayed rock solid for thousands of shots was a Vari-X 3-9x33 EFR model.

Conservatively, in the last decade I've seen hundreds of Leupolds used. Outright where I wouldn't put them on a hunting rifle and use them somewhere between 20-30%. If you're dialing, around 60-70% have an issue within 500 rounds that would cause a miss on a 8" plate at 400 yards.


As far as Leupold fixing the problem...? No. As 4th Point wrote their CEO and management are not shooters in any way. The have also vehemently denied any issues even while standing on a range watching them fail.

They have no reason to fix it, because people keep buying their stuff. .

Good post buddy... I saw that guy once...

I gave up on Leupold too, after the last VX3 failure I said fu ck them. Just not worth it. I don't give a damn how good their warranty is... Pretty plain and fu cking simple...

LOL, I must have got the only good one, last Spring I popped the locks on a dusty Pelican case two times and pulled the old 300 out, hit two black Russian shoats pn two different occasions at iirc 522 and 569 yards respectively, two clean rib hits, ranged, spun, fired, returned to zero, went to processor with one and gave the other too a Bud.

The 'volume' of twisting a Leupold may be the teller, I don't shoot mine much anymore, I much prefer banging 100 thru 500 yard steel with barrel sighted Sharps rifles and my naked eyes, much much more of a challenge, long hits with good glass is exceedingly boring.

I put a 2-7 on a damn shoulder pounding 378 WBY back in the late 80's, it never moved, tuff tuff scope.

Yeah, I know a former Tanzanian PH who used a 2-7x Leupold on his .378 Weatherby for years, and it never shifted. But that was years ago too.

I've been visiting the Leupold factory periodically since the early 1990's. The last time was in July of 2015. There's a room downstairs where they do their recoil-testing of scopes, taking one off the line now and then and mounting it on a machine designed to simulate the recoil of a .375 H&H. The machine pounds the scope, over and over again, until the scope fails, and they check its endurance against their records. They also use this machine to test scopes from other companies. In 2015 the guy who's run the recoil lab (for quite a while now) very firmly stated, more than once, that Leupold makes the toughest scopes in the world.

Same as a girl telling you she's a virgin...but a kid is tugging at her dress saying "mommy"

Tough from a recoil stand point and holding zero is a different beast than tracking accurately and repeatably

It would be interesting to know what the percentage of Leupolds are in the total population of scopes. Is it 50%? Maybe only 25% but there are a lot of them out there. Lots more scopes than the other guys would lead to more failures seen.

My question would be what constitutes failure? Till parts are rattling around inside? Or do they interrupt the test and shoot it for an accuracy standard and repeatability? If it passes then back on the the machine and repeat? Two dictinctly different failures.

I'm a Leupold guy. US based and they make scopes-fixed-and reticles-big dots, HD, PD-that i perfer.

Ok here are my requirements:


For use on a 270 wby,300 wby, 300 win mag, 7mm Remington mag, 400 yards absolute top end of range

30mm tube diameter

10-12x top magnification

Scope tracks perfectly for initial sightin, no spinning of turrets necessary(point and click)
Holds zero under most conditions

Has a usable Lowlight Reticle 4, 4a , or a good BDC reticle

Has illumination

Nightforce quality or better glass

Weighs less then 20 ounces

What are my options ?

If you're shooting something big enough to need those magnums inside 400 yards you could drop the magnification top end a bit.

Why a 30mm tube requirement? Given the range limit there's no need for the room inside a big tube to accommodate extra adjustment range.

30mm tube for Illumination

I'm wondering the same. What constitutes failure in their test?

battue,

From what I understand, they pull the scope off periodically and test it for tracking, zero, etc. But they eventually shake it so much stuff breaks.

I was with a group of writers, and after the tour some expressed skepticism about the repeated statement concerning "the toughest scopes in the world."

Thinking a little more they don't have to shoot in order to test tracking, zero, etc. Must be a grid they can look at while making adjustments. Toughest does seem questionable when you throw in some of the military choices. Then again does the military get something special that we don't? Possible, but I don't know.

Still a good test for everyday hunting scopes. Also, what is their standard? 2's, fail more than the various 3's? Variables vs fixed? Do they outlast the competition? Most certainly, they will say definitely.