Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Why no more love for Loopy

Rip Van Leupold when to sleep about 1995, and still hasn't fully woken up yet. Riding on lauels earned in the 1980's, and supported by adoring legions of once-a-year sight in only hunters, an entire market of repeatable Mil adjustments, Mil based reticles, and low cost illumination (Leupy wants to charge you nearly $1K more for an illuminated 3-18x44mm MK6 than for a non-illuminated one) escaped them and their competition just passed them by......

If all that wasn't bad enough, Leupold quality as whole has fallen to Barska levels. Sure if it breaks they fix it for free, and you the shooter are the unpaid QA tester/manager. Most don't even know they a buying junk, because the set it and forget it crowd exercises their scopes so infrequently that they never know their scopes inherent short comings. But hey, they are made in good ole' USA........

Barska? LMAO

Thanks guys. I think it has been summed up rather nicely.

Glad you put up this thread Mike. I have been wondering about the same question for a while now. I just hope that the VX-1 and FX-3 I bought a while back won't crap-out on me anytime soon.

Know what you mean. My newest Leupold is a year old VX 2. The rest are older models. The one you got for me wil be 10 yrs this summer. The rest are mid nineties and early 2000 models.

I've been lucky as well in not having them lose zero. Sighting in with one is 3 shots, then adjust based on the two closest in the group......ends up taking less rounds to zero than one shot and adjust because that just turns into wack a mole. Once zero'd they've been good but about all I use now are 6x42's and don't dial them. It's the biggest reason I've defaulted to 6x42's with LRD....no power changes, no dialing....zero at 100, match the dots to a range, and live with the associated limitations. Still like the ease of view the 6x42 has but its hamstrung on other things....

Anyone else do what I do now, when I'm sighting any scope, especially the later Loopies? I made a small wood mallet that I rap the scope with a few times after every adjustment. I was getting strange tracking from the Loopies...first shot after adj--no or not much movement...second shoot at or near where it should have moved to after the adjustment. The tapping-in seems to help a lot.

oh...and smokepole.. LOOPY LOOPY LOOPY!

No,I'll not put up with that. I've seen the scope whackers. I'll send that POS down the road and buy something better.

Loopy! Reupold!
( all together now)

So what is a good scope to buy then these days if Leupold's are unreliable .. without spending a fortune that is. Or should we all go back to shooting iron's?

I use the handle of my screwdriver, maybe I should just get a damn hammer too...........






Poor Smoke...........

What I have taken away from this thread is that for the price the Burris Fullfield 2 is hard to beat. It also sounds as if the SS scopes offered by SWFA, I think it is, are worth a look. I have had good luck with the Burris in the past but have zero experience with the SWFA scopes.

I am sure there are other brands and models that wii 'fit the bill' also?

It depends on what your looking for in a scope, and what your planning to do with it. If just hunting, for shots under say 300 yds these are some good ones listed below: 2 with German #4's and one with an illuminated reticle. Not cheap, but not uber expensive as far as scope go.


https://www.eurooptic.com/minox-za-5-hd-2-10x40-w-german-4-reticle.aspx

https://www.eurooptic.com/minox-za-5-hd-12-6x24-w-german-4-reticle.aspx

https://www.eurooptic.com/Minox-66606-MinoxZX5i-1-5x24-Plex-Absehen-66606.aspx

Other solid scopes with usable features for longer range shooting are the Super Snipers 6x, 10x, 3-9x42 HD, 5-20x50 HD, Bushnell 3-12x44 LRHS and LRHSi, Burris XTR II 2-10x44mm, Vortex Gen II PST 2-10x32mm, Sightron S-Tac 1-7x24 and 2-10x32 (hunting only). All are under $1500. some are under $500. And there are metric tons of good scopes if you wish to spend more than $1500. greenbacks.

Without going to the safe to count, I think that I have ten Leupolds. 1 3X M8, 2 UL 3-9 EFR, 2 2.5-8Vari X III, & 5 3.5-10 VariX III (4 are AO). Some of the Vari X III's are friction. The only new one is one of the UL 3-9.

I have never had a Leupold failure. Some are cranky to zero. Once set, they stay set.. I don't twist knobs. I no longer shoot a lot. I don't haul my rifles in the pickup bed. I no longer use horses.

Perhaps most of my gear is older and has not seen "hard use" is the reason for my success. I do have some newer offerings from Burris which I like, and my biggest surprise was the optical quality in a Bushnell 3-9 4200 that I bought way below right at close out a while back.

I'm no longer young, but I am open to change. I may drop in ar SWFA and give the touted fixed six a look see. They are only about thirty minutes away. Save shipping if I like, save grief if I don't, plus it gives an old retired fart something to do.

Best,

Jack

With today's knowledge, materials, production capabilities, and technology there is no reason why optics manufacturers can't build bright, sharp, clear, durable, and functional gun scopes that retail in the $250-$500 range for the weekend warrior to the hardcore hunter. Wannabe snipers and tacticool shooters can have their tools, also. Make the core work before adding the gadgets, and add to the price the costs of gadgets that work.

If the ship won't float all the missiles and electronics won't be of any advantage.

My most recent experience with a Leupold as a VXIII I bought some years ago. I mounted it in Talley QD rings and bases on my M70 416 Remington gearing up for a buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe. I mounted the unused scope about a year ago and commenced to shoot ~600 rounds sighting the rifle in and shooting off sticks and offhand. The sight in was me looking down the bore and scope until things looked right at 50 yards. Dialed in I moved to 100 yards and shot a 3 shot group. I tweaked the scope and landed dead on, as dialed, at 100 yards. I then shot the hell out of the rifle with nary an issue. During my hunt the rifle road in a rack outside behind the cab. Never an issue. Lucky me.

Nice buff. After ~ 600 rounds of 416 "practice", you damn well deserved it!!
Congrats.

Like many others, I've had way too many problems. I've had quite a few Leupolds and I've had about a 70% failure rate. I've had several that I've had to send back more than once. For a long time they were very overpriced for what you got. You could get about 2x the scope for less money. However, I do like the current VX-1 and I think it's a pretty good deal at the $140 you can pick them up on eBay for. I still think the Burris FFII is a better scope though and you can often pick it up even cheaper. I've also had several FFII's and I've only had a problem with one of them. Burris took care of it and upgraded me to an even better scope.

When I was using Leupold's on my hunting rifles I also thought it to be normal to lose zero if you dropped the rifle, knocked it over, etc as it was always the case. That's until I upgrade to a SWFA SS 3-9 on my main hunting rifle that I'm rough on. I've knocked it over when it was leaning against a tree, dropped it, and even had it knocked over on a tile floor. I thought for sure it was done for it after that one. Throughout all of this it's never lost zero. I've never had a FFII lose zero either, but other than a buddy knocking my gun over (that I lent to him) when it was leaning against a truck, I've never been super rough on one.

As you are recommending them, what has been your experience with those scopes? How many of each, round counts, abuse, zero retention, tracking, etc? Specifically the Minox's, the Vortex PST Gen II, and Sightrons?

Form, How have Burris's offerings stood up to high round count/hard use?