Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Why wide duplex Leupold???

If you were only going to offer one reticle for a 4x scope...why on God's earth would you not do a standard plex??? Anybody have any idea?

Agreed, but they have lots of history making goofy choices. And limited ones at that.

The Wide Duplex has always baffled me, partly because the original Duplex was designed to fix the major fault of the standard plain crosshair reticle, which tended to disappear in dim light--or, if heavier, didn't provide a precise aiming point at longer ranges.

The Wide Duplex is essentially a plain crosshair, with the post way too far from the center to perform any function. But has encountered some other reticles like that in recent years, including one from Schmidt & Bender.

Do know one guy who prefers the WD to the standard Duplex because the crosshairs are a little heavier. Apparently he's still wandering in the 1950's.

To push you to buy a higher priced model? A variable? Or to buy a competitor which HAS a standard duplex, since it seems to me, Leupold is the only mfg to have a WD. There are some other reticle choices they make, IMHO worse than a duplex. It seems they do R&D by mfg a feature first, w/o doing any market research....and when it does not sell, they discontinue it. Whoever made that choice at Leupold to only offer the WD in certain models, is delusional and does not care about customers.

You could tell that Leupold didn't care about their customers when they jacked the price of reticle swaps by something like 500%.

Marketing 201 says that it is cheaper to keep the loyal(?) customers that you have than it is to get new customers and crap like the reticle swap price jump surely didn't reward loyalty.

Leupold's pendulum is swinging the wrong way IMO.

Leupold's wide duplex offering sucks balls. And that's being nice about it. No idea what they're thinking.

I don’t know why they do it either but I truly hate it. But, for only a mere $60, you can fix a problem through there custom shop that shouldn’t have ever been. However, I have been kicking around the idea of getting a post and duplex reticle just because I really like these scopes. I just hate having to spend the extra when a duplex would have been fine.

*Sarcasm included on the mere part*

Said their Accountant....

There appears to be a work-around.

If you order a FX-II 4x33 from the custom shop it comes with the (standard) duplex. Strangely, the custom shop wants an additional $60 to install a wide duplex.

https://customshop.leupold.com/

Actually, when you think about the effort that goes into it, they used to provide it for a nominal fee as a service. I think they are now charging about what it costs them to do it.

I'm not sure about that. The VX-5 duplex is basically a wide duplex.

wish they would put a #4 in the 4x33

They will. For an additional $60...

I've become convinced that at many of these companies, not just Leupold, there are influential persons with strong preferences for stuff that make their way into the product lines, whether they're a good idea or not. In addition, Leupold has been paring down options to cut costs, and someone may have concluded that two duplexes were an extravagance that could be eliminated, and chose the one nobody else liked; bad idea when you're already getting hammered in the market.

There are some things about the Tract Tekoa I have that I'd change, but the T-Plex reticle is just about perfect for me for a deer rifle; bold side and bottom posts that come close to the fine center crosswires, close enough to be really useful in dim light and brush. Leupold should copy it.

Well, I'm here to tell you guys that the HD option makes it easier to see the crosshairs at last light. Both of my 375 H&Hs have them on a VX3 1.75X6X32

The wide duplex is nearly useless. A used rifle I bought with a modern Redfield scope had the same thing. Other than the wide duplex the scope seemed fine, but I had to get rid of it.

I don’t like the wide duplex at all!

If Ironsight, Inc., can clean and change a scope reticle for under $150 on a variety of discontinued/obsolete scopes, there isn't any reason that Leupold couldn't do the job for less, since being the original manufacturer their cost for part would be less than they would be for an after-market vendor.

I agree that the previous price was probably just at the break-even print point, but the new price seem excessive and purposely intended to be a disincentive to use the service. Remember that when they bumped the price from $75 to $200+, depending on the scope series and reticle style, their response to customer questions about the price increase was "It is cheaper than buying a new scope.". They might as well have scripted that response as "Tough $hit" or "So What".

I used to buy 4 or 5 extra Leupold scopes annually and sent them in for a reticle swap when they were still NIB. Without that option, Leupold scopes are less desirable to me and instead of buying new scopes, I find myself recycling existing inventory or buying used scopes.

^^^^This^^^^

I have a VX3i 1.75-6 that had the standard duplex when I bought it. I sent it to Leupold, paid $60 plus return shipping, and had them put in a German 4. I don't like it, so last week I contacted CS to ask if it's still $60 plus shipping to change it back. Nope: $200 plus shipping to change it back - about 2/3 the original cost of the entire scope. Thankfully I have another of the exact same scope still with the standard duplex, so I put it on the rifle and put the other one back in it's box. Ironically, I contacted Burris to check on the price to put a standard plex in one of their new 2-7x offerings, and guess what: $60.

You're right: Leupold isn't rewarding loyalty. I have 6 Leupolds on as many rifles, and will think long and hard before adding number 7.

BTW, as an old CPA I don't think I'd lay this on the accountant's shoulders. We always told clients that - as you pointed out - customer loyalty is a lot cheaper than finding new customers. That's especially true when the customer base is static, or in some cases, even shrinking.

Thanks for the info on this thread. I have a 3-9x40 VX-II that I was planning to sell because the power ring is so hard to turn. It has the regular Duplex and I don't want the wide one, so will keep it.

Leupold told me when I phoned that they can make the ring easier to turn if I send it in, apparently under warranty.

Dropping the standard Duplex is downright WEIRD.