Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics What happened to Leupold?

What have you brought ?

I have seen scopes that use adjustable mounts. What's your point ?

Actual experience with multiple Leupold failures. I’m not on here telling horror stories about hunting deer in the Adirondacks with a [bleep] lever gun!

It would be interesting for members here with broken leupold scopes to tear apart a couple of them and show some detailed photos of the erector systems parts. In my 50 years of hunting and shooting, I have had only 2 scopes go bad. Neither scope was a Leupold. I now live in Eastern Europe and It would be quite a hassle for me to send a broken scope back to the U.S. for warranty service. So I promise that if one of my 9 Leupold scopes crap out, I will disassemble the scope, take some good pictures and post them here. Ya'all shouldn't have to wait too long. I've been using Leupolds for 50 years now, so I am over due for a Leupold failure real soon. RJ

The thing I laugh about, “I won’t call them haters”, it the folks that don’t like leupold, strenuously, try to get their point across..... kinda like the “new” Remington 700’s..

rj, how much do you actually shoot? And, what era of Leupold's do you have? There are a lot of guys here that have Leupold failures. It happens all too often. One of the LGS that I frequent quite often has a wall of shame (or shelf rather), that is stacked pretty high with bad leupolds. He says he'll send them in one of these days...

I’ve used the shiit outta powerbelts on deer and elk,

I’m sorry bob, I promise I’m not lying!!!! Grin

I’ve got a bunch, cds’, m-1’s fixed blah blah blah, I’ve steel hung to 500 in my backyard, my leupolds work fine for what I do

Sure glad I stocked up on popcorn early. I'm not quite sure when this became the Blackheart show, though? Talking about shooting lever actions and open sights on a thread about scopes and scope failures? And on it goes- time to get more popcorn....

Bob

It would be interesting indeed. I wonder, for instance, if the internal erector guts and twin bias springs of a VX3 could be retrofited to a VXIII. Anyone know? If it could seems like that would be the best way to repair a VXIII for failure and more cost effective in the long run if it reduced the frequency of returns.

Im another that used a bunch of Leupold’s and have tapered back in the past few years. I still run a few of their 6x36 and 6x42 along with a couple older 2.5x8’s and 3.5x10’s but anything I’ve gotten in the past couple years to include their VX6 and such just hasn’t held up for me. Not knocking them but they didn’t work for me. I’m glad others have good luck with them and they work. I like to see American companies win but don’t like wasting time, bullets and powder chasing when a scope goes sideways.

The supposed twin bias spring is no better than the original single bias spring. I’ve sent back VX3’s and they returned them with the same claim of erector rebuild on the repair order that I would get with the VXIII’s that were repaired.

Sheister: I bought another Leupold scope just this week - seems the "Leupold bashing" and "Leupold bashers" have NO effect on me and and my enjoyment of the shooting sports, at all.
I own and use many dozens of Leupold scopes and have bought, used and sold dozens more over the last 55 years and have yet to experience MY first Leupold scope failure!
Checked my online inventory just now and I have 66 (sixty six!) Leupold scopes mounted on Rifles right today - and I have 5 more in reserve (not mounted on a Rifle yet)!
I know that any scope brand can have a failure but I trust Leupold for harsh condition and harsh recoiling usages.
I also own scopes by Zeiss, Bausch & Lomb, Burris, Redfield, Weatherby, Unertl, Weaver, Simmons, Tasco, Nikon, Lyman, BSA and Sightron - when its crucial though, I choose Leupold.
I am mounting scopes and lapping rings for two Elk Hunting Rifles right now that are owned by friends of mine - both of these "seasoned Elk Hunters" chose Leupold scopes for their Rifles (one a 30 mm tube VX-5HD 3 to 15 power variable and the other a 1" tube 4.5x14 variable). Both these Hunters have 45+ years of Elk Hunting experiences each, in harsh country and harsh late season conditions. I agree with THEM not a few Leupold bashers here-on.
Long live Leupold & Stevens Corporation a fine old American Company!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

That's what trolls do AC....piss all over every thread they get involved in.

Based on Mule Deer's post earlier, I still wonder what contribution to failures is due to the design versus quality control of processes and materials. He noted a marked increase in failures since 2010 and also pointed out that variables used to rarely fail (see quotes below). A few others noted that changes in management and personnel occurred although no one pinpointed a year or range of years for that. I.E., cost cutting, changes in production and personnel leaving either for retirement or to work for competitors. It would seem that design alone wouldn't account for an increase in failures. Sort of makes it all clear as mud.

Some previous comments for reference. Would be nice to pinpoint when the cost cutting changes occurred and when the experienced personnel left.

Thanks for offering to "take one" for the team. Not sure what the info will be useful for since we already have a notion about the What, and the Why probably only matters to Leupold, who suely knows.

Still have a few giving good service, and as an old man on a fixed income not facing anything mission-critical, I'll ride them out. As I've said before, the main effect of all this drama has been to encourage me to try new stuff rather than just reaching for the Leupold box. So far, all of the new players are giving good service too. Really hoping the VX-5 HD 2-10 hangs on, as it's a lovely instrument.

Some previous comments for reference. Would be nice to pinpoint when the cost cutting changes occurred and when the experienced personnel left.



Even an old retired guy doesn't have the time, energy, or interest to chase that rat down the hole. Maybe if I was writing a book.....

Someone with firsthand knowledge might not have to do any chasing at all ... shot in the dark ... doesn't hurt to try ... etc.

BSA, in the 70's, 80's and 90's I shot at shooting ranges, what I thought was quite a bit, 100 to 200 rounds a week and sometimes a little more, especially when shooting IHMSA and other low level target competitions, but during those times, I only hunted less than 20 days a year. I used Leupold scopes mostly, but a few other brands too, Nikon, Burris, Bushnell. Since I have retired and now live in Europe, I usually only shoot for sight in and practice shooting, when I can. The Leupold scopes I used were what ever Leupold was offering at the time in hunting scopes, fixed and variable. I do not still have any of those from the 70's and 80's. The ones I have now were made in the 90's up until around 2010 and a few a bit later, VX-2 1x4, 2 VX-2's and a VXR. Other Leupold scopes that I have and use now are 2.5x Compact, FXII 4x, FXII 6x, 2.5x8 VX-3, 1x4 VX2. RJ

As I've mentioned several times over the years, I know the folks over at Hill Country Rifles. For well over a decade Matt and Dave have commented that they've experienced a large percentage of failures with Leupold scopes. Canted reticles, not tracking correctly, POA/POI shifts, etc.

So much so, that several years ago they just came right out and stated that they don't recommend Leupold anymore.

I've experienced the same issues. Even for the "set and forget" scopes, it's often a bitch to ensure you've zeroed the scope because the erectors don't work correctly. It's a shame, as I prefer Kimber rifles, and Leupold scopes look great on the rifles and are svelte. However, if the scope doesn't perform as intend, and there is no confidence in the setup.... well...

I no longer have any Leupold scopes. No confidence.

For those of you who love your Leupold scopes and think they're working correctly and have no issues... that's great. I'm not here to berate your choice or persuade you otherwise. I could care less what someone else chooses to top their rifle with. For me, I've wasted enough time and $$ on Leupold scopes.