Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Let's work together with and on Leupold

Seems like all the bases have been covered pretty well. The weak points of the Leupold scopes have been pretty well detailed, though it surprises me the numbers of issues that guys have had that I hadn't heard of before this thread... For the most part I don't spin dials but that is about to change as the last couple rifle I've had built/am building are designed with dialing in mind so a search for a suitable scope is in order very soon. Usually Leupold would be my go-to but these days there are other scopes holding my interest and my high end Bushnells have been stellar in their performance so far. A thread like this does give someone pause when spending hard earned money on a commodity that has substantially grown in price the last few years.

All that being said, at some point this just becomes piling on and a bitch session and very little additional positive input is achieved. At some point it will probably be necessary to lock the thread so we don't damage our own cause or Doug's efforts to sway Leupold in a positive manner...

Bob

Interesting thread. I have only one Leupold out of 7 that may have issues but I can’t say for sure if it’s the scope. This does change my thought process on scoping my upcoming build though.

Thanks Doug and to all those with helpful posts.

Many Leupold fans haven't turned away from their scopes. We buy what they used to make off the classifieds.

Sadly, I think this will continue to be the case; but I'd like to be proven wrong.

MM

The current generation of family and owners and board staff at the lord of the rings company.

Dgaf.......

If this hasn't been proven time and time again, then what has...

Better scopes for same or less price on the market than a lord of the rings scope.....

Stopped drinking the cool aide in early 2017.

When it is cheaper and less hassle for them to outright replace rather than repair a scope.
That speaks volumes to me on the huge profitability of their product versus its manufacturing cost and reliability.
Then when they take the "good parts" out of exchanged scopes and put those parts back onto the production line also speaks volumes to me.
Ya.... one of their techs let that cat outta the bag during one of my lenghty talks with em....

A life time warranty you have to constantly use cause of failures also speaks volumes .

I would rather have a lifetime warranty I never have to use on a dead
Nuts reliable product , rather than have one on a low cost to produce unreliable product.

Do leupold scopes say assembled in the U.S.A. or made in the U.S.A. now????

They are riding on their past reputation.
And selling scopes and hoping they dont fail and things hold together for the shooter who goes thru one box of shells a year.
And their warranty is the cats meow to that type I geuss.



Plenty of other excellent scopes with lifetime warranties out their and ya dont hear much about them having to be used all the time.



I used leupold scopes since age 16 or 17 yrs old in 1979
Lost me as lifelong user in 2016 and 2017 with the vx3i 3.5-10x40
abortion I experienced....


Jmo and experience.
Nuff said....

Y’all aren’t gonna stop until I try one of these. What’s the glass comparable to?

I have had a lot of leupold over the years and for the most part have been satisfied. The glass has always been superb and the weight has always been good. However my last couple have been a disappointment. My vx6 would not track correctly vertically or horizontally. My vx3i lrp 8.5-25 had the same issue. Eventually I got rid of them. If the erector problems were fixed I would buy more but until then I will look for other options

Let’s not pretend leupold is the only ones all of vortex’s non Japanese built scopes are junk too.

Yep, one pays the money and takes the chances. Lots of options now, Leupold might want to consider that.

It’s about VX2 level glass. More than adequate for all my hunting needs.

I don't understand how Doug would have any influence on SWFA. Care to explain?

Their fixed power $299 scope has $299 glass. With that said you can’t touch the mechanics for anywhere near that price. Their HD line is good glass with the same excellent mechanics. I wish they would offer the 3-15 in HD. I think it would be a home run. I balked on the 5-20HD Memorial Day sale when it was $859. Not sure why but I have more scopes than I need right now. I’ve since spent more time wondering why I didn’t buy it than I spent considering it when the sale was active.


I’ll be keeping my Leupold FX-2s but the VX-6HD is starting to scare me based on post here.

I bet he has more influence with SWFA.... than he does Leupold.

We all know Leupold doesn’t care about these issues.... if they did, they’d have fixed them by now.

Doug’s effort here is noble.... but it’s also a fool’s errand. Like I said pages ago.... Leupold has known their erectors were crap for better than a decade.

Thanks for the effort, Doug. Hell of a way to spend your weekend!

I read a piece on Leupold and how the family dominated board had arguments on whether or not to take a very lucrative govt contract to make military optics. The pro-military contract faction eventually won but just the fact that they had such a discussion sorta profiles who they are, who they have become. Bet the founders weren’t like that.

I’m guessing West coast libs, probably rich, privileged brats. Don’t know any of them, just observing.

Given that profile, who can guess what they gonna do.

DF

Doug, this may sound trivial to you but if you go back to when Leupold raised the price of changing a reticle from $60 to $200...it played bloody hell w/their reputation. That's one of the only things that Leupold had left going for them and they screwed it up too. Many guys around that time had a scope on the shelf or had just got a good deal on one because they new they could change the reticle from one they didn't like. Well it didn't take long for them to make another pile of enemies...again. Just like that darn wide duplex reticle. They need to fire the sob that thought that one up. powdr

If some of us were in charge there, there would be a lot of firing going on. And it would start with upper management... Just sayin..

Yup...Time spent convincing SWFA a zero stop on a few SS would be a nice place to start. Adding washers to a 4-15 and 5-20 IIRC voids the warranty. 😎

I know Doug doesn’t carry SWFA.

Swfa glass aint the best, but it sure is good enough...Being a variable lover- the SS 4-15 is a nice scope, even with door knobs for turrets.😎

You're right, I didn't think that through....

I guess what I was thinking is I would rather see the efforts of the Fire be directed at a company that already has a quality product that could be tweaked to be even better than it already is. Several members on here (Form, Koshkin, etc) would have valuable input to a company willing to listen.