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

Does it appear that Leupold's quality control has slipped? I can't agree because I don't see it with my L scopes. But I don't doubt the testimonials either. I bought my last L scope two years ago - a VXR 3-9x40. Its been in an airboat traveling over 50 miles of the Talkeetna River, backpacked 10 days up steep mountains onto the tundra with a last day average caribou. Means more than a day one monster. After that it went snowshoeing in the New Mexico mountains for a cow elk. Now all things can and do break. If Leupold has cut corners, then they deserve the wrath of the faithful. They should look to Camera Land to see what a correct business model looks like. But to those who like to "jerk around", please respect what Doug is trying to do.

Here are my Leupold products.



The bottom 3 are Redfield Revolution scopes with Accurange reticles. Fantastic scopes that to the best of my memory adjusted pretty close to as they should. They have been set and forget scopes. The glass and weight are best in the price class.

Next up is an old friction Vari X-1. It pretty well behaved as it should, but the Ruger it's on isn't terribly accurate, so I dis have to twist a bit to get it set.
Going up from there: a new VX-1, two silver VX-II and two VX-3. Again, weight and glass are price class leading. To the best of my recollection getting these set was an adventure.

My most accurate rifles don't wear Leupold. I twist them on occasion. I'd like for them to wear Leupold because I am big on made in the USA, but I have consumed enough reliable information to have doubts about how they would perform with regular twisting.

Summary: Love the glass, love the weight, love that I have set them and have never had to adjust them, love that they are made in the USA and love that they have been reliable once set. I should add that I don't shoot a whole lot. Don't love chasing bullseyes while dialing them in. It's maddening. Don't love what I have come to believe is a lack of reliability when dialing Leupolds. I do love what I have read about Leupold customer service.

My most recent scope purchases have not been Leupold. Leupold has some work to do. I hope they'll do it, but I have my doubts. I think they have done what Ruger has done in accepting customer returns as a part of their QC process. That's a damn shame too because Leupold is my favorite scope maker and Ruger is my favorite gun maker, but they are both unquestionably taking their customers for granted, and neither seems to give a damn.

When the bean counters run the store and the engineer/Loony types are in the back seat, it takes a toll.

A rush to the bottom line can leave some gaps along the way.

If one takes care of business, of customers, the bottom line will take care of itself.

Can't get the cart ahead of the horse.

But it seems to happen over and over.

DF

I'd like to see Leupold update and upgrade - and then provide proof - of their engineering and quality control tests. Take a look at those for Nikon, as an example. It would go a long way to restoring confidence. (Not that a Nikon can't fail, but, at least you know how they are tested).

That depends. Are you bragging, or complaining?

Cumbaya...

Is the oft-refrenced erector issue due to design flaw or materials? Aren't they often better after a rebuild? If so, are the rebuild parts sourced differently?


The FireDot is pure awesomeness.

That sounds fun! Have a blast. Write up a trip report for us. Good luck!

Good luck with that one. I've asked the same thing perhaps three times with no response, or even a WAG. Not knowing the answer makes it seem possible that if one gets sent back enough times, eventually it'll fall into the hands of a good repaiman who'll luck into good repair parts, then all will be well.

In the absence of an answer, I have to fall back on the reports of reliable sources who've sent scopes back repeatedly that either weren't repaired or were fixed and broke again, and add in ones where the tech said nothing was found to be wrong, and conclude that design, poor components, and QC all play a part at times, singly or in combination. All those possibilities could be taken care of if the company honchos wanted to.

Still holding my breath with my VX-5.

I had 2 Leopold dialers rebuilt 3 times each due to weak errector springs. They did not put in a different type of spring on the rebuild. As a result, problems developed between 250 and 300 rounds. The Leopold rep said they weren't strong enough for what I was doing with them,which wasn't that strenuous. That was about 6 years ago. Those 2 scopes went down the road. Replaced with SS scopes. No problems since.

Worrying.

"Let's work together with and on Leupold "

If Doug can get Leupold to listen, I'd like to know what he eats for breakfast! Thanks for trying just the same.

Please excuse my skepticism and negativity. It's more directed at Leupold. I'm sure if you ask them, they are all that. You'd hear all about numbers and market share, new lines, profit margins, features.

But if you ask people that use their products, they fail. I'm one of those guys. What matters most to me, Leupolds opinion of themselves, or my experience with their products? Too big for their britches IMO.

Sums it up rather nicely.

They dont fail regularly if anyone asked me.

Now, those scopes would have been fine for the guy that has 70 bolt action rifles and 30 extra leupold scopes (sound familiar here) lying around. Im imagining a lot of those guys that have never had a leupold "failure", are more collectors than "shooters". Im thinking Leupold should (when they weed through this schit) listen to those of us that actually shoot and have had real failures. We are only a small percentage of hunters and shooters here, compared to the populus of the world, but with as many failures a lot of us have had with Leupold, they are probably well aware of the problems their products have. I cant imagine the amount that are sent back for warranty repair each year. There must be an obvious reason, why, they choose NOT to nip the problem in the bud....

Understood Ed, I believe that is the main point of the ire towards Leupold. People spent a lot of time and money organizing hunts these days and you certainly wouldn't want to risk success due to a product failure.
If I was you I would stick with tried & true... not worth the risk

I will repeat, the items were ordered through my LGS that got them from well known suppliers (Sports South, Ellets or ?).
Usually order by Tues, and get by Friday.
Used to work for that shop too.............they never bought from grey market.

Sorry, for some reason I thought you were a big Leuopold fan. I agree with irf, on a hunt like that it's not worth the risk, and personally I wouldn't want to go on a hunt like that with a scope I didn't have confidence in.

Stock second from top is dead sexy.

It transformed the handling of the gun completely. I still haven't rung it out good yet.