Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Why the big hardon for Vortex ?

Vortex has done an exceptional job of marketing their mostly Asian manufactured products than other companies have marketed thier Asian manufactured products (Leupold, Nikon, Bushnell, Burris, Athlon, etc) My hat's off to them for that. The simple fact that they have a new building doesn't mean their stuff is American made though, which most of it isn't, and neither is anyone else's $200-$500 stuff, including Meopta's new Optika binos. Their tech told me personally that they source as much Asian components as they can for that product, then assemble most of it here. The Fury HD5000, Sig KIlo3000, and Nikon Laserforce are virtual clones of each other, almost guaranteed to come from the exact same assembly line.

At least Vortex took Leupold's model of customer satisfaction seriously, and maybe even exceeded it, which is primarily the reason people buy Vortex stuff in the first place. Adequate products backed by exceptional customer service sells, which is what Athlon is doing as well.

the only US made stuff vortex makes that I am aware of is the AMG scopes. As I look at the retail market on hunting rifles and optics as well. It seems to be somewhat of a dieing market, from what I see. I think fewer and fewer people are willing to spend big money on nice stuff for hunting. Maybe its just the market is played out. Its the reason most of the companies have switched to budget rifles. ruger american, savage axis. remington 783, winchester has a budget rifle, All of these companies prior rifles were wood and blued, something you had pride of ownership with. The pride in ownership of hunting rifles seems to be fading. With it higher end optics, I think vortex put themselves in the right place to capitalize on this. They had the product line for the budget consumer. displaced have been companies who had better products, ie bushnell and their elite series scope, Weaver and their mostly japanese made scopes, to name a couple. All better products than most of vortex line. Savvy marketing, better labeling and spruced up look has been what has gotten vortex to the level they are at.

It happens all the time in business, its pretty frustrating as a business owner myself. Decisions aren't made on who has the best product or does the best work. That works sometimes, but mostly not!. in this case with vortex is no exception. Vortex had a better marketing plan. Athlon seems like another vortex in the making, All the way down to the same crappy asian sources for optics. For me its this, US made, ie nightforce or japanese built optics are all I will use on any guns that I am remotely serious about. If that means buying used so be it. I don't have the time to dink with optics made outside those areas. The phillipene made optics like the PST 2's are close but IMO not there mechanically yet.

I looked at Vortex and Swaro when shopping for a new scope last year, ended up with the Swaro Z5 and I am very happy with it. Now I have a Vortex Bino/RF Fury HD 5000 and so far, I am very happy with it too. With what my wife paid for it on sale (13% off), a Swaro RF/Bino would have run 3 times as much. I can't see the point in spending that when the Vortex works great. The warranty is just cherry on top. The outfitter I go to in Oklahoma broke his spotting scope a few seasons ago. Vortex had him a brand new one on his door step the next day, no questions, no sending the other back to see if they could fix it first. It's hard to argue with that kind of service. Hell, my wifes Acura has a bulge in the side of the tire and the tire company wants us to fill out a bunch of paperwork just to see if they will prorate it. If they did what Vortex did, we would have a new tire on her car by now. And that's a safety issue! I got her new tires instead of waiting for the tire company to give me their answer, but you get the point. Time will tell if I like the Vortex quality but no complaints so far.

I'm not a fanboy by any means as I've owned multiple scope brands over the years, but I think Vortex is great for what they are. They offer great discounts for nearly anyone in the "industry" from underpaid hunting guides to sales reps, law enforcement etc, which I take full advantage of(have done this with multiple optics companies) Are they the best? No. The worst? Also no. A lot of people just don't need high end optics. I personally don't get a hard on for optics in any regard, and I'm guessing a lot of others are like me.

They're good at marketing.

I have an older Vortex Diamondback 2-7 that has been mounted on a slug gun and is now on an AR15. I shoot that out to 325 yards with no issues what so ever at hitting targets. Zero has never shifted and it gets banged around.
I have a Vortex Crossfire 2-7 on a slug gun that gets very little use, but no problems so far.
I have Vortex Diamondback Binos. They are the only binos that I have tried that I can use while wearing glasses and have full vision. Used them the past three years out west elk hunting and can not complain about them.
I have a Vortex range finder that seems to work well.

I also have a Nikon, a few Leupold VX3's, a Nightforce SHV, and SWFA SS 6 that is still in the box (need to buy another rifle).

Will I buy another Vortex? Probably not. I have not had any bad experiences with them, but after using the Nightforce, and spinning that dial. I will save up when I need another scope.

BTW, of the Vortex scopes/Binos I have, only the Crossfire was built in China. Not sure about the Range finder

I have a couple of Vortex Viper PST Gen 1’s. I really like the 4-16. Not so fond of the 6-24. Would I buy a new one? Not sure.

Where is Formidilosus when you need him?

MM

My experience with Vortex products is limited. I've looked through some of the lower end binos and scopes that friends had and was not impressed. However, the Razor line seems to be well made. The glass is good and they seem durable. They are durable enough that the Razor 1-6x is the most popular high end scope in 3-gun competition. In 3-gun, competitors regularly dump their guns in a barrel/dump box while running through the stage. This is a pretty good test of durability and they seem to stand up well under those conditions.

I don’t have any vortex. I try for meopta’s.

Regular joe deer hunter has never heard of meopta.

Vortex is in every gun shop and big box sporting good store. They are shooting minute of dinner plate. Could care less about tiny groups. They just wanna get on their day off and kill a deer. Vortex offers them that a decent price with a feel good warranty.

You guys do realize that Nightforce uses mostly Japanese components for their scopes, right? And their SHV line is completely made in Japan.

Made in Asia, doesn't mean lower quality. It mostly means lower cost because they are better at manufacturing that we are here in the US. Especially precision manufacturing.

There is a big difference in being made in Japan or made in china. The manufacturing story in China is "Just good enough".

So, that means a company doing business there, has to have quality control, or things don't go so well. An example is Zenray.
They could not handle the warranty issues, and there were many, and went tits up.

If your business model is like Vortex, then have them made cheap with cheap labor and charge too much, you just replace, don't fix.

The big problem with Zen-Ray wasn't so much quality control, but that bigger optics companies "discovered:" how well optics could be made in China, especially binoculars. So they did the same thing Zen-Ray did, but with more money behind them.

The same thing happened in Japan around 20 years ago--when at least one European optics company started getting their binoculars made in Japan--and the quality went up, Other Japanese companies eclipsed some Euro-made binoculars enough to force bigger Euro-companies to up their game..

Never owner a Vortex, other than a LRF Doug sold me...which Im happy with for my uses...


Steered clear of their optics because friends whom I trust, still in the business, waved me off of them....

Like many optics companies these days, Vortex sells (not "makes") a wide variety of optics in various price ranges. Some of their riflescopes are perfectly suitable for typical once-a-year deer hunters who might shot up a box of ammo--in two or three years. Others are pretty darn good, though not Nightforce rugged.

Their binoculars and spotting scopes vary considerably as well. Have tested more than one $600 Vortex spotting scope that was so close to $3000+ Euro-scopes that spending the difference in price could only be justified by a very few hunters.

Exactly how much time have you spent in manufacturing environments in China to justify that statement?

I’ve ordered sea cans full of glass from China and the quality of the glass was absolute junk. Quality in China is similar to Bigfoot, I’ve heard people say they’ve seen it but I’ve yet to.

I think their viper and razor spotters are great, The problem I go back to is maintaining brand value to the owner. I don't want to spend $1200 on a razor spotter then 4 years later its blown out for $600 as they phase in a new model. If a guy is thinking I feel like used meopta products are the way to go in lieu of mid to top tier vortex stuff. At least I am not going to lose my shirt when I sell. I don't know how the company addresses this issue, but the message is sent pretty loud and clear that the company isn't paying very much for the optics from their suppliers.

Yes

Uncle Rico,

You sure Meopta is building stuff in the US?