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

On countries of manufacturing...

Riflescopes:
AMG riflescopes and holographic sights are built in the US. The reticle for the scope comes from Europe. The holographic element for UH-1 comes from UK. Everything else down to raw glass is from US.
Razor riflescopes are made in Japan by LOW, but Gen 2 tactical scopes have some US content as well. All Razor scopes are QC'ed in the US
Golden Eagle riflescopes are made in Japan
Viper PST Gen 2 riflescopes are made int he Phillipines. A significant number of these are QC'ed in the US, but not all.
Diamondback hunting scopes are made int he Phillipines
Diamondback Tactical scopes are made in China (there are very few problems with these, so they must be paying attention to QC).
Strike Eagel scopes are made in China
Crossfire scopes are made in China.

Binoculars:
Razor UHD and Kaibab HD are made in Japan
Everything else is made in China.

Spotting scopes:
All current models are made in China. I have the 65mm Razor and it is better than the previous generation Razor that was made in Japan.

Generally, a few Chinese OEMs are making exceedingly nice spotting scopes and binoculars. You'd be surprised at how many of the Euro brand optics you like are mostly made in China.

Vortex has a very well funded R&D center in the US with a full design and prototyping capability, in addition to the manufacturing they do here. Keep in mind that they also do a fair amount of stuff that is not for civilians.

Probably a good example is Zeiss. With riflescopes, only V8 is made in Germany. Everything else is made either in Japan or China or a bit of both.

I saw mention of Nikon earlier in the thread. All of Nikon's riflescopes are made in the Phillipines. They are about a generation or two behind everyone else in terms of the designs they use. None of their riflescopes are designed by Nikon. These are the same OEM designs that everyone else was using.

ILya

Zeiss v6 says made in germany

Since you have the finger on the pulse, please, do tell how many "Made in USA" scopes Vortex sold last year. How has the wait time on an order for them gone? What is the expected increase in production with the second expansion?

Pointing clueless fingers and making up numbers, again, does not give you the voice of authority you imagine.

You are a long way out of date....

This made me laugh a bit. Doesn't matter where anything is made, the manufacturer (assembler) has to make the item to the specs listed on the print, regardless where it's made. If you take the same print and gave it to a Chinese manufacturer a Japanese one and a US or German one, the item will be the same IF all the specs are to the print. And if they aren't, then the QC has to do their job. As with anything, if it's assembled there doesn't mean all the parts are made there and conversely, just because the item is made in Japan (or Germany or US), there is a very high chance all the components do not come from there. Many components still come from China. Many American made items have components made in China.

Does China pump out a bunch of cheap stuff? Absolutely, because the company having them make it specs it that way. Design it cheap, build it cheap... sell for huge profit!!!!! That's business

And as someone said earlier.... what does it matter? Use what you like; what you can afford. Who cares what others think? Why there's so many choices for everything out there.

The Chinese are for the most part crooked and cut every corner they can get away with.

I’ve no use for Chinese anything...but especially optics

Just took possession of a 8x42 Vortex Razor HD bino. The view is stunning. It seems to be well constructed and comfortable. Says made in China in little letters on the bottom. I don't mind, because I know there was still money made by Americans. Same as if it said made in Austria on the bottom. If there was a made in USA option of comperable quality and price, absolutely I would buy that, but there is not.

I deal with China every single day of the week on parts we buy or quote there from a "partner", as well as we had a plant there for several years, key word, being HAD. We also bought a plant in Europe that was owned by the Chinese..................you want to talk about a nightmare transaction & negotiation.

Quak, you are correct in your analysis..............they tend to take care in producing prototypes or samples & getting approved, then throw the material specs & adherence to process procedures out the window when production starts. And you just cannot inspect quality in after the fact once it get to the US, even with 100% inspection; it just doesn't work.

CJC73 has not a clue as what he's talking about in the real world regarding China.

Having said that, there are a few, a very few plants in China than can & do deliver a high quality part, within certain boundaries, but all in all, those are few & far between.

Manufacturing in Japan & China is like being in 2 different worlds, & yes, I know 1st hand..............I started & ran a US/Japanese manufacturing JV for some time.

People willing to settle for Chinese roulette on what they buy, & buying their own pocketbook strictly on price is what keeps China afloat...............until something changes, they won't either. Trump is 100% right about dealing with China, IMHO/

MM

There is also the theft of intellectual property and process...but thats for a different day.

Ill buy some things that are chinese...a simple hand tool like a shovel for example. But I would NEVER but a chinese optic...you just cannot be sure of what your getting. Great post MontanaMan

I deal with suppliers in China daily. So i do have a clue about the real world

Sorry, but I really don't think that you do.

Dealing with suppliers in not the same as being & having been involved on a production & manufacturing basis.

MM

Ok, you're better than i am and know me and what i do better than i do. and dealing with them means involved in the production and manufacturing process. But what do i know?

Have a nice day

Those Razor's are pretty nice, but you ought to see a Nikon HG for the same $$$$. I do hope you enjoy the Razor's though, and truthfully a guy could have that glass and never miss a thing.

Had some Nikon LX 8X32's back in the day. Seems that there is a certain level of quality that gets reached then improvements are very small and personal. For what I paid for the Razors I am very happy. Had I been paying retail I'd have probably gone with Leica in the ~$1K range.

I have dealt with manufacturing things in China and other asian countries a fair bit.

China is no longer the cheapest place to manufacture stuff, so they are being pushed upmarket by competition. With optics, some OEMs are making significant strides forward, but obviously not all of them. More importantly, from some OEMs I am finally seeing reasonable consistency. We'll see where that takes us.

ILya

Conquest HD5 as I recall also said something about Germany as I recall. They shipped assembled eyepiece and assembled everything else to Germany, attached them together and called it assembled in Germany.

I am not a big fan of HD5 in terms of value, but it was a pretty decent scope with decent QC.

V6 is supposedly made in Japan. I do not know what they do to it in Germany other than packaging it into a ncie box.

ILya

"Assembled in XYZ Country" and "From XYZ Country" have been used quite a bit in recent years to give some (not all) customers the illusion that a certain optic--or other product--is made entirely in that country.

Another European optics company has been marking their binoculars "From XYZ" for around 20 years now--because the only thing their binoculars contain that's put on them in XYZ is the rubber armoring. The rest is made in Japan--or at least that's where the binoculars were made during the first few years of "From XYZ." They may be made in China or somewhere else now.

Yet I keep hearing hunters who own them bragging about their fantastic European binoculars--which is understandable, because as soon as the binoculars started being made in Japan, they became noticeably better optically.

Manufacturing has been a world-wide affair for quite a while now, but many people (especially, apparently, Americans) tend to think that some countries made GREAT optics and others make POOR optics, even though a lot of back-and-forth parts manufacture has been going on for years. The reason? All companies are in business to make money, and if an optics company can buy lenses (or anything else) made to their specifications for less money , they'll do so.

Mentioned on another thread recently that I don't write nearly as much about optics anymore partly because of all this. Not only is it harder to keep track of what's being made where, but too many readers still assume optics manufacturing hasn't changed since 1969. Or maybe 1963, when the last Model 70 Winchesters that were any good--in their opinion--were made.

Lots of companies dealing with Chinese parts, either in totality, small content, assembling parts with some of many parts sourced from China take a lot of liberties in the declaration of source of content labeling....................just sayin'.

MM

I have a crossfire on my AR.

I'm sure its chinese made , it does what I need it to do , at a price point that made me feel pretty good about buying it.

They're in the business to make money, period. Their products don't satisfy most of us here. All of my Vortex scopes came on rifles I bought second hand. Most Vortex scopes serve the function of sitting on the rifle in a closet for 50 weeks of the year to be taken out for one or two weeks of a hunting season. I know I am speculating when I say "most" but that is my take. I also think that most of those I just referenced will give most of those users a lifetime of satisfactory use. If Vortex feels the no-fault warranty and the frequent introduction of new products makes them the most money, that's what they will do. Their bottom line does not have to take in to account the resale value of the scopes owned by a bunch of huckleberries like us. Their high-end stuff does appear to satisfy those users. I can't speak to that as I don't buy Vortex scopes. I do have one of their Razor spotters which I have been very satisfied with. Their rifle scopes are not for me; but, they are exactly what a large number of contributors to the fall human pumpkin patch want.