Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Why so many scopes that suck?

No it doesnt! Those are some awesome pics you got and thanks for sharing. I can appreciate that you get out and hunt a lot and that's never a bad thing.

No it doesnt! Those are some awesome pics you got and thanks for sharing. I can appreciate that you get out and hunt a lot and that's never a bad thing.

That's all I was trying to say.

I'm not good with words lol

One thing I would add to the conversation is that there are literally tens of thousands Leupold scopes out there for every SWFA, so taking that into consideration why would you not hear about more Leupold failures when most hunters have never heard of or seen a SWFA.

drover

Drover, I said that quite a few posts ago, but it flew right over some pointy heads...

Leupold vs NF: This is not rocket science. Heck, if I get the time I may video a scope failure test. I've tested before, more than once. I know which scope is going to fail first.

We go down rabbit holes in these discussions, but hey, its the optics forum. I don't think one person will claim that the Leupold will not fail before a mil spec scope at twice its weight.

The question becomes is a Leupold reliable enough for your application.

For my application, no it is not. I have failed them, more than once. It is MY experience. I will not use them. Trust me, I didn't willing switch out every scope in my arsenal.

For most "hunters" that don't twist, they are just fine, I won't argue with that. Leupold will most likely serve you well.

If you twist, I will go as far as to say I highly discourage the use of Leupold.

Jud,

You seem to be suggesting a guy can't have hunting success unless they have "the best" scope, and since you've had success hunting there must be absolutely nothing wrong with Leup scopes. I may be mis-reading you on that. Trouble is, your definition of success may not be the same as the next guy. Nobody else is making the claim that to be a successful hunter you have to use the most reliable scope possible. As far as I've seen, Form is simply talking failure rates of mechanical objects in tracking and zero retention. Do Leupolds fail more often than NF, SWFA, Bushnell top-shelf stuff? IME, yes. Does that mean you can't have a very successful hunting career with a Leup? Heck no. Does it mean you can't have a very successful target-shooting career, military career, etc, with a Leup? Well no, but now we're getting to a point where a scope's mechanical reliability really starts to matter, and the likelihood of the scope holding you back is getting larger. Some guys like to use their scopes both for a lot of hunting as well as a lot of shooting. Your success (hunting) and their success (hunting/target) may require different levels of scope mechanical integrity. And that's not a slight against guys who just HUNT. But the reality is that their scope needs are different. I've had a handful of Leups go down on me, mostly zero-retention issues, but in nearly every case I noticed the failure while shooting targets.

I'm a German car guy. I'm less picky about my trucks, but I really prefer German cars to Asian or domestic cars. I've been using them for a couple of decades, and have had REALLY good experiences with them. They've never failed on me, and I have no reason to use anything else. I'm objective enough to admit that Toyota has a lower average failure rate than my VWs or Audis, but I'm still not going to switch because the German stuff has other advantages, and I'm willing to accept the trade-off Same goes for scopes. We all have certain scope attributes that we value over others, and have different trade-offs that we're willing to accept.

We're not talking about absolute quantity of failures, we're talking observed failure rates. Failures per 100 scopes is the same metric whether we're talking about 1,000 scopes, or 1,000,000.

Good god, they work excellent for me, they’ve never failed me, I do a lot of hunting, I hunt in several, or all adverse conditions the hold zero, the cds I have are dead nuts, the m-1s I have work as advertised. I’m not lying... a lot of other folks aren’t lying either. I just don’t know how else to get it through that, I’m my opinion I don’t think leupolds sucks. Oh I’m a Toyota man too, fuuck Ford Chevy and dodge...

It didn't fly over anyone's head! Everyone read it and everyone lauphed! Why respond to a statement as ignorant as that? Your hunting experience is relevant but Forms extensive testing of scopes that far exceeds your experience counts for nothing? Ive used mostly Leupolds and about 12 years ago switched to SWFA'S but still have a 6X42 FX111. I tend to believe Formidilosis because what he says exactly matches what I have experienced. In fact what Form says matches the experiences of most who have used both scopes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with useing a Leupold to hunt with and they work but Your reaching for wonderland with your last preminition

Jordan, I think your miss interpreting my words, there’s a certain clan of folks here that think leupold are junk, they don’t track, retain zero fog up blah blah blah... to ME they’re not junk and they performed flawlessly over a pretty long hunting career, are nf junk nope. Are swfa junk, nope but they’re probably the ugliest cheapest looking scope on the market, and guess what, they fail!!! They fail plain and simple just like everything else

Good talk, tuck your skinny jeans in and tilt that flat bill...

I never figured you were. You've been fortunate and all your Leupold scopes have worked for you without ever a failure. Unfortunately, not all of mine have done so, and there are other guys like me with similar experiences. That doesn't mean any of us is lying, just that we have different experiences "playing the odds".

Jordan, until they do, I can’t cuss em, can’t hate em... I love the looks, how svelte they are, and there reliably

If you've never had a problem dialing Leupolds you haven't dialed much. Nothing wrong with that getting close is half the fun!

I hunt because I love venison so putting meat in my freezer is all I really care about. In fact the whitetail backstraps that my son in law cooked up tonight were absolutely delightful! I love all your pictures of horns though I'd much prefer to see a pic of a frying pan full of steak with instructions to your favorite recipe. How that steak gets on your plate makes no matter to me.

My apologies if I've read you wrong. I tend to take a man at his word, I just don't always correctly interpret his word

Agreed on SWFA's aesthetics, but when it comes to zero retention and tracking they fail less frequently than most everything else, including Leupold, IME.

lol, the Optics Forum is a "rough and tumble" place!
It's akin to a gaggle of old hens cackling, getting their feathers ruffled and all puffed up, shaking their fingers in someones face because they feel slighted.

On this point I can wholeheartedly agree with Jud, use whatever optic YOU want. (as long as it isn't a POS Leupold! lol , just kidding! )

The funny thing, I’ve lots of family and pards that run that little gold ring, I can’t think of 1 puke... serious shiit...

Thats why when I hear all these leupold failures I’m like wtf??

Ya if you always shoot stuff at 100 yds and 5" groups are of zero concern! If you shoot at the 100 yd target 100 times and hit it once and keep that target you might be a Redneck! Lol

Judman I used to be a die hard leupold guy. My favorite scope was always the 3.5-10x40, and I rode one atop all my primary hunting rigs. I dealt with the shoot em in adjustments at the range, I tapped the tube after each adjustment too. But the minute I started actually adjusting the turrets for shots outside the set it and forget mode I started having problems. I’ve even had problems with new ones on initial sight in. I have personally sent back at least 6 Leupolds for erector problems. It’s simply just not worth it to deal with that. Sadly I didn’t have to spend $1000 to get a scope that adjusts when I adjust it, and adjust back when I adjust it back. I’ve got all kinds of cool pics of dead critters killed by rifles that wore Leupolds but I’ve moved on to [bleep] that I have more confidence in, sadly that’s just about every other brand!