Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupold failures and returns

First off to clarify - I am not what could be called a Leupold fan boy although I think that they have a good product with great warranty.

Rather this is more a reality check - there seems to be a near constant Leupold bashing going on here so think about this. -

Leupold started selling rifle scopes in 1947 (73 years ago) so lets take the absurdly low number of scopes they sell each year as 10,000 which means that there are potentially 730,000 Leupold scopes floating around out there. Is it any wonder that there are reports of Leupold failures and slow repair times, which usually is about 3 weeks in most reports. Oh yes, unlike most other companys they do not charge a return shipping fee of $20 or so.

They may some ocassional issues but overall their failure/repair record is pretty darned impressive.

drover

I am a Leupold fan but for the first time in my life I'm going on a month's wait time for a simple repair. Never waited longer than 10 days to 2 weeks. Not really worried yet but... powdr

I am a Leupold fan but for the first time in my life I'm going on a month's wait time for a simple repair. Never waited longer than 10 days to 2 weeks. Not really worried yet but... powdr

Stop pulling nonsense out of thin air, the simple fact is their recent scopes have a ridiculously high failure rate, much more so than the older series

I AM a Leupold fan of the highest order, on pre-03 product.

I theorize that Leupold might be willing to release lifetime failure rates but there's no way in the pit of Hades that they'd release the failure rates if the beginning was starting with VX series scopes in '03 through present day.

That crew of jokers from Leupold that attended the Webinar that Doug set up were chuck-full of horse-hockey and misdirection. In person, my description of that train wreck would involve a whole bunch of words that just end up as "bleep" when typed here. It was at that point I decided that it's time to begin replacing them with other things.

What is the failure rate of Leopold’s newer scopes?

I've got four new VX-3i 3.5-10x40s and had them over a year without a hitch.

Any company that is on top as long as they have will always have detractors wanting to knock them off. There's no better value in scopes today....................that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I am not a leupold fan....


dave

I have around 30, now problems with mine.

Totally agree with that!

Also, to the folks that have them and report no issues, how many rounds have you put through the rifles they are attached to? How have they adjusted and actually held zero. I still use their older M8 and new 6x36's, but those are the only ones that don't require a couple clicks after pulling them out of the safe. I have heard the same thing from many friends, family and hunting pards that they only needed a couple clicks whichever way to get back to zero from an otherwise perfectly zeroed gun when they put it in the safe.

Not cursing them too much, but good mounts and optics don't just move, especially on dead synthetic stocked rifles. An old wood stocked gun, maybe. Just my 2 cents worth.

Plus, it looks like they have culled their excellent 6x36 so they are on my dislike list at the moment

I’ve used em for 30+ years. Hunted big game all over NA and Africa w them. Leupold has never let me down. Including one particular VX-6 on a 375 that has been to Africa 4 times and Kodiak once. That's a lot of beating & banging around in airports, planes, and safari vehicles. Never a hiccup including countless range & practice sessions. I’ve put numerous Leupolds thru torture tests many many times.

As for customer service the few times I’ve needed it was for the older scopes and Leupold has ALWAYS been top shelf.

I had 4 Leupolds break this year, 1 VX-3 and 3 VX-3i's.Leupold fixed them all, turn around time was from 4-6 weeks.I bought 4 VX-3i's less than 2 years ago and 3 of them had to go back. That is unacceptable to me and I have been switching over to Nightforce SHV's, Bushnell LRTSi's, and various SWFA's. They all track better than the Leupolds.

What were the specific defects? If someone asked you to substantiate your claim that you returned 4 scopes to Leupold, could you?

Nothing is ever wrong with a Leupold. It comes down to user error and lack of knowledge on how to properly mount a scope. Or, so I’ve heard...😎

Range finders being off at 100 yards leads to incorrect adjustments. Once physically measured to exactly 100 yards adjustments become perfect and repeatable. .....Or, like you, so I’ve heard...😎....

Erector springs and erector and windage assembly's were replaced.

Paul Barnard, Go [bleep] Yourself

The cynic in me says that Leupold will never own the issue. That gaggleffuuk of a podcast (or whatever it was) that they had here pretty much assured me they won't. If anything is ever to change at Leupold or if those here who are on the fence are ever to be swayed, it will be because people demonstrate that they have issues rather than posting "Leupold sucks" comments.

Leupold sucks!!!!!!



In on page one!!!

I got sick of adjustments that didn't adjust correctly sk I moved on from Leupold and site in became easy and quick.
If like like them good for you