Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Zeiss Conquest MC vs Cabelas Instinct

Main hunting rig has a older conquest 3.5-10x50 MC on it.

Picked up a Cabelas Instinct (Meopta) 4-12x50......was wondering how these two compare.

Both made by Meopta and have the same glass and internals as the current Meopro.

The warranty is the only real difference. Meopta/Zeiss warranty are great. I've read that lifetime for Cabelas now means 1 year and you'll need proof of purchase. One year is what they consider the life of the product.

I sent back a cabelas instinct to meopta and the fixed it no questions. Had a floating paint spec in it.

How long ago was that? My understanding is the warranty change has happened since the Bass Pro take-over.

I’m glad Meopta fixed your scope but I don’t think that has been the norm.. They refused to work on a pair of the binos for me. They wouldn’t do it even though I offered to pay for the repair. This was a couple years ago. I think there’s quite a few examples out there that mirror mine. Maybe they’ll ease up with the cabelas change.

My understanding on the agreement when Meopta built Cabela branded items, similar to when they made the Zeiss Conquest scopes for Zeiss, it became a Cabela product and Cabelas was responsible for the product once they received it.

You wouldn't expect to have Meopta handle a Zeiss repair on a Conquest scope so why expect them to handle a Cabelas binocular?

Thanks Doug

What that means to me then is even before the Bass Pro purchase, if you had a Cabela’s branded Meopta optic and it broke, all Cabela’s could do was replace it since they obviously didn’t do optic repairs. And if I remember correctly those optics had a lifetime warranty. Am I wrong with this line of thought?

Just my thinking on this, doesn't mean I am right.

Perhaps Cabela's had a repair/warranty agreement with Meopta on all Meopta made products which allowed for the lifetime warranty. This would no longer be in effect once Cabelas was sold to Bass Pro as Meopta would not have this agreement in place with Bass Pro.

My understanding is that the Meopta built optics came with a Cabelas lifetime warranty and not a Meopta lifetime warranty. In effect when Bass Pro bought Cabelas, Cabelas life ended. A companies lifetime warranty is only as good as that companies lifetime, not our lifetime.

Yeah, well it is complete BS when Bass Pro eliminated the Cabelas Lifetime Warranty. If I had a Cabelas Euro/Instinct I'd be royally pissed. Screw Bass Pro, they're a joke.

Bass pro is still selling these meoptas in a couple of versions. They are incredibly vague on their warranty; both in store and on the website.

I am in full agreement about the Meopta/Cabelas warranty. Meopta shouldn't be obligated to fix an outsourced product. I gave Meopta a call after Cabelas wouldn't come through. I thought maybe they handled repairs for Cableas or in hopes that I could at least pay to have them fixed. My understanding is the Cabela's "warranty" is now the lifetime of the product, which they consider 1 year. They are still selling a few but the amount of Meopta products seems to be greatly reduced, which is probably a great thing for Meopta

Yes it was a new scope before the bass pro buy out.

I’m in agreement with regard to the Zeiss example, but the Cabela’s scopes bass pro is selling are labeled meopta on the scope and come with all the meopta paperwork including the booklet stating lifetime warranty. If meopta won’t warranty them I think it reflects poorly on them, but that’s just my take - and hopefully I never need to find out. And yes, normally I would just buy them through you Doug (as all my other meoptas have been!) but I had some bass pro gift cards and wanted to use them ...

I still don't think the answer is clear about whether Cabela's will back the lifetime warranty. Bass Pro bought out Cabela's but still kept those stores branded as
Cabela's, good thing, up north there are no Bass Pro stores, farthest north one I know of is in Iowa.

I have not been on the Cabela's website recently, it always was a well done site, easy to navigate, and the people on the phone there were very good, midwestern
roots, Cabela's was based in Sidney, Nebraska. I wonder what is left there with the buyout. As many know Cabala's was a family owned business and the only
way to divide things up was to sell the business, "The Worlds Greatest Outfitter".

I do have experience with Meopta service, most everything goes back to Europe for repair, not much here in the US.

I don't know about warranty but I think I'd buy a Zeiss Conquest regardless of the length of the warranty. By far the best optics on any market for the money anywhere.

Sorry to disagree but l had problems with Conquest
With life time Warranty had scope rings scope was tightened
To tight. So they sent me a cheap model back ($400:00)
Scope vs $($600:00) scope. 400:00 scope had 5 year warrenty
I will never buy a Zeiss. I bought a Meopta 3.5 x10
Very happy with my opinion better scope in

A few years ago I bought a Zeiss Conquest 3-15x42 HD5 scope on ebay. The scope was used, and in mint shape. I paid about half of the retail price.

After mounting it on a few guns, I concluded that the reticle wasn't staying in place, and sent it back to Zeiss. Zeiss agreed that it was broken, but said they didn't service that model anymore. To honor their lifetime warranty, Ziess credited me for the full retail value of the scope, which I applied towards purchasing a Conquest V6 model from Zeiss.

That was extremely fair treatment, IMHO. That is the only time I have exercised the Zeiss warranty, so I can't say how typical my experience was.

I have a bunch of the Zeiss Conquest 3-19x40 scopes made by Meopta. I've never had a problem with any of them. Used, they represent a super good value in hunting scopes.

“ Perhaps Cabela's had a repair/warranty agreement with Meopta on all Meopta made products which allowed for the lifetime warranty.”

That’s the only thing that makes since to me.