Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics So Leupold are Junk anymore. Now what

I’m doing my part by rewarding excellence when I find it, and punishing complacency and arrogance.

I'm sure Leupold is reeling from the punishment you're dishing out to them.

I still use two older 2.5-8’s. They do ok; one in particular. They’ve got aftermarket elevation turrets and are on “fun” guns, like my .223AI. They clearly and obviously outperformed the several newer 2.5-8’s I owned which have moved on to other shooters.

I don’t really understand WHY Leup has had a tough time getting with the program. I hypothesize that it’s somewhat akin to the US automakers in the 70’s; there’s just an arrogance there that they don’t need to compete at a high level because of who they are. That attitude set the US car industry back 20+ years and created an opening you could, well, drive a car through for the Japanese. I remember my first Japanese car, a ‘79 Accord. I traded my ‘79 Chevy Scottsdale pickup for it. That truck had it all: the 305 V8 was an absolute dog, but STILL got terrible mileage, when you put it up on a lift (I worked at a gas station all through high school and we were always messing with our trucks) you’d see the giant oversize holes in the frame/body mounts so that they could get things to more or less line up... the engine had a lifter tick at under 40k miles, which I cured by drizzling ATF into the carb with the motor running... the interior plastics were soft and the NM sun ate them up... various knobs and switches would work, not work, whatever.... then I got that Honda and..... you just changed the oil in it and it went and went and went and everything worked. “Huh”!

It’s frustrating because I work in the field of mechanical manufacturing and to a lesser degree (mostly my own fixturing and tooling), design... everything that is “wrong” with Leup could’ve been addressed decades ago with some reverse engineering, R&D effort, and stepping up their QC. This ain’t rocket science; it’s just EFFORT and being willing to admit you have a problem. The same things the US automakers did to compete... you want to beat Toyota, you first gotta BE Toyota.

I happily take my money elsewhere. If you believe in the power of free markets, which I do, the possibility of failure must exist and further, must manifest as consumer behavior, to change the behavior of the manufactures. I’m doing my part by rewarding excellence when I find it, and punishing complacency and arrogance. In a very real sense, it’s patriotic. Short of just closing our borders to imports, or imposing more punitive and ineffective tariffs, it’s compete-or-die on a global level. I want to believe America and Americans can compete. But blindly “buying American” won’t do that; in fact it can do just the opposite; it can function as enabling.

But Ford's are awesome. I've never had a single problem with 3 Fords that I used as grocery getters and never towed with or took off road, so I can't possibly fathom the reality that you, or anyone else, ever had a problem with a Ford.

I apologize in advance. I'm not trying to poke fun at you or your post, and I get where you are coming from on how difficult is is to go back to something that you feel let you down. But, I'd like to use an element from your post to satirically summarize how I view the ongoing Leupold debate:


But Ford's are awesome. I've never had a single problem with 3 Fords that I used as grocery getters and never towed with or took off road, so I can't possibly fathom the reality that you, or anyone else, ever had a problem with a Ford.

Makes sense. I know a lot of people that hunt and kill animals, but the only shooting they do is just before the season when they go out and pace off 100 or 200 steps and make sure they can hit a cereal box. Just readjust on the cereal box if needed and go hunting.
There’s nothing wrong with that, it obviously works for a lot of people. But those same people are not likely going to know if there is anything wrong with their scopes.

A friend of mine hunted this year with a younger guy that had just bought a new rifle and scope. He had it mounted and bore sighted at the store, bought some ammo and went hunting without doing any shooting. Then he killed two deer. I’m sure he thinks his scope is awesome, but his experience and opinion would have very little value.

And here we go with this bullchit again. Basically the old, "all Leupolds suck and if you don't know this fact it's because you are a goober who only bore sights his rifle and calls it good for hunting season if it keeps 3 shots on a sheet of poster paper at 100 yards".

That's just horse chit. In addition to Leupold scopes I also own Zeiss, Swarovski, Nikon, and even one Schmidt & Bender. I also know how to properly sight in a rifle. I have had no more difficulty sighting in any of my Leupold scoped rifles than I have with any of the other scopes I own. And I have never had any of them fail to hold zero. That goes for the 6 I currently own and a few more I sold along with the rifle they were mounted on over the years. I also probably have at least 10 or more family members and friends that own at least 1 Leupold scope. Some of them more than that. No reported problems from them either. And believe me because of the constant stream of negativity here I have specifically asked them.

I am nobodies sunshine pumping fan boy either. I fully realize that any company that makes thousands of scopes every year is going to have failures. A lemon is possible with any company. But I find it weird that none of the people I know of outside the internet seem to have these consistent problems with Leupold scopes. In fact the vast majority of places you go online have a good opinion of them. But come here and the Leupold failure rate jumps to 98.7 percent. Amazing. Maybe what some of you guys need is a priest or a shaman to lift whatever optics curse one of you ex wives placed on your asses. LOL!

I actually didn’t mention Leupold at all, or any scope brand. What I said is that some experiences and opinions hold more value than others, and that has shown in this thread.

Sooo, you are implying that Leupold uses don't use theirs like those who choose other brands? They only use them as the equivalent of a grocery getter that never gets off road?

There is overstatement as a satirical device.

But, yes, the sentiment emanates from the fact that when you read through enough of these types of discussions, there does seem to be usage and expectation commonalities among those who have been happy with the performance of their Leupold scopes.

If so, how did you verify it to be fact?

And here we go with this bullchit again. Basically the old, "all Leupolds suck and if you don't know this fact it's because you are a goober who only bore sights his rifle and calls it good for hunting season if it keeps 3 shots on a sheet of poster paper at 100 yards".

That's just horse chit. In addition to Leupold scopes I also own Zeiss, Swarovski, Nikon, and even one Schmidt & Bender. I also know how to properly sight in a rifle. I have had no more difficulty sighting in any of my Leupold scoped rifles than I have with any of the other scopes I own. And I have never had any of them fail to hold zero. That goes for the 6 I currently own and a few more I sold along with the rifle they were mounted on over the years. I also probably have at least 10 or more family members and friends that own at least 1 Leupold scope. Some of them more than that. No reported problems from them either. And believe me because of the constant stream of negativity here I have specifically asked them.

I am nobodies sunshine pumping fan boy either. I fully realize that any company that makes thousands of scopes every year is going to have failures. A lemon is possible with any company. But I find it weird that none of the people I know of outside the internet seem to have these consistent problems with Leupold scopes. In fact the vast majority of places you go online have a good opinion of them. But come here and the Leupold failure rate jumps to 98.7 percent. Amazing. Maybe what some of you guys need is a priest or a shaman to lift whatever optics curse one of you ex wives placed on your asses. LOL!

Willto,

Surely you must be aware by now....the Campfire membership is composed of a higher quality of shooters than those other lessor forums.

That's a hell of a lot of typing without including any pertinent information, except maybe about cars and your work history. "Newer" and "older" tell us nothing. Newer than what, or older than what? Ideally you would include the model of the scopes,Vari-X, VX-III. VX-3 etc.

Willto,

Surely you must be aware by now....the Campfire membership is composed of a higher quality of shooters than those other lessor forums.

Well, you left this out...



And your verification is nothing more than it "does seem".....If that is your best...so be it...