Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Opinions on Vortex Viper?

Vortex is the largest sports optics company in the World and they did that by serving the entire range of customers. Comparing all levels of products including the bottom rung stuff with other top line models is hardly a fair comparison.

I have had 4 of their scopes - viper, pst, diamondback, and razor hd lh. I have not had any issues with any of them. Mechanically seem good and cs is has allot of good reviews. The glass itself is unimpressive. I hope I am not foolish enough to buy another.

When it comes to brands that market their no questions asked, lifetime warranty, particularly one with a reputation for not only replacing products, but regularly replacing said products with upgraded products, I recommend asking some questions.

The first question would be this, why would they replace it vs repairing it? It could be that they just want to make a customer happy. Or, it could be that it is just as cost effective to replace it as it is to repair it. $$$ is most always the deciding factor in business, particularly in a situation where a company has multiple options to choose from (repair vs replace) that can/will fulfill their commitment. IF for some reason the answer to the above question is that it is lower cost to replace, the next logical question to me is how can that be? How could it be, for example, lower cost to replace a complete scope vs repairing a canted reticle, or replacing an erector system that doesn’t work properly? I’ve been around manufacturing and manufactured goods my entire career. I can’t see that there would be more than one hour of assembly labor in most rifle scopes. How cheaply made (cost of scope to company) does a product have to be that it doesn’t justify spending even hour of labor, plus the cost of the defective component, to repair it vs just giving away a new one.

After coming to terms with the above, consider what type of cost vs price structure, or margins need to be in place for the above business model to be profitable. Keeping in mind that they have to cover overhead and what must be the largest marketing budget in sporting optics. Now, if a Vortex Viper 2.5-10x44 sells for $500 at Midway, and that $500 covers both Midway’s and Vortex’s profit demands, plus Vortex’s marketing, plus some margin to cover their warranty costs (to replace whatever % of them fail), etc… how much of that $500 is left to pay for the actual cost to produce the scope. $200? $100? $50? At anyone of those, it has to be made from CHEAP components.

I’ll take my chances, and my money, elsewhere.

Carry on……LOL

I'm in total agreement^^^. I have experience with 3 different Vipers. The first one my buddy bought on a really good sale. It was a first gen PST. It was supposed to be $800 and I think he bought it for half off. Total fn garbage. Would not track or hold zero and the glass was terrible. Second one was on my bosses dad's rifle. He asked me to look through it for him and it was very hard to get behind and the image was horrible. I could see the inside of the tube, which seemed strange. Again, another PST. The last one was very recently and it was one of my new buddies. He's in the local SWAT and wanted me to check out a rifle he was thinking about buying. Surprisingly that scope worked great on a big 338 Lapua magnum. That rifle shot 3/4 moa and when we took it over to the 400 yard range, it tracked fairly close. Come up was supposed to be 6 3/4 moa, but ended up being an actual of 6 moa. 3/4 MOA is 3 inches at that distance, so it was off by a little bit.. Not enough that I was going to complain. Surprised it actually held zero and the glass wasn't too bad.. Don't know what generation it was, but it looked like a first gen to me..

I helped a guy out this weekend mounted 2 Burris FF2 4.5-14x42’s on his 300 WM & daughters 30-06 that had an old Diamondback on it. She shot quite a bit better than she had the year before sighting in. Both the Vortex & his ancient Leupold were very cloudy & didn’t adjust properly.

He shot much better is probably good to 400 yards or more on elk vitals so it made a tangible difference. Goofy scopes waste a lot of time & money,

What makes you think Vortex is the only mfg. that does this?

I have two Vortex Crossfire Rimfire 2-7 power scopes and haven't had any problems with them so far. The hold zero all thru the power range .

Junk

I have an older viper (maybe 2012-2013 vintage) that has been reliable on many different rifles. Then a newer one that wouldn't hold zero on a 22. Then a few Razors that were perfect but very heavy so they went down the road.

No experience with the Viper, but I did have a Diamondback Tactical 6-24x50. Glass was acceptable considering price point. It was very dark above 16x or so and had a tight eye box. It tracked and held zero. I have no need for a zero stop and usually don’t twist more than 10 mils of elevation. Again no complaints given the price. With that, there are better choices out there. I not a fan of their reticles either, especially for hunting.

Stick around. There’s a lot of GREAT knowledge on here, if you can deal with some of the personalities behind it.

Damn! If Vortex optics were as bad as most of these posts suggest they would have gone out of business years ago. I have owned several (including 4 Vortex rifle scopes) and believe it or not I have not even sent one Vortex scope back for any issues, they dont track great but neither do my Leupold VX3's and the Viper glass to my eyes is also on par with the Vx3's....But I have seen many Leupold bashing threads on this site too and I have owned several dozen of those over the years and only had to send one back in for repair and I got excellent CS from Leupold 👍....Hb

Several years ago Vortex became the largest Sports Optics company in the World and have since opened lots of space behind them... lots of sour grapes, poseurs, and haters since. And Vortex just continues to grow itself. Everybody either wants to be Vortex or hates because they cannot.

I don’t think Vortex is the only one. Perhaps they are the most prominent one though.

Vortex is larger (Annual Revenue) than the rest combined... and then some.

The Razor HD lines of Vortex are good quality, but very heavy for what they are. The Crossfire, Diamondback, Viper HST, PST, and the others don't seem to be anything I'd hang my hat on.

The best warranty is the one you never have to use.

Link?

Vortex sells a lot of low end crap to people who don’t know better.

Some of their stuff is pretty good for the price. I have two of their Razor spotters.

But a spotter doesn’t have to hold zero or track.

Keep in mind a good portion of the hunting population (>50%?) couldn’t accurately tell you the size of groups their rifle shoots and where the POI is in relation to the POA.

I hunted with a viper for 5 years. It was returned to the factory for warranty issues 6 months in. Twice the eyepiece came loose and fell out.

As far as image goes, It was functional for picking out animals but was poor for viewing detail. It was hard to count tines on mule deer at over 400 yards against a snow background. Anything over 30 power was grainy.

Ive since upgraded. I recommend you avoid my mistake and buy better in the first instance. Talk to Doug or another dealer as there are several scopes in the same price range that are of higher quality.

From a business standpoint, good for them. They squeezed in a crowded market and took over. However, market share doesn't have a direct correlation to ruggedness, dependability, quality, or any other metric by which you would judge an optic. You don't generally go to Walmart because you want the very best of something in a category.

They've made (marketed) some good models and they've offered some duds. I had 2 Razors. Both worked fine for the short times I had them; I ultimately moved on because I didn't care for the reticles. I'd try a Razor again if they offer a configuration that I like. Just the same, I personally know quite a few folks that don't shoot or hunt that often that had to send back lower tiered Vortex products due to failure. There's a reason they are so widely known for their great warrantee, and it's not just because they have a lot of market share.