Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Vortex Scopes

I need some schooling. I recently got a rifle with a Vortex Diamondback 4x12 scope on it. I am not familiar with Vortex scopes but I see them a lot in the show cases in gun stores. Seems to shoot fine. Any opinions.

Vortex has everything from cheap chi-com crap to awesome high end scopes.

The diamondback line is on the cheap end of the spectrum.

Sums it up well. I love my Razor 1-6x24 Gen 2 E but they currently cost about $2000, a lot more than I spent a few years ago.

But the lower end Vortex scopes I've looked through haven't impressed me much.

Diamondbacks are low budget Vortex scopes. I’d use it on a Rimfire plinker.

Throw the scope in a wood chipper.

Two guys in my camp bought Diamondbacks to replace their tired old scopes a couple years ago because they were on sale at nearly half price. I think they've killed 12 deer between them since and I've heard no complaints.

What the hell you got against rimfire plinkers?.....

It seems popular to rip on vortex. But no one really has said why

The truth is that most scopes are perfectly capable of doing just this. We can be a snobby group at times, but a Diamondback will do the job just fine.

The same reason they “rip on” Creedmoors, insecurity. 😉

Here's the truth. Diamondbacks are there cheaper scopes. I have a friend who used to work for Vortex customer service. His words not mine. They have about a 20 percent return rate on failed diamondback scopes. Cost to produce them is less than 30 percent of what they sell for. Simple math and at 2-300 dollars 80 percent success is pretty good. They don't track for [bleep] but once you get them dialed in they will hold zero 80 percent of the time. This is going to be somewhat true with all bargin scopes. Leupold , Athlon even the vaunted burris.

A Diamondback is probably about as good as most other $200 scopes which means that they mostly work fine for the average hunter who doesn't shoot a lot. I wasn't suggesting that they're no good and of course Vortex has a good warranty. I prefer the Burris FF II in the economy scope category, but to some extent you get what you pay for when buying optics.

I have several different brands of optics on different rifles including Leupold, older Nikons, Burris and Vortex and have been satisfied with them all. As for Vortex it seems to go in this order around my area, starting at the bottom and moving up to the top with an increase in price and quality as you move up ...... Crossfire, Diamondback, Viper, Razor. I own a couple of Diamondbacks with no complaints, one gets used regularly with no hiccups. I have an early model Viper that is better than the Diamondback and has been flawless. I have a couple friends with the Razors that love those and several guys i know that bought the Crossfire and they were bad. I guess you get what you pay for but you can get a lemon every now and then no matter the brand.

I appreciate the input. Thanks.

Good optics aren't cheap and cheap optics aren't good. That being said, I do own several Vortex Razor optics. No complaints other than my now " senior citizen" aged eyes could be better.

My most expensive scopes are on my rimfire plinkers.

I fully trust everything with the name RAZOR attached to a Vortex.

No experience with their cheap Crossfire or Diamondbacks, but I have several Vipers that have been fine thus far.

Its pretty simple in the optics market...the old saying "You get what you pay for" holds true but there is a price point where you experience greatly diminished returns on your money ..Good luck....Hb

I have personally had 2 Crossfires and 3 Vipers fail on me. Turrets broken, parallax adjustment busted, canted crosshairs...

I won't buy any more unless Razor line.