Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics USA Made Rifle Scopes

Anyone out there know who besides Leupold and Burris are making scopes in America?

The Zeiss Conquest as well as some Swarovski products are being assembled in the USA just like Leupold and Burris.However,all four of them are using imported lenses.

Made or assembled? My Zeiss Conquests say assembled in US. Rumor is that some Leupold components are sourced from China as are some Burris models

What about Millet?

Not sure if the expensive tactical type scopes such as US Optics, Nightforce and Premier are even 100% made in the USA. As far as any hunting scopes are concerned, I don't know of any that are completely made in the USA. Pretty safe bet that Millet are not as most of them are made in China.

I believe that lenses have been ground in japan for 40 years,they make the best

Is that why most eye specialists use Carl Zeiss optical instruments that use European lenses.

I could have sworn that Schmidt Bender's glass was USA born. I'm going to have to search high and low to see if I can find that again.

It's very hard to find anything that's really totally "Made in USA" any more, it's truly a world economy now..............547.

The main components in Leupolds are made here, including the tubes. The lenses and some of the smaller parts are out-sourced.

The erector tube assembly of Zeiss Conquests is made in Germany. The other lenses, main tube, etc. are made in the Czech Republic. Then all the parts are shipped to the U.S. and put together here.

The parts (and lenses) for Nightforce scopes are mostly made in Japan and assembled here.

The more expensive Burris scopes are made here, though I don't think the lenses are anymore (not sure about that). The Fullfield II's are made in the Phillipines, but on the same machinery and tooling that Burris developed when the FFII's were made here.

Leupold has sourced its glass offshore for years (Japan), or so I've been told. Now, China? Wouldn't be surprised...

I wouldn't be either. China is making some excellent glass these days. I have recently been testing a couple of Chinese binoculars that are simply great, as good or better than binoculars costing several times as much.

Part of the reason, I have heard, is that China isn't as limited some other countries in what they can use in their glass. Lead used to be a standard ingredient in top-notch optical glass, but is illegal in many places these days (one of the reasons that some binoculars are a lot lighter than they used to be). I have also heard rumors that some companies are importing raw Chinese optical glass to be ground into lenses, for the same reason.

So I wouldn't automatically put down any optics simply due to the use of Chinese glass--unless of course there's a political objection.

My 13x56 Minox are really, really nice. Chinese.

A few comments on earlier posts in this thread:

Leupold sources glass for its riflescopes from Japan, Korea or China depending on the product line.

S&B uses glass from a small European glass supplier that they own. The scopes are built either in Germany or in Hungary.

USO is as close as you will find to a US made scope. I am not sure where they source their glass, but I suspect that the blanks (or the lenses, I am not convinced they grind their own) come from various Pacific Rim countries.

Leica largely sources glass from US (from Corning), but lens grinding along with everything else takes place in Europe, either in Germany or in Portugal.

As a general comment, where the original glass comes from is not very critical. I can get equally good raw glass from Schott (German), Ohara (Japanese), Hoya (Japanese), Corning (US). What complicates things is the fact that all of these companies have glass all over the world. For a little while I used to buy Schott glass from their plant in Pennsylvania. That glass had never seen Europe. Nowadays, some of the best Schott glass comes from their factory in China (or so I've heard). Any of these companies will provide a catalog of thousands of different glass types and you pick what works best for you.

ILya

On the "most of the weight reduction is from dropping lead glass" comment.

It's a rather small component of weight reduction though the denisity of the flint glass falls slightly when you remove the lead oxide and replace it with titanium and zirconium oxide (and modify the rest of the mix too). You might drop by 10% to 20% in density.

I estimate that a typical bin has perhaps 4oz of glass per tube. So that's a reduction of about 1oz in the bin's weight. At most. You may need slightly more glass in the design to compensate for the density changes.

Most of the weight is "the rest of the bin" were weight can be managed and reduce by making the metal parts smaller but stronger. Good CAD and simulation of the designs means you can put material were it's need and remove it from where it isn't. No more "heavy duty" extra weight added "to be sure".

The other issue is whether you can import lead glass into big markets. For example the EU is very serious about reducing the lead in everything. Search for ROHS to learn more. Pretty much all electronics (except exempted parts that really need the lead) is now lead free. And Made in China.

Schott says that most consumer optics are now built with non-leaded versions of old favorite (and new) glassess (e.g. N-BK7 replaces BK-7 and similarly through their catalog). They still make leaded glass but the goal is to use it only when needed and that's usually in science and instrumentation and for the exempt military and space uses.

None of the Top Four bin makers is using lead in glass anymore (AFAIK). They don't feel the need too. I'm pretty sure they're making good optics.

One comment on weight reduction: while a lot of it comes from better mechanical design, another major contributor is the ability to use more exotic lens materials and complicated lens shapes. That way you can sometimes replace a multiple component lens group with a single more complicated lens.

ILya

TenFo S&B makes their own glass!

The last time I checked, Swift glass was made in the USA.
Some of the scopes or binoculars may be assembled overseas.
An owner might look on the box and tell us.

Swift claims that their scopes use "Schott Glass that is made in the USA".

They also claim to have "light amplifying optical coatings - up to 96% greater light transmission" as well as listing the material they use for the "prisms" in their rifle scopes.

After those gems I can comfortably discard just about everything from their website as not trustworthy. At least bigger scope companies like Leupold can BS with style.

Last I heard Swift scopes were made in Korea. Incidentally, Schott also has a factory in Korea.

ILya

Dynamic lenses coatings would be a first....................