I'm curious as to what are the best selling makes and models of scopes.

Doug, can you share?

Or anyone working at a store, care to comment?

Thanks,

Jason

Lots of good scopes out there.

First, what is your need?
What will fill this need.
Where and what are you hunting.

I know a few who change their scope depending on where and what they may be hunting.

Give Doug a call to help discus your needs.

I'm not shopping for myself. Rather, I am interested in the market in general. What is selling?

Best selling....probably Vortex if we're talking just units sold per year.

For every scope Doug sells, a 100 sold at big box stores across the nation. Vortex, leupold, bushnell, weaver, burris, and leftover nikons.

When deer hunting comes around, theres literally millions of hunters out. Id be willing to bet theres more sub $150 scopes a top many rifles. More deer have been killed with bushnells and tascos than any high end scopes. I do believe in the past 10yrs or so that number is starting creep up the way of better glass though.

20 years ago I used to see a whole lot of Simmons and Bushnell at the public range, with a few Leupold. Now I am seeing a lot of Vortex and a few Athlon, still a few Leupold. Just my observations.

You know it. I've never used anything on a hunting rifle cheaper than a Weaver. But I know many more people than not that don't even know what scope is on their rifle and most kill as many if not more deer than me or any of my serious deer hunting friends. A lot of people will buy a bargain rifle with a cheap scope on it as a package dea from a box store and they don't care if it's a Simmons or a Schmitd und Bender, as long as they can see through it. I think about that every time I plop down $300-$800 for a scope, but I still do that. It gives me a little more confidence knowing I have good glass.

Leupold 3x9x40 in any of its’ iterations has to be up there.

Are you asking about brands or specific scopes?

Yeah, the big stores stock a lot of sub-$150 scopes because they sell a bunch of them. I’ve known a bunch of hunters who shoot their rifle once at camp at a paper plate at 60 yards thinking it’s 100 yards and if they hit the plate; proclaim it’s good to go then fish out a few mixed brands/weights of nought-six cartridges and off they go. Any misses at game will invariably be attributed to “must have bumped my scope”. Not that anyone on the Fire would have ever done that.....

Both, primarily brands but also specific models.

Jason

For us it is, in no particular order:
Steiner
Swarovski
Athlon
Bushnell
Nightforce
Burris
Meopta
Hawke

As far as specific models I'll revisit this thread when our crew comes back from furlough and can dedicate the time to make a list for you

Thanks Doug.

Jason

Yeah Id guess 100 buck scopes ( no preferred brand) out of the case at Wally World Are the dominate glass on Most deer rifles...But I would be curious to see what scope brand/model sells best at say a $400 plus price point.....Hb

I’ve seen a ton of Simmons scopes out there.

I’ve been seeing more and more higher end Steiner at my club...and boy are they nice

They seem to be making a strong push

Hmmm. None of those start with "L".


Okie John

I am sure you know the order, no? Most sold, second most...

I bet there is a good correlation between those types and those who feel cartridges smaller than the '06 are marginal for deer.

When I was selling scopes from 2014-2016 it was in order:
Vortex
Nikon
Leupold

I have no data to back it up but the Vortex buyers as a group seemed less knowledgeable about optics than the people who bought other brands.

Whole bunch more toyota Corollas sold, than Camaro ZL 1's.....

How's your old Yugo running? Did you install the lift kit yet?

No Yugo here, I buy American when possible...

think ford pinto.

That made me chuckle, I know a few folks who fit in that bracket.

You'd be surprised how many rifles are pawned at the end of hunting season and either paid off or replaced from pawnshop inventory a week or so before the next season.

,,,,,,,,,and those guys probably kill more and better deer than we do.

I'd buy that. Well, at least in the low and lower-mid ranges.
But most of those buyers are well-acquainted with the guarantee on the box and the big sticker for the back window.

I would never admit to owning a Ford Pinto.
My dad had a Western Field 3x9 on his 30/06 he bought it at Western Auto in the 70's. The deer he killed never knew they were killed by a low quality optic.
I remember as a young boy looking through Dad's scope and thinking how cool Dad's rifle was. And later at 18-19 years old I bought my first Leupold scope, compared it to Dad's scope. The new scope was so bright, Dad's scope looked like skim milk. But Dad shot (high expert) in the Marines, he was a good shot.
But we never knew how poor it was until we had something to compare it to.
Tasco, Simmons, Redfield, and many other low to average quality optics are used everyday. More than any other high end optic. The same people that but one box of green (Reminton)box ammo, and keep that same box for years firing only 1-2 rounds a year.

Gotta be Bushnell at the $100 price point.

A classic. You always had such good taste in cars and rifles.

Yep, got pulled over the other day, by a big ol' boy wearin Buford Pusser style aviators. I thought he was gonna write me up on account of all the Vortex and Realtree stickers blocking the back window, it's happened before. Turns out he just wanted to converse with a like-minded individual.

Is this country great or what?

But you brought your argument full circle... a guy buying one green box every few years is not buying another rifle or scope. The median scope buyer is going to have more than a few scopes.

My first car was a copper colored 1974 Pinto hatchback that was my deer & waterfowl hunting vehicle too. The dealer gave me $500 on a trade-in sight unseen for a running vehicle when I bought a new truck in 1984. When I drove it on the lot & picked up the truck he looked at the pinto & said “we got screwed”.

The Bushnell Banner on my Ruger 7mm killed lots of deer until the reticle literally fell apart. The failure of the next cheapy in one year convinced me a Zeiss Conquest 3x9 was a good investment and I was right.

In the last few years I've bought 2 Burris,1 Leupold, and 1 Sig Sauer riflescope. I don't know what sells the most to the masses, but I do know what sells to like minded individuals at a price point. If I could afford it, my list would only be a little different.,