Leupold Scopes...Do you trust them today?

[Quintus]

It's true, many people don't use their gear to it's intended potential, but. More people now than ever do. I don't know too many guys that shell out the dough for SB, Nightforce, Etc. that don't shoot and or hunt a lot. Whether it's 3 gun, P-dogs, KD matches, or just popping balloons to 1200 yards. The guys that shoot 5 shells a year just at deer season are why there is still a market for $150.00 scopes. For the guys that spin turrets all day 4 days a week, Leupold probably is not the right scope right now. I wonder if there is a job opening for one or more of y'all on this site as a consultant for Leupold R&D?

 

[Rich Coyle]

Yes I do, currently have 4 @ Leupold's shop being repaired before I sell them. I'm not one to pass of a broken piece of equipment!

I did the same thing with a Swarovski. After it was repaired the third time I sold it with full disclosure.

 

[Ed AO]

Leupold = JUNK

 

[dfanonymous]

It's true, many people don't use their gear to it's intended potential, but. More people now than ever do. I don't know too many guys that shell out the dough for SB, Nightforce, Etc. that don't shoot and or hunt a lot. Whether it's 3 gun, P-dogs, KD matches, or just popping balloons to 1200 yards. The guys that shoot 5 shells a year just at deer season are why there is still a market for $150.00 scopes. For the guys that spin turrets all day 4 days a week, Leupold probably is not the right scope right now. I wonder if there is a job opening for one or more of y'all on this site as a consultant for Leupold R&D?

They already know what to do better than most of us shooters. They just refuse to. You can't beat vortex no BS warranty. You can't beat the features you get with some scopes (say for example PST 2, SWFA 5-20, MPO, NXS, etc) at their price range. These are for the average working /family man that does this type of shooting on the side, realistic price point for many. Point being, innovation in both business and tech.

This is typically an issue with company's that rely on the tit of the .gov/.mil for to long. Look at colt. They are pretty much non-existent. I'm not a huge sig fan but at least they still comes out with new stuff like the 365.

 

[sp6x6]

This goes back ten or more years.Was at local range and run into a couple world record shooters local I know.We shooting away,and I notice the one guy has him a old leo with stoney point dials on it ,we chat about it.These boys forgot more than ill ever know. That really surprised me seeing that because I had same scope. I got talking to the other guy,they where fireforming or something,bench guns NF. He let on how he had a S&B on before and didnt like it,didnt think it was clear and other nuances. I was interested in a new scope and had chance bump into one these guys and mentioned March.He was like guys are having some problems with them holding up and rare that he saw them in competition. Seems like things change March is all the talk on this site,but in PRS it is way down the list? I have had one last 5 years on my hunting rifle,go figure. The stuff I like the prices seem ridiculous.. is it just me.

 

[35 Whelen]

I started using cheap Bushnell scopes and as I could afford it I moved to better Bushnell's an couple Weaver's a Burris and a Vortex. I all so have a few cheap Simmons. I still have all of those and have no problems. Naturally you can tell the difference in them and higher quality scopes. I know have a dozen Leupold's and have not had any problems at all. I like them better than any scope I have used. I have shot rifles of friends with other brands of scopes that I do not own and still prefer Leupold. My second chose would be Vortex.

 

[antelopedundee]

I started using cheap Bushnell scopes and as I could afford it I moved to better Bushnell's an couple Weaver's a Burris and a Vortex. I all so have a few cheap Simmons. I still have all of those and have no problems. Naturally you can tell the difference in them and higher quality scopes. I know have a dozen Leupold's and have not had any problems at all. I like them better than any scope I have used. I have shot rifles of friends with other brands of scopes that I do not own and still prefer Leupold. My second chose would be Vortex.

Like many other things in life; some swear by em and some swear at em.

 

[antelopedundee]

Swfa is the distributor. Tasco held the rights to the SS scope when they developed it for the military in the 90s, when tasco went out of business SWFA bought the rights to the scope and as far as I know the same manufacture in Japan makes it for them.

They seem to be reasonably priced if one looks around. I may be in the market for a scope soon so might check em out. Is there any place that lists them by item number. features, power, reticle, etc.?

 

[nooksack418]

I have two leupold VX-6 one 3x18 and one 4x24 non HD's both had to go back leupold for repair , I shoot NF now no problems , just don't trust my leupolds anymore. They fixed them for me no problems with that part.

 

[Westernhuntr]

I'll throw in my own experience. I've had 5-6 Leupolds over the last 10 years and had good results (mostly). The last two I owned were a pair of 3-18 VX-6hd's. One did outstanding on smokeless muzzleloader. Tracked well and held a good zero. The other was on my 7mm, and it tracked well until I took it on a muley trip to Colorado. While climbing up a hill I slipped and fell down with the rifle in my hands. It wasn't a terrible fall but none the less I was curious how the scope would perform. I shot a great buck at close range on the trip, but felt as if my point of impact wasn't matching where I held on the muley. Once I got to a range at 200 yards, I found my less than six month old scope shooting 5 minutes to the left. The scoped looked flawless as well no dents or dings at all. I was however able to re-zero and the gun shot fine. I called Leupold and they said for a drop/fall, that would be "something normal" for me to expect. I'm an avid shooter and I personally cant afford to use equipment with that kind of normal expectation. I have since sold both and have two Nightforce NX8's on order. To me the chance something could go wrong in the field isn't worth the 7 ounces more I will have to carry next year. Luckily the buck I shot was at close range, if not I would have missed out on the 156 I was in search of. View attachment 175589

I don't own any NF, and am not a fan boy of any manufacturers.
However a friend of mine just had his second NXS s____the bed on him last season.
Total failure to hold zero, he almost pulled the barrel before trying a back up (no name scope) that brought his groups back to .5 moa.
It happens..
[QUOTE="tylerw02, post: 1832003, member: 113012"
I was very ignorant for buying a $2500+ Leupold. I believe I have 8 or 9 of them thay need new homes.
[/QUOTE]
You bought 8 or 9 scopes for $2500 and are surprised that they suck??
Dude come on.. that's like buying a *** ford tempo and bashing a mustang cuz your tempo failed.
Leupold makes entry level scopes, and big boy scopes (mk5's).
Yes the entry levels won't compete with a $2500 Optic.

 

[Bobcape]

Hopefully the opinions posted are based on our own experiences. Sometimes it seems like the horrors of Leupolds are exaggerated some. Maybe not.

I don't know how many Leupolds I've owned over the last 46 years, maybe 75. I believe I have 21 right now, counting the newest VX5HD I received this week. I competed in PRS for 2.5 seasons with a VX3 6.5-20X50 with turrets. I got right at 3,400 rounds out of that barrel that LRI put on my comp gun. I never had any scope tracking or zero issues. I've had a couple of self-inflicted problems - damaged from dropping and one that I loaned out that got trashed when the asshat put a bunch of popcan shims under the scope and torqued the hell out of the rings. Leupold took care of both of those for me.

I've owned 2 Swaro scopes. I love their binoculars, not so much their scopes. An acquaintance really wanted to sell me his 6XC comp rifle with a Nightforce mounted on it. He loaned it to me for a week or so. Very nice scope, solid, clear, tracked well. But not enough to impress me to buy the rifle/scope package. It was so large and heavy and kind of klunky to me. We each have our prejudices about what we like.

I don't know the exact sales numbers, but if Leupold sells 100 times more scopes than Nightforce does in a year, then we should expect to hear about a LOT more issues with Leupold scopes. I've been lucky and happy with the Leupold scopes I've owned.

Leupold does still offer their VIP discount program to veterans. I just received a VX5HD this week through the program. Easy to apply for and to use.

Bob

 

[dfanonymous]

They seem to be reasonably priced if one looks around. I may be in the market for a scope soon so might check em out. Is there any place that lists them by item number. features, power, reticle, etc.?

No idea how to organize them accordingly but samplelist sometimes has them for a good price. They all are 30mm tubes with the same ridiculous amount of adjustment for a 30mm. Somewhere in the 28 mil range. My only issue with them is that they don't use any Christmas tree reticles. Just my personal preference, I like what I like.
Other than sample list, I would just google around, and check out online reviews and YouTube, and the spec sheet for the scope.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

but if Leupold sells 100 times more scopes than Nightforce does in a year, then we should expect to hear about a LOT more issues with Leupold scopes.

Great point - also important to remember, Leupold offers a lot of sub $500 budget scopes, where these other companies like NF and S&B do not. So when somebody says my leupold doesn't track or didnt hold zero, more often than not it was one of those cheaper scopes. Including cheaper scopes I bet they sale 1000 times more than S&B and Nightforce...

 

[fiftybmg]

Leupold has lifetime transferable warranty.

If I buy a used Leupold from anyone, no matter how old it is, and it's faulty or develops a fault, Leupold will repair it under warranty.

What other scope manufacturer offers that for every scope in it's product lineup ?