Big Bore, "It's too bad GG great post got hijacked by ad hominem attacks against Loopie products. " your right there, GG's original post was a praise for Leupolds customer service, and i'm responsible for hijacking the thread there after and for that i appologise. never the less it has turned into an interesting thread. Now personaly i can't fault Leupolds customer service. I can fault the European Distributors service in the fact that they collect broken scopes untill they have enough to warrant shipping for repair,( same thing happens with remington rifles too, same importer..) this may have improved since and i maybe there is an authorised repair facility over here. If i had a problem with a Leupold these days i'd send it in direct, and i'd advise anyone else to do the same.
As i mentioned before, i never let an opertunity to bash Leupold go past because i was let down so often by the things, i do the same to opel car drivers, hakko scope owners and blaser R93 owners, its maybe unfair in some ways, but its meant with good humour. But my leupold bashing is founded on over 20 years experience in the firearms industry and seeing scopes fail. If we see a broken scope, its a cheap asian thing, a hakko a springfield. a Leupold or a night force.
Now i know not every one can afford S&B scopes, but from an ex leupold user( i used them for about 10 years)they do not compare to the S&B. I had at least 8 top of the range leupolds sat on as many rifles at one point, without exeption, they all had warranty repair problems, lenses splintered in side, wandering zero, stiff adjustment on the BDC, the black coating comeing away inside, fogged optics. and since then i have used S&B. I had them all repaired, all 8, i then sold them all at a loss. but i raised enough money to buy one 3-12x50 Classic S&B and when the PMII came out i bough one of them, I sold the 3-12x50 classic in order to buy as many tax free fuel coupons as i could as i was leaving the Military at the time( i managed to run 9 months on those fuel coupons, so you can see i'm not a guy who's got cash to spare) I then fitted picatinny rails to all the rifles i was using and i swapped that one PMII around between all of them, that scope has seen so much abuse and so much use under so many different conditions and it has never once failed, the optical clarity is way beyond any leupold ive seen, its better than the NXS. I rate the S&B above the Zeiss , Swarovski, Kahles, Doctor and anything else. I'm not however only basing my thoughts on that one scope, ive seen and used many, i have, to date only ever seen one problem with a S&B scope, that was on a 2.5-10x56, it was an old scope and the grease on the adjustment mechanism had lost its viscosity in cold weather and the adjustment would stick and jump. I sent it in, the scope was turned around in a week or 10 days, completely cleaned, the lenses where re coated, the adjustment re greased with modern lubricants and all free of charge.
anyways, i'm going on again..
I applaud Leupolds customer service in the matter with GG. I have also had excellent customer service from S&B, Leica, Steiner, Zeiss/Hensold and Premier Reticles. Swarovski have proven to be snobs.
regards Pete
