Leupold scope's

[sbuff]

I'm a Leupold and Nikon fan myself,but is it me or have they priced themselves out of the marketplace. There are so many good quality scope's now . I think the made on the USA is keeping the alive , but there is some dam good Japanese optics.out there .

[mowin]

Nikon stopped making scopes a couple years ago. Probably because the Japanese stuff took a large chunk out of their profit margin. 

[sbuff]

I know that ,but the monarchs and buck master scope I I have are both quality optics . Guess I should have clarified Leupold scope's pricing themselves out of the market with so many top choices 

[Wolc123]

I’ve never owned a Leupold with that name on it, because they were always way too pricy for me, but I did buy a Redfield Revolution scope, that was made in the USA by them during the brief period that they owned that brand.  It’s not a bad scope and it gathers light as good or better than a couple other “original” Redfields that I bought new.  I assume that Leupold would cover any work it needed, if it ever broke, but I have no reason to expect that it would.  
 

I’ve always preferred made in USA scopes, starting with my first, a 1979ish Weaver fixed 1.5x.  That one still works good, as do all the other USA made scopes that I’ve owned since then.  
 

The only scopes that ever failed on me was a Bushnell banner, that came with my Marlin 512 when I bought it used, and another one of those that I bought new for my  Remington 510 bolt action .22.

  Those two failures might be enough to prevent any more purchases of foreign scopes by me, but I’ve had good luck with a couple of Simmons.  The “. .22 Magnum” model, on my Ruger 10/22, has been unbelievably durable thru lots of tough use.  

I think I’d go with a Vortex, if I ever needed another new scope, based on reviews of others here.  It doesn’t look like there are any remaining options for a reasonably priced, new, made in USA scope, since Leupold dumped Redfield, back in 2021. 

 

 

[will12785]

I will happily pay the extra money for US made products. You can make yourself feel better before buying the Leopold by pricing out nightforce and Trijicon. 

[Bucksnbows]

All but one of my scopes are Leupold. Far too many hunters spend too much money on the gun and not nearly enough on the glass. It should be the opposite. Just my opinion. 

[Wolc123]

1 minute ago, Bucksnbows said:

All but one of my scopes are Leupold. Far too many hunters spend too much money on the gun and not nearly enough on the glass. It should be the opposite. Just my opinion. 

That seems to be the opinion of most of the die-hard Leupold guys.  Back in the day, there were a couple other good American brands (Redfield and Weaver) that always served me well, but didn’t cost an arm and a leg. 

[Dinsdale]

1 hour ago, mowin said:

Nikon stopped making scopes a couple years ago. Probably because the Japanese stuff took a large chunk out of their profit margin. 

Nikon was made in China,Thailand,Philippines, and Japan.  the best stuff came out of Japan and the Philippines using lenses made in Japan.

The close out of the rifle scope division was due to it being a small part of their portfolio with small profit margins so they could distance themselves away from hunting due to its potential negative impact by the rest of its customer base on its core divisions. 

FWIW, there are only a few places that make world class lenses for optics use; Japanese manufacturing is one of the top places that do such work. All of the top camera lenses are made in Japan….Canon,Nikon. They build lesser price point product in other places, but often supplying the actual glass from Japanese production.

[sbuff]

I don't think you can compare the trijicon and Leupold unless it's a  vari x 5 , certainly not the freedom or vx3 line with the glass they have 

Edited July 27 by sbuff

[IM Hooked]

11 minutes ago, Wolc123 said:

That seems to be the opinion of most of the die-hard Leupold guys.  Back in the day, there were a couple other good American brands (Redfield and Weaver) that always served me well, but didn’t cost an arm and a leg. 

Leupold scopes don’t cost a arm and a leg.

[sbuff]

If you compare them to vortex they do , and vortex customer service is superior . To me there are two many other choices unless you want a made in USA Leupold.

 

[grampy]

I have mostly Leupold and Zeiss glass. But have mounted a couple Vortex scopes for young hunters. Pretty impressed with the Votex for the money. 

I also agree the the money paid for quality glass is well worth it. Even on a budget rifle.

[PraiseDiana]

Nikon Prostaff was great bang for the buck, so to speak. Sad they are discontinued. Last scope I got was a Leupold "VX-Freedom" which seems to be similar quality.

[SportsmanNH]

Nikon scopes were basically pushed out of the hunting scope market by the European Union . Nikon wanted to expand their camera and other optics into Europe but were being cold shouldered from achieving that. Mostly by Germany with politics behind the scenes from Zeiss is what I heard from a couple distributors around here. There also was politics being played from inside the company itself. At one point the highest profit margin for Nikon was rifle scopes but it was declining once all the Chinese Junk started filtering into the USA. 

https://www.outdoorlife.com/story/gear/nikon-will-no-longer-make-riflescopes/#:~:text=Outdoor Life talked with nearly,was increasingly uncomfortable promoting a

[Buckmaster7600]

I’ve mentioned this on here before but this is why I’m a Leupold customer for life.

 

my grand father gave me a pump 760 Remington, his deer rifle. It had an an old I’m assuming mix 70’s vx2 Leupold on it. It started to get some floaters between the lenses, still held zero and shot fine but annoying. I sent the scope into Leupold with a letter stating if it couldn’t be fixed I want the scope back because it belongs on my grandpas gun. A few weeks later I get a box with the old scope and a hand written letter stating that they fixed the scope but it wouldn’t pass their pressure test so they also included a new scope as well. 
 

with customer service like that they made me a life long customer. They’ll have to screw me over pretty bad to make me abandon them. I own better than 25-30 Leupold,  a few trijicons and a Schmitt and Bender, I’ll pay for quality.