Leupold...Quality or Overpriced Trash???

[Captainkgun]

I want to get everyone's opinion on this one.
Generally shooters/hunters find a scope brand they stick with and they maintain a loyalty to that manufacturer. Leupold being a big one.
Now, when I bought my first scope I went with Leupold based on what I was told.
Everyone said Leupold...Leupold....Leupold.
So I coughed up the extra dough to buy a Leupold, with "Lifetime warrenty".

So here I am with 4 of their products.
The 1st one has went back to factory twice.
The 2nd one just quit working.
The 3rd has been used twice and the last is still new in the box and I'm debating dumping it.
Now I know gun owners and they don't expect to get junk when they fork out the cash and the more you spend.... you better not have any problems with it.
So I want to know what success others have had with Leupold.
And I'm not looking for advice from a hunter who shoots 5 rounds to sight in his gun each fall and maybe shoots a deer. I'm looking for opinions from people who really put their guns/optics through a lot of shooting. I do and right now I'm not real happy with Leupold. Let's hear it!

[Warners Surplus]

What model's are you useing?

Personal I've about run the gamot on scopes.
I started out with Leupold MK4 and then a friend talked me into a Bushnell 4200 series, Well I shot the retical out of that one.
So I went back to leupold, Then on my next rifle another friend talked me into a Burris Black Diamond, That one I kinda liked but it wasn't clear enough for me and they didn't make one the size I was looking for 6.5x20x50 sooo back to leupold I went. Then for my next rifle, the internet talked me into Night Force and quite frankly I can't see a reason for the extra $$$ over Leupold so back to Leupold I went and anyone would have a REAL HARD time now getting me to change.

I am currently running.
A Leupold MK4 LRT 6.5x20x50 on a custom 26"BBL 308
A Leupold MK4 LRT 6.5x20x50 on a stock LE Savage 24"BBL 308
A Leupold MK4 SRT 2.8x8x32 on a HB custom 20"BBL AR15
A Leupold CQ/T on a custom AR10
A Leupold MK4 LRT 8x25x50 on a Armalite AR10T with 20" Lother/Walther BBL
A Leupold Competition 45x45 on a custom 30"bbl 308

None of the above are safe queen's On average I shoot 1500rnds. a month.

Everything else either sits,was sold or in the case of the Bushnell Scrapped.

Rich W.

[Captainkgun]

I read your support of Leupold in another post. I will get the models I have on my guns, but their not MKIV's. The problems I've had... I did note expect based on what I was told. I'm probably going to turn over my optics to different manufacturers based on end use and take it from there. Keep the opinions coming!

[Warners Surplus]

Ok, If for nothing else than my own curiosity. Please let us know what models and if they were bought at a gunshop or?

Rich W.

[Tomcat088]

My dad has lots of Leupolds on his rifles, most of them being Mark III's or Mark IV's, and we've never had one of them break or not hold zero. I shoot alot of his rifles more than he does, and I put thousands of rounds through them through the year. I really like them and have never had any problems with them. My favorite caliber to shoot is .300 winmag if that tells you anything about the kind of punishment that I put the scopes through. If you ended up with a Mark II or Mark I, I can definately see how you could be having some problems with them, they're on the lower end. Anyway, sorry that you've had bad experiences with them.

[TonyF]

I can't begin to count the number of leupold scopes I've owned over the years and never once had a problem. And I've owned everything from VX-II's through MK4's.

Though most of these were on sporting rifles I run these as hard as the optics on my defensive weapons.

[PA Rifleman]

Without knowing which specific models, it's hard to say. Can you provide more details?

Has Leupold customer service given you any trouble? From your post, it sounds like you sent the first scope back (twice), but not any of the others. And what does "The second one just quit working" mean? How does a scope just quit working? Does it fail to hold zero? Broken lens? Fogged?

It also sounds like the third scope is still serviceable, but was removed from service.

I have a 49208 on a Remington 700P, and I haven't had any problems whatsoever.

Also, do any of your scopes fall within the bailiwick of the Leupold scope forgeries? (details)

[Pukindog]

Only scopes I will spend money on or Leupolds. I have run full circle on scope manufacturers. The German scopes in my opinion were the worst value for money spent. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. Sent two Leupolds back for service ( not repairs) and had them back in a very short time. I use nothing else but the VXIII's. Best bang for the buck.
Jeff

[Captainkgun]

I will get the models as soon as I can, but I think two of them are MKIII's and the other is red dot and the last is a CQB. An they were all purchased new. But that shouldn't matter. Either they make good scopes or they don't. No one ever told me to stay away from certain models b/c they were WM junk. Personnally, if I have to spend the money for a MK4 series then that opens up a lot of other manufactures to consider.
Lastly, you must be careful about statments relating to large caliber firearms being hard on optics. It's acutully semi-auto weapons of any caliber which are the hardest. The cycling of the bolt initates at 2 stage shock to any optics mounted on them. Bolt actions, large caliber or not only provide forces in one direction. Again it comes down to volume. In the 6 out door shooting months in eastern PA I will go through 4-5k rnds in ammo and about half that in the winter.
I not going to be pulling my scope off one of my rifles mid summer and wait 4 weeks to get it back. So what else is working good? Swarovski? Nikon? Swift?
Burris? Zeiss? I'll leave Bushnell out, b/c I'm already familiar with them. Others?

[K31]

I currently have 5 Leupold scopes VXII, VXIII and MK4's and I have never had a problem with any of them. They are the only scopes that I will spend money on.