The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Optics Retro fitting reticle on Leupold 1.5 - 5XGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
| Retro fitting reticle on Leupold 1.5 - 5X | Login/Join |
| One of Us |
I have a Vari-X 3 Leupold 1.5-5 scope with the standard duplex reticle. I would like to use i on my DG rifle, but would prefer the German #4 style reticle - like the one my S&B 2- 10 has. Is this something that Leupold might do for me? | ||
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One of Us |
I don't know whether they would want to but, if nothing else, it should be easy to get at as most of the guts in an image-movement scope come out with the erector tube. | |||
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One of Us |
Yes they absolutely will do it. That's just one of the great services Leupold offers. Roger ___________________________ I'm a trophy hunter - until something better comes along. *we band of 45-70ers* | |||
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| One of Us |
Checked with leupold... here's the message that they sent me...
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| one of us |
That message sounds ominous. Leupold has been drifting further and further into mass marketing and putting much more of their working capital into marketing and advertising than into research, development, and product service. Some shit-eating bean-counter has determined that the net return-on-investment of the custom shop is lower than investing in copy writers for ad slicks, so they are likely closing that service down to maximize short term corporate profits. Don't be surprised if their famous lifetime warranty quietly goes away to be replaced by some kind of Madison Avenue promise of "ever better products and services". | |||
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One of Us |
When I talk to them they said it would reopen around the first of the year. That was in early December. I guess that we will have to wait and see. I hope Stonecreek is wrong??? 1 shot 1 thrill | |||
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| One of Us |
Yikes! I hope they do reopen their custom shop. It would be a sad day indeed if they didn't. But unfortunately many good companies have backed away from services they once provided. I still have a coupon for a custom turret for one of my scopes I haven't used yet. Roger ___________________________ I'm a trophy hunter - until something better comes along. *we band of 45-70ers* | |||
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| One of Us |
Just as government bureaucracies lurch between building and slashing, the manufacturing world swings from offering more and better products to cutting costs and inventories. If Stonecreek is right, it might be heading for the latter about now. However, if my suspicions about the fragility of erector tubes and springs are right, they might abandon the lifetime warranty at their peril. I imagine scope makers have large stocks of dead parts in secret storage and live in fear of the market talking about crap products instead of wonderful warranties. | |||
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| one of us |
I would bet dollars to donuts they are doing that to suit their customers demands, like they have done for many many years, Yes they have moved to the scopes that are in demand by todays shooters and hunters who think every rifle should have a 1.5 x 40 to cover all the bases!!  Maybe the 3X and the 2.5X Leupold Alaskan will return, at least they are still a special order scope today, but the 4X is available and its the best BG hunting scope ever, I bought a 4X compact for my 250 Savage and am loving it...   Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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| One of Us |
If you're talking to Leupold, Ray, suggest they bring out a line based on that special 2.5x they made for you ... or make the Alaskan with the original reticle-movement. Then, if they bought the licensing to make Burris's Signature rings and inserts, they could offer a package with real integrity and big-game hunters could return to some kind of scope certainty. | |||
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| One of Us |
Ray, I have a Leupold M8-4X. nice scope! And I called to confirm custom shop status... they are NOT abandoning the shop - just 're-organizing'. | |||
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one of us |
Of course, that is almost verbatim of what Thompson Center told us about their custom shop a while back.  Bobby Μολὼν λαβέ The most important thing in life is not what we do but how and why we do it. - Nana Mouskouri | |||
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| One of Us |
Last I'd heard that had gone from around $50 to $200 for a reticle change.... | |||
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| One of Us |
You'd really need to love the scope to pay $200, zrp, when a basic Leupold might be bought for little more and mounted today. The dearer models do have special erector springs but if you're aware of why that can be important, you'd be chasing an old reticle-movement scope on the Internet. | |||
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One of Us |
The reticle change fee is about right, I called and was surprised it went from I think $75 to $200. One-offs in a mfg process are problematic. Leupold also appears to be rationalizing its product line. The first rule of any company is to be profitable. I always laugh at all the "geniuses" who speculate about what companies are doing and why with no actual knowledge of what is going on in a company. Mike Legistine actu quod scripsi? Never under estimate the internet community's ability to reply to your post with their personal rant about their tangentially related, single occurrence issue.  What I have learned on AR, since 2001: 1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken. 2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps. 3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges. 4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down. 5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine. 6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle. 7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions. 8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA. 9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not. 10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact. 11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores. 12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence. 13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances. | |||
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| One of Us |
Yes, and without cutting up scopes to see how they work, we can only trust or not trust them. By the time any particular model develops a reputation the maker supersedes it with something else that may or may not be better or even as good. All I know is that until they go back to erector sets lodged firmly in the outer tube, there has to be two or three ounces of crap lurching around whenever a heavy calibre is touched off - unless perhaps a third 'screw' something like the Burris Posi-Lock is employed. | |||
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| One of Us |
I own a number of Leupold scopes and I have never had a failure. My 1.5-5X has been good for me. I plan on putting it on thE .404J that is being built for me. No need to buy a new scope when I have one that I like already. | |||
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| One of Us |
I guess it depends how much you intend to shoot that .404, Alec. Ray Atkinson (see above) is one of our long-experienced members. He thinks the real trouble starts with the 458 Lott, and prefers small fixed-power Leupolds on the larger calibres. He has found some of their variables start to rattle within five packets of ammo on the .458-plus calibres, but I would not feel confident just because mine was one step down. Leupold finally got so sick of him sending back scopes for repair they made him a special 2.5x that was still going after about 1500 shots on really big rifles. Ray said Leupold claimed it would not fail because the reticle was under the turrets. Though a first-focal-plane, image-movement scope* would fit that bill, putting the reticle there could make the erector-tube even more front-heavy and prone to damage. Therefore, I can only infer that they made him something like the reticle-movement scopes they sold before 1964. * One that provides a constantly centred reticle, usually by articulating the whole erector set/power scroll and reticle, assembled in a tube hinged at the back and held against the turret screws by one or more springs. Pecar, however, achieved this by leaving the erector set fixed firmly in the outer tube and simply put a restrictive field stop around the old FFP reticle, the only bit that moved when knobs were turned. This made the reticle always look centred but worked by restricting the field of view - and presumably added some tunnel vision. It may be the latter is what Leupold did with Ray's scope. | |||
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| one of us |
I have no idea, they explained it to me in medical terms that no normal man can understand.. The scope I got is a 2.5X Leupold compact, to my knowledge off the shelf, but it has held up for a number of years now unless I sold it..Ihave several and don't even know which one it is or was now, dammit!!...Life just got to complicated I guess.. I like my Leupold Alaskan, 3Xs and 4Xs better than any varible scopes I have and the Alaskan is on my 375 right now, but it bounces around from gun to gun.. I just could not give up the centered reticle, too many years of shimming up bases back in the day, NOt sure what Im giving up, but for a hunting gun, its working well enough as it holds its zero and the rifles have given up nothing to those one inch or better that I require these days.. BTW I have a swift and a Bushnell Banner that have the non centered cross hairs. If anyone is interested in both Id give them the deal of the year! Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Optics Retro fitting reticle on Leupold 1.5 - 5X
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