It appears the Chinese are producing rifle scopes that closely mimic the American-made Leupolds. See this article.

Unfortunately they've been doing this for quite sometime. I believe as far back as 2003 or 2004. There is an Ebay alert about it.

I guess that is why I buy my optics from Doug @ Cameraland and other reputable suppliers. In the end the costs of "too good to be true" end up exceeding the costs of just ponying up the $ up front.

I generally deal direct with Leupold because of what I do, but I buy my photo gear from Cameraland.

My first Leupold, bought along with my Mod. 70 .264 from Stoger Arms in 1965, lasted until 2002.

Although I didn't realize it at the time, the damaged scope cost me a great buck in south Texas. Shooting from the prone position at a standing deer 200 yards away, I emptied the gun once, reloaded and emptied it again. I didn't have a clue where any of the bullets were going.

A few weeks later, I checked the zero. At 25 yards, I couldn't hit a 2-ft. square piece of cardboard until I cut the distance somewhat. Consequently, it took a LOT of clicks to get to the bullseye. It was shooting way right and high. At 200 yards, I was probably missing the deer high by 6 feet.

But that wasn't the end of it. When I took the rifle out of the case just before my trip to Africa in 2003, I noticed the front bell was sort of crooked. I could then straighten it out, or move in any of several directions.

Long story short: those old Leupold tubes and bells were three separate pieces welded together. The weld on the front had gone south.

Because it was so old, it couldn't be repaired, so I upgraded to the scope d'jour. I also bought another at the same time to put on my Robar .300 WM. The newer ones have one-piece bodies with no welds.

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:
It appears the Chinese are producing rifle scopes that closely mimic the American-made Leupolds. See this article.

Coues deeer? Are they those little rabbit size critters with horns?

Outdoor Writer:
I had the same problem, my Uncle Mike's Quick Detachable sling swivel detached on my 338 while elk hunting North of Steamboat Springs. My rifle fell backwards on my scope. I cleaned out the bore, and fired a round into the end of a blowdown. Afte missing the two foot diameter target twice, I closely looked over my scope, a Luepold VX III - 3.5x10, and noticed a silver area on the top where the bell attached to the tube. Fortunately I had a similar rifle ans scope in 7 Rem Mag. Sent thye scope to Leupold with an explanation, and they reassembled my components in a new housing for $52.

leupolds customer service seems to be very good, at least with my one experience. i have set of their imported Wind River binos and the front pivot screw somehow disappeared. i sent leupold an email asking if i could purchase a new screw and they advised me to send in the binos for repair. i did so and had them back within a week and a half, fixed, new lens caps (i didnt include them when i sent the binos), new carrying bag (again, i didnt return the original when sent for repair), and cleaned so well i wondered if they were new! after a bit of looking, i could tell they were my binos, as it seems once blood is left to dry and embeds on the rubberized coating, it tends to stain the rubber. i was VERY happy with leupold and just 2 weeks ago purchased a new scope from them, partly based on my customer service experience.

Bear2,

That was a good deal at a very reasonable cost. Leupold also adjusted the cost on my new one to replace the busted one. I can't recall the exact amount, but it was less than $200 for one of the top-of-line 3.5-10X 50mm scopes in satin silver. That included new silver bases and rings, as well.

At some point in time, mine apparently suffered the same fate as yours, but...I generally treat my guns with loving care and couldn't recall ever dropping that rifle or banging the scope against anything.

That said, I did carry that rifle for many miles in a scabbard on horseback when I guided in Colorado in the 1970s and on many horseback hunts since then. So it's quite possible a horse I rode didn't treat the rifle as nice as I did, especially when wending our way through narrow openings between trees.

Plus, it might have taken awhile before the weld broke completely. I just wish it would have happened at a different time. I guess it was better than if I had been in Africa, though I did have a back-up rifle on that trip.

Incidentally, I missed that Texas buck on the 3rd day of spot-&-stalk hunting at that ranch near Langtry and after passing on several smaller bucks. As soon as it happened, I walked back to the ranch house, left a note for my host and headed for home.

My note basically said:

"Jim,

I just blew my chance at my trophy buck, and I'm quite frustrated by it. I'm heading to the house. Thanks for the chance to hunt here. Will call you next week.

Tony"

I once had to send a brand new Leupold scope back because it would not hold zero. Like to drove me nuts as I thought the problem was with the rifle which had just been rebedded in glass and a trigger job as well. Finally, I tied another scope I had on hand and the rifle was not at fault. I got the "bad" scope back in just about a week, no charge and it's worked just fine ever since. Great customer service.
Paul B.

Paul,

I've been fortunate. In more than 50 years, I've never had any other scope other than that one go south. But...that one was more than 30 yrs. old when it did. That's pretty good longevity.

For years, that was the only Leupold I owned. Prior to that, I had been using Weavers. Then when we lived in CO, my wife worked at the Redfield assembly plant in Durango for two years. So I stocked up on several 3-9x WA ones before she quit. Never had a problem with any of them, including one on a .338 A-Bolt.

More recently, I also owned a Zeiss and a Nikon. But they went with the rifles I sold to finance my hunt in Africa. Now I'm down to two rifles -- my .264 and .300 WM -- and both sport 3.5x10 Leupolds.

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:
Now I'm down to two rifles -- my .264 and .300 WM -- and both sport 3.5x10 Leupolds.

2 rifles

How do you sleep at night?

quote:

Originally posted by dinsdale:

2 rifles

How do you sleep at night?

dindale,

Much better at my advanced age now.

In the 70s and 80s, there were times when I owned upwards to 35-40 firearms, but almost without fail, I would grab my Mod. 70 .264 to hunt the big stuff. And I still do -- mostly. It's killed everything from at least a dozen teeny javelina to a 60" BC moose with many elk, several caribou and pronghorns, two bears and a bunch of African, NZ and exotic critters in between. I lost count of the deer a long time ago. Last month, I added a scimitar oryx and one of two TX whitetail from the two hunts to the tally. The other whitetail fell to the .300.

That said, I have also killed a mixed bag of big-game animals with other calibers. My first centerfire was a Marlin 336 Texan 30/30. It killed a couple javelina and at least three deer. Other game fell to a 7x57, .270Win, .338, .270 Wea. Mag, 7 MM mag, 30/06, .22 mag (javelina) and a custom .300 WM built on an M700 action. That last is the one I still own.

BTW, much as I hated to, I even sold my 20 ga. Citori and two other shotguns to finance the African trip. So now I have to borrow my son's shotgun if I need one.

This is the first buck the .264 dropped. It was the fall of 1965 in AZ's North Kaibab, a couple months after I bought the gun.



This bear, taken spot-&-stalk in BC in 2003, was the first critter shot after I replaced the scope. One 140-gr. through the lungs. I left for Africa a couple weeks later, and the .264 accounted for 10 of the 11 animals I shot there. I used the .300 on a zebra just for the heck of it.

Glad to hear the leupolds hold up well. The last 3 I have bought have been Leupolds and I hope to never have to replace them.

Those green boots bring back memories.

The only way I figure I could be deceived by a fake Leupold is by mail order. I've never seen a cheap Chinese scope yet that had any eye relief.

Ted,

I was wearing the rubber boots because there was melting snow on the ground and lots of mud that morning where we were camped at a higher elevation. Gore-tex wasn't even invented yet.

The snow, which had fallen two nights earlier, is the reason why I decided to hunt the lower canyons. Kaibab deer tend to move quickly to the lower elevations when the snows arrive.

This photo was taken later that day at camp after much of the snow had melted. That's my grandfather's smaller buck with mine in the back of my 1947 Willys jeep. Pop, standing in the background, was in his 70s at the time. He was my main hunting partner for about 20 years.

Those are some cool pics...thanks for posting.

Dinsdale

Great pictures. I think we all had a pair or two of green lace-ups what I remember most is that they never held up past about one season then they always started to crack and leak.

Thanks for the pics from your past. I for one would love to see more.