I have seen a lot of guys trash Leupold for their rifle scopes saying that they overcharge and their products are crap. I understand that they got complacent with their tactical line several years ago but have really come back in recent years to be a legit competitor with the top brands. I have the VX-6 2-12x42 and I think it is excellent quality. Is this dogma coming from their years of complacency leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths, or something else? What are your thoughts?
Rifle Scopes Leupold Dogma
- Thread starter alman1531
- Start date
I for one like Leupold but sometimes they just really do their best to piss me off. Take the new Mark 6 3-18x44. By most reviews a pretty good scope. Street price $1,900-$2,300 not too bad. Like Illumination to help see the reticle, that will be $4,000 Sir. I mean damm how can you justify $2,000 for illumination?
Not to mention that they Just raised their MK8 by 1000 for no apparent reason in 2014... I was very high on Leoupld until the 2014 changes. They do have some nice stuff, but 4100 for a MK 8 that is only offered in three reticles (and not even the TMR, their most popular) is just crazy. Good luck selling those...
So to get back to the OP question. Once you have decided to spend $4,000 plus, you might as well take a real hard look at S&B, Kahles, Hendsoldt ect. Or if you want to save a few bucks Nightforce, IOR, Premier, USO.....
YEP, what they said.
I have several Leupold optics going back to a Mk4 M1 with the mismatched reticle/turrets. I picked up one of the Mk8 3.5-25 scopes a while back when there was a good price on them. I was sad when Leupold had let themselves become irrelevant in the tactical community and it was great to see them starting to gain a foothold and develop new products such as the Mk6 that they pitched to the military.
My best friend's brother works for Leupold and in the past I offered some product feedback from "the field" with my personal observations of what could be better.
I WANT Leupold to remain a relevant company in this area of shooting, BUT as has been said: they shot themselves in the dick with this year's pricing. As much as I love them and appreciate the gains they've made lately, I am NOT going to pay their current prices.
They could have set themselves up for success by being a solid offering at a more appropriate price point, but there are WAY too many choices now for them to go back to the "we're Leupold, the only game in town" mentality that got them in trouble a decade ago.
I have several Leupold optics going back to a Mk4 M1 with the mismatched reticle/turrets. I picked up one of the Mk8 3.5-25 scopes a while back when there was a good price on them. I was sad when Leupold had let themselves become irrelevant in the tactical community and it was great to see them starting to gain a foothold and develop new products such as the Mk6 that they pitched to the military.
My best friend's brother works for Leupold and in the past I offered some product feedback from "the field" with my personal observations of what could be better.
I WANT Leupold to remain a relevant company in this area of shooting, BUT as has been said: they shot themselves in the dick with this year's pricing. As much as I love them and appreciate the gains they've made lately, I am NOT going to pay their current prices.
They could have set themselves up for success by being a solid offering at a more appropriate price point, but there are WAY too many choices now for them to go back to the "we're Leupold, the only game in town" mentality that got them in trouble a decade ago.
I like Leupold products, their new batch of front line customer service reps can use some work, but in the end they have always done me right. This hunting season, I literally dropped my BX-3 binos down the side of a mountain (musta hit every frickin rock on the way down), they still worked but the eye cup (aluminum) snapped off. Sent in for a quote, got a new pair the next week.
People can dog on them, is ok with me, keeps the prices low on the secondary market.
People can dog on them, is ok with me, keeps the prices low on the secondary market.
I'm with you. I don't think any of us were dogging them, quite the contrary. I think the general feeling was that we WANTED Leupold to continue to build on their recent successes and regain their place at the table. From my own perspective it's a disappointment in that I feel as though they've taken a step backwards in the marketplace with their 2014 pricing. If I, as a Leupold supporter, am unwilling to pay their new prices, then how many guys who are already ambiguous about Leupold will consider them as an option?
I still want a Mk6, and have been holding off until they roll out the H-59 version, but if I can't get it at a price that makes sense then someone else is getting my money.
The Mark 6 is in H-59 now; product #119213
Thanks for the heads up. I started the itch for one at the end of last year when I realized that I once again had more rifles on the way than I had scopes for. For a brief moment I had more scopes than rifles and was in good shape. Once I heard that they were going to offer the H-59 in 2014 I elected to hold off until it was an option.
I was also waiting on the H-59 so I could start the process of trying to get the H-58 in my new Mk8 upgraded to the H-59.
Now that the 59 is "officially" out, I'll have to start looking for the "deals" when/if they pop up.
OP,
If someone sneezes on the internet, scores of people claim to have the plague. I have neither the time nor resources to test a myriad of optics/optics, nor can I afford to "torture" what I do have. It's best to have your BS filter in full force and to use the opinions and observations of those that have actual insight as a guideline.
In short, there was a period where Leupold appeared to be skating by on their name when QC issues seemed to increase while price increased. No doubt some were also hurt by hearing the truth about where some of the scope parts come from thus, bursting their "made in 'merica" bubble. They do seem to be back in the game with their Mk6 and Mk8 offerings. As mentioned above, the street cred they've regained is theirs to lose.
with all the talk off the 2014 increase i sent them an email requesting an updated list this morning, still waiting on the email.
i am a big leupold fan. ive picked up a 6-20 er/t m5a2 and a mk6 off their mil program and love both scopes. with that being said, i was allways kind of wishy washy on selling my m5a2 and picking up the mk8 as its a phenominal scope. with the price new increase, theres no way, the mk8 is a great scope, but its tweeks are not worth the juice for me.
from what i understand at least the mk6 was not really impacted by the price increase so i am somewhat dissapointed in their decision. will i continue using their products, yes, will i continue to consider their flagship like i did last year. not a chance, i would of loved to support them and pick up a mk8, but the reality is that the mk8 just isnt 1500 dollars better than the mk6, hell to me no scope is 1500 dollars better than a mk6.
i am a big leupold fan. ive picked up a 6-20 er/t m5a2 and a mk6 off their mil program and love both scopes. with that being said, i was allways kind of wishy washy on selling my m5a2 and picking up the mk8 as its a phenominal scope. with the price new increase, theres no way, the mk8 is a great scope, but its tweeks are not worth the juice for me.
from what i understand at least the mk6 was not really impacted by the price increase so i am somewhat dissapointed in their decision. will i continue using their products, yes, will i continue to consider their flagship like i did last year. not a chance, i would of loved to support them and pick up a mk8, but the reality is that the mk8 just isnt 1500 dollars better than the mk6, hell to me no scope is 1500 dollars better than a mk6.
An older experience with Leupold, however let a real bad taste in my mouth. 10-12 years ago I got the bug for the Leupold Mark4 M1 16x scope. Scrimped and saved up the $1200.00 for a new in box M4M1. After maybe 75-100 rounds the groups opened up to an egg shaped 1-1/2 to 2". WOW?? Put an old 90.00 Tasco on it and the groups went back down to 1/2". Sent the new scope back to Leupold for service. They went through it and said it was fine and found nothing wrong with it. I sold it at a loss and unfortunately will not buy another. They are good scopes, but overpriced compared to current offerings on the market. Sorry if this upsets Leupold fans. Just sharing.
I think there was something of a philosophical shift somewhere in management this year. The Mark 6 and Mark 8 lines were clearly designed to compete with the best stuff offered by the best companies out there. While the reticle designs were not as varied or as good as S&B's and, I think unwisely, relied heavily on Horus adding to their cost, What I have seen of the optics is very positive. The CQBSS was the best optical platform in my 1-8x review and my experience shooting the Mark 6 3-18x was all good. It is certainly conceivable that these lines of scopes are as good as S&B though I would have to have them side by side for an extended period to judge that optically and functionally and that still wouldn't address durability though I have never felt Leupold to have a history of that problem. So say, hypothetically, that they are as good as S&B optically and I like their turrets better though their reticles not so much. If that is the case, than many models were priced aggressively initially, especially the Mark 6 3-18x which started at around $2k. With the change this year (and I think the $3k price on the 3-18x illuminated is part of this change and not simply a $1k fee for a light bulb), the Leupolds are priced very close to S&B, with the 3-18x costing, illuminated with a non-Horus reticle, basically what the 3-20x S&B costs and the Mark 8 running what some of the ultra-shorts run (there is no truly handy equivalent in the S&B catalog as the 5-25 is a very old design with less erector ratio and the 3-27x not intended for consumption by mere mortals.)
To me all of this just screams somebody in management saying "We make a scope that is as good as S&B, why don't we charge as much." Fair enough, it's a (not quite) free country, do what you want. However, this move took the Mark 6 3-18x, for example, from competing primarily with Vortex and USO at $2,500, to competing with S&B, Steiner, March, the BEAST, and Kahles, for the much smaller $3.2k market. I'm sure somebody in accounting ran the numbers to support that selling a lot less scopes for more was a good move here and maybe they are right. My opinion is that it's the best thing to ever happen to Vortex and USO as it leaves them in sole possession of what I consider a far more important price range. The trend that I have seen is better products making the $1k+ and $2k+ price points far more attractive relative to the $3k+ and $4k+ price points. Though I have always been an optics first guy, the proliferation of costly and attractive multicaliber systems and/or the rise in ammo component costs, coupled with better results being obtainable from less costly optics are not arguments for the putting the shooting budget into $4k scopes. I should also mention that this is a time of military budget cuts and there are getting to be a lot of dogs chasing that rabbit.
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