I bought my two in 1999 and 2001. In 1999 I bought an SN-3 with a few options. I happened to live 6 miles from them. I heard about how good they were from a friend at the range so I just drove there one day and entered unannounced. I told someone I wanted to order a scope and wanted to talk to someone about it.
John Williams himself came out and we talked for 2 hours. He showed me around the facility. It was pretty impressive as I would have never thought a small shop like this could survive against Leupold and the other couple of mainstays back then.
When we talked about durability, he took me over to a bench with a few optics on it. He picked one up and said "this is what you want to buy". He immediately proceeded to smash it on the bench, bell first. I couldn't believe it! Scared the crap out of me because I didn't expect it. When I looked through it, I couldn't believe it wasn't toast.
Needless to say I was hooked. I still have both and they continue to work well.
BR,