Re: My Leupold experience.
I guess I've never had a higher end Leupold and maybe that's what my problem has been, but I've tried their hunting scopes and haven't had good luck. Now, their customer service has always been great, but that still doesn't fix their bad products. Out of 5 Leupold scopes I've had, 3 of them have had to go in for repair, and 2 of those have had to go in for repair twice. The other two that I had that didn't have to go in for repair I never even mounted. They are the only scope that I've ever had fail on me and I've used some pretty questionable optics. That just really turned me off from them. Not to mention I felt like the glass was on where near the quality of what other brands like Burris and Vortex were putting out, and yet the Leupolds were costing more.
The first one I had was just a cheap VX-I. The glass on this one was worse than a Simmons I've got. Not much, and in the daylight I couldn't see a difference but in low light there was a difference and the Simmons was better. However, the glass was good enough for what I wanted to use. Upon going to sight it in I found the friction adjustments sucked. They weren't accurate at all or anywhere near accurate. I sighted it in before hunting season and in the middle of hunting season when I went to shoot the gun, I noticed the inside looked like it was shaking every time I shot it. Not the crosshairs, but the actual picture. I took if off and sent it in for repair. I got it back over a month later, and mounted it back on the rifle and sighted it in. I then put the gun up and didn't bring it out again until hunting season the next year. When I got it out and went to shoot it to make sure it was still sighted in, to my surprise it wasn't. Upon further inspection it was shooting all over the place. It would group 2 or 3 shots together, then the next group would be way and I mean way off, and it did this all day long. It seemed to move greatly every couple of shots. This time I took it off and replaced it with a Burris Fullfield II. The clarity difference was immediately noticeable and the Burris was much clearer with more vibrant colors. It also blew the Leupold away in low light, yet was $30 cheaper and had a free Garmin eTrex GPS with it.
So the Leupold went back for repair one more time. This time I got it back in about 3 weeks and it works fine, and has for a couple of years. However, I did knock it over on the carpet once and it was several inches off. I've done much more than this with other similar priced optics and they have never moved. Once I dialed it back in, it did work fine though.
The next Leupold I got was another VX-I. A friend had one on his muzzle loader and hunted with it for a year. The next year he shot it to make sure it was still sighted in and it was. I was with him and confirmed it hit dead center, but about 1.5" high which is how he likes his sighted in. A couple of days later we were helping another buddy sight in his muzzle loader and my buddy pulled his out to show us all how well his shot. To his surprise the first shot didn't hit the target. So he shot again, also not on the target. He moved in closer and finally got it on paper and tried to dial it back in, but it was just moving huge amounts with each shot. Just like mine had been doing only his was moving every shot. He got fed up with it and sold it to me really really cheap not wanting to deal with it. I wouldn't have bought it but for practically nothing I figured why not. I sent it in for repair and got it fixed. I ended up not using it and selling it as what I'd planned to put it on didn't pan out. This one did come back from their repair in just a couple of weeks so this one was much faster than the last.
Then my 3rd one I had was a Leupold Vari X IIc 3-9x40. I bought this one used at a good price and it had a big piece of dirt or something in it. This wasn't so much of a problem as I knew it was 14 years old from the serial number. I wasn't too upset so I sent it into Leupold and they fixed it. It took over a month once again to get this thing back. When I got it back I looked at it outside quickly and it looked fine. I then mounted it on a rifle and went to shooting. It shot fine. When I got home I looked through it and once again dirt was on the inside of the scope. I actually couldn't tell if it was dirt or cracks in the coating on the internal lens. It almost looked like a coating was cracked or scratched. I also am not sure if this happened while I shot the 50 rounds or so and it knocked something loose, or if it was like this when I got it back and I didn't notice it. So it went back to Leupold once again and this time they fixed it and got it back out to me the same day it got there. I was a little bothered by this as I feel like this should have been fully taken care of the first time I sent it in for this issue instead of them doing a half assed job and sending it back only for me to have to waste time sending it in again.
Then the other two I bought were another Vari X IIc I got an incredible deal on. A guy offered to buy it from me before I had a gun to put it on so I sold it.
The next one was a Leupold VX-II. I'd heard that the VX-II's were much better in the glass quality department from the VX-I's and since the VX-I's were kind of lacking I wanted to give the VX-II a shot and see how it was. I got it and honestly it wasn't really all that much better. The click adjustments felt better than the friction adjustments, but they still kind of sucked, and the glass was honestly just a tad bit behind the Burris FFII. This time the glass was close, but the FFII still got the edge imo and the Leupold this time cost quite a bit more than the FFII. I ended up disappointed and just sold this off without ever mounting it. So I can't say if it worked or held up as I never used it or the Vari X II mentioned above that I sold.
I've also ran into several other people at the range and through friends, that have had issues with Leupold's from the VX-I through the VX-3 line. I've only met one person that has a few Leupolds and hasn't had issues with them, yet I've met several that have had issues in addition to myself.
So those have been my experiences. If they can't make a decent $300 optic when many other companies do, I'm hesitant to spend upwards of $1000 on one of their products, where there are other companies that are putting out exceptional products for similar prices. Not to mention all of the issues I keep reading about online.
So yes, I'd like to support an American company, and yes I do like their warranty and service, but I'm not willing to buy a sub par product and a premium price just because they are made in America. I truly hope the Mark 4 line is a lot better than their hunting scopes, but I'm just too afraid to drop that kind of cash on one to see.