And ain't Chinese. mtmuley
Price point = good scopes
- Thread starter DamascusSteel
- Start date
SFC B
Well-known member
Neither are the Vipers......PI
Manufacture? mtmuley
seeth07
Well-known member
Vortex, made right here in Wisconsin. Well assembled. Most of their pieces aren't "made" here but neither are most.
They aren't assembled there either. mtmuley
seeth07
Well-known member
Sure they are lol they just built a brand new manufacturing facility here in Barneveld
Okey dokey. mtmuley
SFC B
Well-known member
PI= Philippines.....the Viper line.
I knew that. Google. And I made the mistake of buying a Viper spotter. Just struck me funny you railed on an auto merger but buy Aisian optics. mtmuley
seeth07
Well-known member
Idk what lines have moved to the US with the new facility. I know that all of them used to be made in either Japan, Philippines or China. Then in 2002 the company went through a large transition and began focusing on quality over pure profit. It took quite a few years but their razor hd line of glass along with the introduction of the lifetime warranty drastically changed the company. Last year they finished building a massive manufacturing and testing plant that my company helped build. Its a beautiful place now and added a good amount of jobs to our community here. I don't personally know which optics are now being produced here but I know the plant is up and running.
SFC B
Well-known member
Big difference between an American (WI, Veteran owned) company having products assembled elsewhere (you know, like Chevy and Dodge trucks and a load of other vehicles from ALL of the "big" 3) and foreign owned companies. FCA (soon to be Stellantis) wasn't a "merger" for MOPAR, it was bought. The merger is between Fiat and the Peugeot group, with the PSA CEO serving as the CEO and being headquartered in Amsterdam.
BTW, "At this time, there are no American manufacturers that can supply enough high quality lenses to support our Golden Ring Optics production. Some of these sources are located domestically, some are European, and some are Asian. " from the Leupold website https://www.leupold.com/leupold-core/core-knowledge/faqs I think you will find quite a bit of foreign made products under their umbrella..........
Hmm.... You Google too. Buy more Vortex. Or an import truck. It's ok cause some if it is assembled here. mtmuley
Sent you a pm
SFC B
Well-known member
Soooo, Leupold using foreign glass and selling foreign made products is different? Either way you are buying from an American company with some of their products being either foreign made or of foreign parts. It is personal taste....there is no "high road" between the two.
Leupold makes a very large portion of the content that goes into the scopes they make. Randy has a video where he tours the factory. The binoculars, spotters and rangefinders are import.
EastTNHunter
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2018
- Messages
- 1,782
Define “cheap..”
I’ve had cheap (sub-$150) BSA and Bushnell scopes and every one crapped out on me. I’ve had a few that were a step up (Nikon Buckmasters and Prostaff) that have held up, but the optics are/were poor (poor light transmission and edge to edge clarity. Looked like you were looking through a foggy bubble). I really like my Luepold VX2s for the money, and wish they were still made, but I’m a little iffy on the VX-freedom line for a primary rifle, and have gone to the VX3Is. I really love the glass on my Zeiss Conquest MC 3-9x40, but they are no longer made and their effective replacements cost close to double what I paid for mine.
I agree that the $250-500 range has great quality that can be relied upon
I’ve had cheap (sub-$150) BSA and Bushnell scopes and every one crapped out on me. I’ve had a few that were a step up (Nikon Buckmasters and Prostaff) that have held up, but the optics are/were poor (poor light transmission and edge to edge clarity. Looked like you were looking through a foggy bubble). I really like my Luepold VX2s for the money, and wish they were still made, but I’m a little iffy on the VX-freedom line for a primary rifle, and have gone to the VX3Is. I really love the glass on my Zeiss Conquest MC 3-9x40, but they are no longer made and their effective replacements cost close to double what I paid for mine.
I agree that the $250-500 range has great quality that can be relied upon
DamascusSteel
Active member
Can you elaborate on why you are iffy on the VX-Freedom? They seem to be a good scope for a young hunter or a new hunter.
EastTNHunter
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2018
- Messages
- 1,782
I’m iffy on it for my primary rifle. I was about to buy one at one point, but had just been disappointed by a Vortex Crossfire II and was looking at scopes very critically before spending my money again. I just felt like the VX freedom had cheaper components and overall optical clarity than I would get if I just spent a little more money on the VX2 that was still available at the time, or for just a few bucks more than that I could buy a VX3i on sale.
I might consider a VX freedom for a youth gun (don’t overspend because they’ll likely grow out of it and can’t really tell the difference yet between a cheap scope and a good scope; my kids have VX2s in their rifles), a ML (only have a two week season in TN), or a backup (not likely to need it unless something bad happens).
I’m not saying that it’s bad, just that it seems you can do a lot better for just a little more money. And for me, I’d rather spend the little extra money. I’ve never spent more than $350 on a scope, but I will someday when I don’t have other pressing matters to take care of for a growing family.
DamascusSteel
Active member
The stores close to me do not have a wide variety of scopes to look through, the leupolds were a lot better than the cheaper vortex, but it seemed like once you hit the Diamondback vortex the 2 brands were pretty similar and comparable all around and as far the scopes at the store the Vortex were clearer but that could have been so many people picking these scopes up and messing with them. (they were all display scopes)
AlpineAssassin907
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2022
- Messages
- 139
SWFA 6x42 is very reliable.
