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parkerlarry1 · Joined: 25 Dec 2004 Posts: 3 Location: Lewiston, Ca

Squirrel hunter... Oak moss slightly damp and correctly applied makes paramont ' wipe ' tissue to keep your glass optical surfaces Brilliant. Keeping a scoped rifles Dependable 'zero' is of similar importance and is easily acheived by using boiled Linseed Oil / drys gummy/ on all scoped mounting surfaces and screws. A furthur note about keeping the 'zero', I took a shot at dusk this deer season with a savage 12 ga side by side at 35 yards/candleabra raked big buck/hiding its head in a small doug fir as I passed downhill on a deer trail hoping I wouldn't see it... Had binoculars. The slug passed 11 inches off the ground and less than 4 inches in front of its chest/morning after recounter doing the 'angles'. Loose stock screw (from butstock to receiver) from using the arm as a staff occationally during the tree squirrel season and poor attention to this 'play' as it developed was the cause...of a few of late misses at in range squirrels... MAKEYOURBATTLEFREEDOM Parker (bushnel/ebay 20$/sportview 3x9 223 M14 Ruger, 500 yards, consecutive hits on foot ball sized rock on junked green coleman 2 burner stove, prone over backpack, win 680, 55 gr FMJBT, 2800 FPS, reticule thick substention 5 inches, CHECK)

gundog98k · Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 3 Location: Cesspool of suburbia

Burris is by far the best American scope company. Someone back up this thread said that Leupold pays out on their warraties, and that IS true. They fixed one of mine. Made it like new. And they make a good scope. But I've NEVER had to send in any of my Burris scopes for repair. EVER. I hunt on foot, alone and I still hunt all day. I am very tough on my gear. I have 3 Burris scopes, two are 2.5x X 28mm fixed scopes and the other is a 4x X 32mm compact with the "posi-lock" handgun scope. They all work great, every year. The 4x just got moved to a new home, from my .41 mag to my new .480 ruger. Will see next year how it holds up to the slightly stronger recoil. :D

shatodavis · Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 137

gundog98k wrote: Burris is by far the best American scope company. Someone back up this thread said that Leupold pays out on their warraties, and that IS true. They fixed one of mine. Made it like new. And they make a good scope. But I've NEVER had to send in any of my Burris scopes for repair. EVER. I hunt on foot, alone and I still hunt all day. I am very tough on my gear. I have 3 Burris scopes, two are 2.5x X 28mm fixed scopes and the other is a 4x X 32mm compact with the "posi-lock" handgun scope. They all work great, every year. The 4x just got moved to a new home, from my .41 mag to my new .480 ruger. Will see next year how it holds up to the slightly stronger recoil. :D
I've owned Burris myself. It was a decent enough scope, until I was sighting in and turn the elevation a click or two to raise my point of impact and the top flew off. the elevation adjustment shot out the top of the scope. and the day before season no less. I've never had to have a leo repaired.

rost495 · Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 117

never had a leupold repaired then you haven't had enough or for a long enough time. It happens to all. The long term track record is what to look at.

pakerlarry1

You must have the luckiest Mini 14 every built to hit like that at 500 yards. Especially with ball bullets. I shoot 8000 appx 223 rounds a year in semis and have never had one that would reliably hit a football sized object at that range with bulk FMJ projectiles. Certainly not the POS that a mini 14 is. Consider yourself lucky and hang on to it. THat should not be possible at all

Jeff

shatodavis · Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 137

rost495 wrote: never had a leupold repaired then you haven't had enough or for a long enough time. It happens to all. The long term track record is what to look at.

pakerlarry1

You must have the luckiest Mini 14 every built to hit like that at 500 yards. Especially with ball bullets. I shoot 8000 appx 223 rounds a year in semis and have never had one that would reliably hit a football sized object at that range with bulk FMJ projectiles. Certainly not the POS that a mini 14 is. Consider yourself lucky and hang on to it. THat should not be possible at all

Jeff

YOU'RE A RAVING IDIOT

rost495 · Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 117

Maybe I'm even better than that......................or maybe just a bit more experience........ or-- got a better idea?

shatodavis · Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 137

rost495 wrote: Maybe I'm even better than that......................or maybe just a bit more experience........ or-- got a better idea?

Sorry I wasn't having a good day when I wrote that. I just don't agree with your statements about leupolds. they are the most common scopes on the benchrest circuit. Those guys wouldn't use them if they weren't reliable. Now I know someone is going to say that they send them off for upgrades. etc. but that was generally to bump magnification. with the new 45x thats not necessary. Sure scopes go bad sometimes, with the number of rounds shot under some of these scopes its going to happen. anyway, you are entitled to believe what you want. but, to say that leupold has a track record of producing inferior products, or stating it as fact that all leupolds are going to break is just erroneous. I know of a 1.5 x 5 that is 24 years old, that has spent its whole life on a 338 win mag, been drug all over gods creation, up and down mountains, slid down a rock slide, had countless rounds shot with it and it holds POI and tracks the square perfectly. I can't imagine a scope having a harder life than this one or holding up any better.

rost495 · Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 117

Shato

Happy New Year!. Just got back in.

I've had those bad days too. Actually I am a competitor and know quite a few BR shooters. Ask the top ones and most have had their Leupolds worked on for tracking. In fact some buy it and send it in direct before testing. Not just for the power bumps. But in fairness their accuracy demands are more than most need.

In fairness Leupold has a super track record and is a good scope and very common. But saying they don't break is not correct. Thats kinda what irks me. The best break at times.

As to life of scopes, I've seen similar track records with other brands too. Even ones so dim you couldn't see much after sunset, much less 30 minutes later. Just depends on what you get, much like cars off the lot.

Jeff

shatodavis · Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 137

rost495 wrote: Shato

Happy New Year!. Just got back in.

I've had those bad days too. Actually I am a competitor and know quite a few BR shooters. Ask the top ones and most have had their Leupolds worked on for tracking. In fact some buy it and send it in direct before testing. Not just for the power bumps. But in fairness their accuracy demands are more than most need.

In fairness Leupold has a super track record and is a good scope and very common. But saying they don't break is not correct. Thats kinda what irks me. The best break at times.

As to life of scopes, I've seen similar track records with other brands too. Even ones so dim you couldn't see much after sunset, much less 30 minutes later. Just depends on what you get, much like cars off the lot.

Jeff

Good points all! For a target scope I shoot a Weaver T36, but its for cost reasons more than anything. You're right all scopes can and will break, even Swarovski, though I've never been able to afford one. I hope you're not implying that leo's are dim. Because in my experience they are not. Anyway I think i've beat this dead horse enough.

rost495 · Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 117

on the dead horse subject. A Leupold LPS is about as bright as a Zeiss is, even the Zeiss Conquest, right at dusk. Most of the lower line of Leupolds are as bright or brighter than most of the other scopes in a comparable line.

With the high cost that lupys are getting to you might consider a conquest to compare one day. They are not that much more. During the day you will see no difference. Yet in dim light when animals are active the difference is noticeable.

Speaking those words I've never paid more than 700 bucks for any of my scopes. And thats somewhat the same area as LPS line.

Now if you want to talk dim, lets talk steel body Weavers, old Redfields and a bunch of the Asian lines.

Jeff

Bonedoc · Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 24

Had a guy at a gun shop tell me that I shouldn't mount my Leupold Rifleman on a 300 winmag. He said it would tear the scope up. He was suggesting that the Leupold Rifleman scope line was not built ruggedly enough to handle the 300 Winmag. Anyone have any problems with scopes failing on bigger calibers?

rost495 · Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 117

You should have no problem with that scope on a 300. I've seen it done many times. If something happens I suspect the mounting process before anything. If you dont degrease correctly and tighten correctly anything can come loose, and in the process hurt the scope.

In fact putting that rifleman on a bb gun or AR15 would probably tear it apart quicker since its not designed for those types of recoil.

bitmasher · Joined: 27 Feb 2002 Posts: 2652 Location: Colorado

rost495 wrote: In fact putting that rifleman on a bb gun or AR15 would probably tear it apart quicker since its not designed for those types of recoil.

Heh, heh, now that's funny...

Any way, its my understanding that the rifleman is basically a VX-I. It comes with the same "Leupold Full Lifetime Guarantee" so if they had cheaped it on the construction, I can't imagine they would still be offering the same warranty as the VX line.

I have had people tell me over and over that Tascos don't hold up on 300 calibers, although I have no first hand experience to verify that.

rost495 · Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 117

Bitmasher

Not knowing you personally, I still suspect you know what I meant. But just in case, the BB gun and the AR have a different recoil pulse that will eventually destroy any scope not designed for that impulse. Its why you see scopes for air rifles and they are not all that cheap too boot.

I thought I'd heard that the Rifleman scopes had a slighty different warranty but I have not looked into it.

I know a tasco won't hold up on a 44 mag pistol from a few trials. Its why I won't chance it on a larger rifle. On me 223s/243s they work fine. Though the clarity and low light vision sucks. You get what you pay for.

Jeff

shatodavis · Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 137

Bonedoc wrote: Had a guy at a gun shop tell me that I shouldn't mount my Leupold Rifleman on a 300 winmag. He said it would tear the scope up. He was suggesting that the Leupold Rifleman scope line was not built ruggedly enough to handle the 300 Winmag. Anyone have any problems with scopes failing on bigger calibers?

Yeah, I seen these at wal-mart a few months back and it worried me. Leupold has always been high quality. they weren't the cheapest but they were good. It worries me that they are getting into the cheaper end of the market....I certainly hope that quality doesn't go down. Also, I didn't like the fact that they discontinued the Vari-X III line. I know they say the VX-III line is as good or better, but I say if it ain't broke why fix it.