I’ve seen scope failures from every scope maker. Zeiss, Swarovski, Leupold, Trijicon, Huskama, Nikon… Everyone.
A Rifle Scope is a precision instrument mounted on something that recoils and gets knocked around. Every scope, no matter what, will eventually fail.
That’s just a fact. Death and Taxes.
So just because someone on the internet bitches and moans about their brand x scope failing, doesn’t mean you should turn up your nose at a brand x scope. These things happen. What you don’t know though, is if the scope was abused, improperly mounted, or an inappropriate selection for the rifle.
Recoil, Temperature, Age, Impact… all of these things will destroy a scope. It’s just a matter of time. No one makes the perfect scope.
The mark of a good scope maker is how they back up their scopes. Also, the shope you got it from, how helpful are they when you bring it in.
At where I work, we do everything. Customer doesn’t have to worry about it.
Nikon, Bushnell, Swarovski, Trijicon, Burris, Vortex… These guys are the best in dealing with repairs, and repair or replace without question. So if you are Leary on optics, these guys are the best bets.
I noticed you diden’t mention Leupold under your customer service choices, have there been issues with them?
They do have a Life Time Warranty, but they are not as easy to work with as the others. In fact, they had sent dealers a letter a couple years ago saying that they didn’t want to deal with Dealers, but to have our Customers contact them directly and ship to them. This is a PITA for some of our customers… and it’s Leupold basically telling us that they want us to render lesser service to our customers. Well, fuck them. And fuck their chinese made Riflemen scopes. We don’t want to be on the same low rung as Walmart. We take care of our customers.
I wonder what percentage of bad scope problems are actually due to improper mounting?
I’m pretty much a Vortex fan-boy. I have their PST and Diamondback scopes and are just nuts about them. I want to save up the money and build a rifle under a Razor at some point. But anyway yes, I base at least 60 – 70% of my purchasing decisions on whether or not the company will back their product with stellar CS or not.
Zeiss also has a lifetime transferable warranty. Not sure how they are about dealing with dealers, but the Conquest I had a problem with they took care of without any sort of hassle.