I bought my first Leupold back in '70s when I was a teenager, and it was a used (but mint) fixed 4x that I found at a gunshow at a very favorable price. I bought it replace a 3-9x Bushnell my 30-06 carried that fogged up on me during a blacktail deer hunt on Oregon's coast range. That same Leupold M8-4x is still on that same Remington 700 ADL 30-06 to this day. No problems after thirty years of use. I haven't touched it since the day I installed it!

Contrast that to a Schmidt & Bender fixed 4x I installed on a 338 a number of years ago. The eye relief of that S&B simply sucked compared to a Leupold 4x, it was no brighter optically, and the internal ajustment system went gunnybags within 20 rounds! And it cost a fortune compared to a Leupold 4x. I was NOT impressed..........

In the years since, I've likely owned around 150 Leupold scopes, and out of that number, I've had exactly 2 that gave any trouble whatsoever. This occured a few years ago, when a pair of new Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8Xs demonstrated some serious internal adjustment problems. To resolve the problem, I sent both scopes to Premier Reticles for a reticle change, and to repair the internal mechanism. When they came back, those scope were as precise and reliable as you could ever ask any scopes to be. I have them on a matched pair of 338s, and they work flawlessly.

Now, I'll take a failure rate of 2 out of 150 any day of the week. In the real world, those are good odds when it comes to scopes.

My good friend, world-famous custom riflemaker D'Arcy Echols, has told me many times that there simply isn't a fool-proof scope brand. He's had problems with EVERY premium scope make in terms in internal adjustments coming undone, focusing problems, etc, etc, etc, etc. One of my friends had Echols build a 300 Winchester, and the new German Zeiss 'C' series scope he provided for that rifle came undone within 40 rounds. It went back to Zeiss for repair and after a number of months, it came back A-OK.

For me, Leupold has been the top scope by far. I've used them on some extremely rugged hunts from B.C. to Mexico, and from Alaska to Tanzania. I have NEVER had a problem with fogging, and in terms of eye-relief they have simply buried just about everything else, plus they're compactly-built, rugged, and precise. Leupold's plant is a 40 minute drive from my house, and trust me on this, it's state-of-the-art, and it's staffed by real riflemen and hunters, many of whom shoot at my gun club. Jim Carmichel has previously stated that Leupold is the "beans and cornbread of the shooting man's diet", and that is a very accurate assessment of Leupold's position in the industry.

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