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I have always placed as much value in my scope and mounts as the rifle itself. You can have the most accurate rifle in the world, but if your mounts or scope cannot hold a zero, it is worthless.

I have only ever purchased Burris, Leopold, and German Bausch & Lomb(rare and hard to find, but very good), though I have inherited a few other brands on rifles that I bought, such as Bushnell, Tasco, Weaver, and etc.

While I have never had a problem with a Leupold, I believe that Burris makes one of the best scopes on the market. Burris is the only scope made entirely in the US, including the glass which is made and ground in my home state in Pennsburg, PA., Leupold get their glass from the Orient. They were the only scopes that would hold together for my friends that used to shoot big handguns, such as the .375 JDS and the Contender in .45/70, which I must say shooting is an experience to remember.

I made this judgement when I was a single fella and dropping $3000US+ for a handmade rifle was not an issue, so when I scoped these guns, the price of the scope was immaterial. I compared Ziess, Swarovski, Leupold and Burris side by side and Burris won hands down in the optical department. Placed in order of performance, Burris, Swarovski, Ziess, and Leupold.

Having said that, when I shot the benchrest circuit, I always used Leopolds, 24X or 36X.

As for warranty, both Leupold and Burris, have impeccable records for replacing or repairing anything you send without question.

For nostalgia sake, I used to shoot Unertl's on my varmint rigs, big and cumbersome, but with their external adjustments, they were extremely repeatable. Speaking of reticle adjustments, when metallic silhouette shooting caught on, there was a revolution in design and construction of adjustment mechanisms, since silhouette shooters could wear out a scope in a month, because of constant windage and elevation adjustments.

Inspite of the relative rarity of a scope failure today, I still feel uncomfortable going afield with a rifle without QR mounts and irons sights, even the best scope will find hard to survive being the cushion between a rock and my 220lbs in a fall.

Lynn Miller