Leupold Custom Shop Is Closed

[SGT. Slaughter]

I was probably one of Leupold's biggest fans. I own probably (15) Leupold scopes. I will keep on using them. As far a Notion to convince you. I am just stating the facts. What you decide to is totally up to you. As far as me hating Leupold that's far from the truth. I really like the Leupold scopes I have. I just don't care for the way they are doing business now or their new product line and because of that I will no longer buy their products. You can do as you please.

I myself have been a Leupold fan a long time, 40+ years and I have noticed that Leupold as a company has changed in the way they do business. I belive its a combination of management style of doing business now and turning out products that are not near the quality as it use to be. When Leupold went from the old VarXlll and went to the VXI models it started to go down hill then. I've mount several scopes a year for other people and I use to recommend Leupold without hesitation but not anymore.
Leupold use to be a company that stood for Quality, Reliability, great customer service. Not so much anymore. I like the CDS system as much as anybody but there's more to a scope company like Leupold than just custom made turrets. Quality, Reliability, and customer service is what makes a good company a great company.

 

[Kittitas George]

I have used Leupold scopes for quite a few years. Always had excellent dealings with repair and customer service departments, but haven't needed anything in the last 5 or 6 years. I use the Burris Signature rings on some of my scopes, an excellent product, but nothing else from Burris. The customer service department's person, John, was totally inept. A jerk, low life smart ass, his behavior stopped many sales. A Burris retailer didn't recommend Burris scopes because of the attitude in customer service. This was in a very large popular sporting goods store. I would probably buy a used Leupold now, I like the 10X and 12X fixed powers.

 

[Alaska Bush Man]

Leupold isn't the same company it was in times past. Not even close. About 15 years ago (maybe more) I purchased a new Leupold which happens to be one of the models described in an article from this very website:

6mm BR Scopes, Optics, Zooms for 6BR Norma target shooting--tests, specifications, accuracy and benchrest optical reviews.

Scope reviews, prices, tests for 6mm BR target, hunting & benchrest shooting. Zoom, tactical & target scopes from Bausch Lomb, Burris, Leupold, Nightforce, Weaver, Zeiss. Reticle, power, magnification, eye relief, pupil, resolution, optics. For 6mm BR Benchrest precision shooting, with 6BR...

www.6mmbr.com

An excerpt:
"Before purchasing a scope, you need to do your homework. Leupolds are fine scopes, for example, but a few of them have tracking problems or canted reticles that need to be fixed right out of the box, and all of the side-focus models demand that you compensate for lash. Each time you adjust focus/parallax on these scopes, you need to rotate the side knob ALL the way back to the infinity stop and then work back slowly to best target focus. Trust us, this "dial-back" procedure is straight from Leupold's engineers and we can confirm it works."

My scope was the poster child for all three issues, canted reticle and all. I contacted Leupold to receive that "golden ring" level of customer care we all grew up hearing about. Instead I was told that the scope was within design specs and there was nothing they would do. Thanks for the paper weight, Leupold.

Leupold is operating like a company run by bean-counters instead of enthusiasts. Undoubtedly many people have stories about stellar customer service from Leupold and will flame me for this post. I'm simply pointing out well documented facts. Nobody's insulting your wife or kicking your dog.

Leupold won't see any more dollars from me.

Totally Agree they kinda went cheaper after they dropped their Mark 4 scopes it seems when they lost the contract from the military they dropped the Mark 4 costed to much to make. Great scope. I have a lot older VX111 in the house love the scopes for hunting.

 

[jdh47]

For years Leupold was The scope to get in the American market. They were expensive but worth it. They did a lot of stuff free of charge. Years ago an old friend of mine fell on a rock slide while hunting and pretty well destroyed his VXIII. He sent it in with a letter explaining what happened and offered to pay for fixing it. They sent him a new scope and a letter telling him they liked his story.
Times change and I have read that a lot of people take advantage of their offer to repair scopes at no charge by sending their scopes in each year to "get them checked". No business is going to be able to take that kind of workload without something changing.
The scope market is very competitive and labor is expensive. Leupold's competition scopes are very expensive but not totally out of line with many other top line scopes. For decades their scopes were used by the hunting public and they weren't that demanding. These days the "hunting public" has changed dramatically. It seems a lot of people want to knock off a Deer or Elk at extreme distance and want something different.
Leupold has taken it on the nose in a big demanding market.