Nightforce manufacturing Question

[sigma2chi]

There was a Map once of the globe floating around that had all the different manufacturing locations of Nightforce Scopes. Some were made in Japan some in Australia etc...

Any idea where I can find that again? Been looking all day.

Also, has anyone here seen (looked through) a side by side comparison of the new ATACR and a Competition version?? Thoughts??

Thanks ,
Shawn

 

[Gman]

I don't know anything about a map, but what I do know is Lightforce (Australia) is/was the parent company of Nightforce. And the scope tubes for the BR series are made in Japan. The scopes are assembled in Orofino, Idaho with parts made from all over the world including some USA parts, and the lens' are from Japan. This was disclosed to me from Brian (a tech) from Nightforce a few years ago. I'm sure that things could have changed since then.

 

[dkhunt14]

When they built the new plant they bought a lot of new machinery. I believe a lot of the parts is being made there now. Almost every company buys there glass from other companies. They even make there own rings now. matt

 

[wedgy]

I was wondering that today....I have a Meopta S2 AKA Nightforce spotting scope rebranded and got to thinking who really does make the glass for their scopes. The top notch fluorite glass is East Europe (??) and very close to each other so knowing that Nightforce is a US company somebody makes it for them. Makes sense but just curious.
I had also heard that Bushnell got the internals for their tactical line from the same company that Nightforce uses as some patent/non-completion clause ran out. I used a few of their Elite Tactical 3.5-21x50mm and they were spot on for every input and returned to zero. It sounds reasonable...glass is comparable to the PST line though.
Whatever the case they make a great product and have a reputation that speaks for itself.

 

[bobinpa]

You can do a search on here or other shooting forums if you want, but from what I've read, the majority of the manufacturing and assembly is done in Japan and the final assembly is done here in America. I guess that makes sense since on a lot of them, the box and the tube are marked made in Japan.

 

[dkhunt14]

You can do a search on here or other shooting forums if you want, but from what I've read, the majority of the manufacturing and assembly is done in Japan and the final assembly is done here in America. I guess that makes sense since on a lot of them, the box and the tube are marked made in Japan.

I don't believe this is true anymore. They are making a lot more of the parts here now they built the new factory and bought new CNC machinery. Call them and ask. Most scope companies buy their glass from glass companies. Matt

 

[bluestreakrem]

The company in Japan that makes most of the complete scopes you see in the US marketed by many of the name brand manufacturers you own is Light Optical Works. They are a 'job shop' that anyone can contract with. They will sell you their designed and built scope or build a custom scope to your specs. They will private label the scope with your company name or just sell you components that you can assemble and claim it's 'Made in the USA'.

 

[Dud]

I heard that Nightforce was LOW but that was years ago before their budget scopes came out.

I would guess that their older military contract stuff is still coming out of LOW, why go through the hassle of changing that?

As said above, LOW is a job shop and I believe I have 5 scopes made there: a made in Japan Weaver Classic Extreme 1.5-4.5x24, a Nitrex (by Weaver) 3-15x42, a Tract Toric 30mm 4-20x50, a Bushnell 4.5-18x44 LRHSi and a Bushnell 4.5-18x44 LRTSi.

All of them are solid scopes.

I'm not sure if hearing that Nightforce has moved a lot of manufacturing and assembly to the US is necessarily a good thing...