Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupold vs Burris vs Vortex

It seems as though everyday brings a new post about Leupold tracking and how prone to failure they are so here's my take on it.

My experience with Leupolds has been confined to the VX 2 and VX 3 and their various iterations, with the Burris it has been with the Fullfield ll, and with Vortex the Crossfire ll scopes. I have owned a few Leupolds, I currently own 2 Burris Fullfield ll, 2 Burris Droptine, and 2 Vortex Crossfire. Over the years I have owned numerous equivalent Bushnell and Weaver Scopes and a couple of Sightron. So I am not locked into any one brand of scope.
These are all what I call "working man" scopes and are commonly found on most shooters rifles, they are all priced around the same price range. I use them as set and forget scopes and they all serve well in that capacity. I cannot recall ever having stored a rifle and then having to re-zero it as is often cited by the Leupold haters, but I never had to re-zero a Burris and Vortex after storage either. And I have ever had any of these have a complete failure such as a crosshair breaking or internal mechanical failure.

The biggest commonality I find between the Leupold VX 2, Burris Fullfield 11, Burris Droptine and Vortex Crossfire ll and is that they all tend to not give a solid tactile feedback when adjusting and that they all may hang-up after an adjustment, or have drift when adjusting.

Another oddity to me is that if a Leupold has to be sent in for repair it is often cited as an example of how poor quality it is, on the other hand if a Burris or Vortex is sent in for repair those companies are praiseworthy for their "great customer service" with little to no mention of the failure.
The posts I recall most are the over the top posts such as one that the poster said - "I have owned 26 Leupold scopes and they were all bad". Wow! Talk about a slow learner or more likely someone who overstates most every thing else he talks about too.

The absolute best tracking scopes I have ever owned were the El Paso Weaver T series, they tracked perfectly. And yes, I have owned a Nightforce and it tracked well but no better than the Weaver T-16's I used for competition.

While on the subject of "working mans" scopes we need to keep in mind what a bargain today's scopes are pricewise.
My first scope was a K-4 Weaver that I bought in 1965 for the whopping sum of $49.95 - in today's money the equivalent would be $477.00. Optically anyone of the above mentioned scopes is superior and a better bang for the buck.

Just getting that off your chest, or was there supposed to be a moral to your story? You left out the guys that have 100 Leupolds on Remington 700's and have never had a failure one with rifle or scope. I've seen some pics of such rifles laid out on blanket covered tables. Pristine beautiful and likely never shot..

I've owned many different scopes, but more Leupold than any other brand. Naturally, I've got a greater rate, statistically, of Leupold failure. I have had one mega high-end Leupold that failed three times, Leupold called me every name under the book, until finally the repair department head took it, put it on a gun and shot it. He promised to replace it with an updated model if it was bad, but they "repaired" it a fourth time. Other than that lemon of a scope, I've had five, I believe, other Leupold scopes go back. I've had a Mueller go back, two Swifts, one Nightforce. I had a Zeiss fail as well (tracking just stopped on it). I've seen lots of bad Vortex scopes but nobody in my crew has seen one go bad yet. I have two alpha-level Vortex scopes currently.

So, I'll give you my take: any company that has a loyal customer and talks to them the way they did me over their defective $3,000+ scope, promised to replace it but did not, probably shouldn't be held up as some beacon of the scope community.

I get it, if you've not had a problem, you're going to think those that have are FOS. But truth is Leupold is stuck in 1990. You may not be hard on your rifle and you're probably not target shooting and cranking on knobs as much as the guys 1/2 your age. Truth is, guys that use their stuff have more frequent and real problems with Leupold.

I started Buying Leupold when their reputation was good. They had a better view, better eye relief and just looked good mounted. I overlooked the goofy adjustments that have never been consistent on any that I have owned because I believed once they were set that stayed zeroed. Then from year to year I almost always had to move them each time I sighted in. Not much but they never stayed zeroed more than 2 years. Then a couple of times after sighting in and knowing they were zeroed. I missed a deer with what should have been an easy shot. Check zero and find the scope is way off scope won't adjust right at all. Send them back and Leupold responds that nothing was wrong but they cleaned it. I mount the scope and it works right again. This Year I had 2 fail on the first shot after sighting in earler. I don't trust them and will never buy another.

I have had scopes fail from 1/2 dozen makers but never had a Leupold fail out of the three dozen or so I have owned over the past 35 years, that being said im sure some Leupolds fail like any other scope brand it just seems like there are many on this site that delight in gutting leupold for some reason, I tend to favor buying made in USA whenever i can so i will continue to buy Leupold scopes even though I do expect to have a failure sooner or later just like ive had Vortex, Simmons, Sightron, Swarovski and Meopta scope failures over the years, its not the end of the world when it does happen as every scope maker i have sent scopes back to always made it right 👍.......Hb

Indeed. Black blanket.

Junk vs trash vs garbage.

Since Leupold won't/can't repair older scopes, I figure I'll do what my BIL did. Leupold sent him a new scope and he sold it and bought what he wanted.

VS’s the guy that does nothing but haul them in the back of his Prius and set them up for photo ops at the range.

Someone say leupolds failing?? Kodiak 2020, leupold 2-7 in leupold QD rings. 260yds 375h&h 300gr TSX. Model
70 stainless classic. The irons are zeroed for 100yds.

Someone say chitty vortex? Junk model 70
Classic in the lowly 270 Winchester with 3-9x40 vortex i think the diamondback only good out to 75yds according to the pros😁

Someone say garbage Burris?? Junk old model 70 classic in a 264 win mag. 3-9x40 Burris fullfield II

And an anecdotal account of one without any controls means what?

Please do not think I am picking on you... I just look at these kinds of threads and shake my head.

What were you thinking when you responded to this thread????

Oh... Did I just do the same thing?

Yeah well... well... well...

I'm not sure what your point is. Because you have one that didn't fail, they are good to go? Confirmation bias?

Yugo vs Rambler vs Gremlin vs Pinto vs …

Drover, my experience mirrors yours. I don't hunt as hard or as often or in extremes as many others and am not discounting their beef with Leupold.
Don't think you are either. I have the exact same thoughts about adjustments. Why is it even cheap scopes can have nice tight clicks but Leupold and Burris are mushy?

Every Weaver I have ever used had great adjustments. So did the one Sightron - but its eye relief was atrocious. My Meopta was fine too.

I can get my Burris and Leupolds to adjust but always feel I am guessing.

My post was made because the comment was made guys that have certain scopes but they never take them hunting just to the range or they are just junk. That 264 with that $130 Burris bounced around in a gun boot and held zero. Most on here say that scope should’ve lost zero because it’s budget scope.

No point is I trusted a leupold on a Kodiak bear hunt. While all the leupold haters would’ve said otherwise. Oh and that’s leupold freedom scope as well. By all accounts by leupold haters the reticle should’ve broke on the first shot.

Your racist. How can you have a pic taken of you in blackface in this day and age?

But what do you say to those that DID have their Leupold fail them? Yours didn't so they are liars?