Is it all Leopolds

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While true if your goal is to find or know if there is/was a failure. However the rate of failure is vastly more important then if something has failed, as we know all scopes fail already.

Some good info on this page but you have to understand what you are looking at. Even the drop test that people are taking as gold, have a lot to be desired. For one the test would really need to be repeated the same way for each scope x amount of times to make the test relevant.

The info WindGypsy dropped is about as good as you’re going to get for rate of failure. An instructor for a sniper school that has mostly leupolds on issued weapon systems seeing between 5:1 and 10:1 failure rate. I’d love to see more numbers. How many scopes has he seen come through the school? Hundreds of scopes? Thousands? Regardless, a 5:1 -10:1 failure rate matches up with reports from serious users across every hunting/shooting forum on the internet for YEARS.

There’s a bunch of people suggesting that the type of tracking failure some of us have seen and repeated in our leupolds don’t really matter for hunters. You posted in the Long Range forum, so I expect you are intending to use this for a long range tool. IMO there’s no amount of tracking failure that’s acceptable. The whole reason we’re anal about our gear is to take variables off the table. Why take the chance?


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Nards444

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The info WindGypsy dropped is about as good as you’re going to get for rate of failure. An instructor for a sniper school that has mostly leupolds on issued weapon systems seeing between 5:1 and 10:1 failure rate. I’d love to see more numbers. How many scopes has he seen come through the school? Hundreds of scopes? Thousands? Regardless, a 5:1 -10:1 failure rate matches up with reports from serious users across every hunting/shooting forum on the internet for YEARS.

There’s a bunch of people suggesting that the type of tracking failure some of us have seen and repeated in our leupolds don’t really matter for hunters. You posted in the Long Range forum, so I expect you are intending to use this for a long range tool. IMO there’s no amount of tracking failure that’s acceptable. The whole reason we’re anal about our gear is to take variables off the table. Why take the chance?


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Yeah I agree with most of that . And yes no pro but we hunt mid long range and keep growing.

And all this stuff is a great indicator. However we already know that any scope ever made can fail one way or another. What we really need to know is rate of failure by how much and we need to know that by which brands we are comparing. Which will never get.

The drop test here are interesting and have peeked my interest. But as skeptic in everything I read, I had a lot of questions after reading through a lot them. Were the exact same conditions used on each test, to include exact height and angle, location, same substrate, atmospheric conditions, elevation etc. was shooter error factored in, ammo reliability etc. now the guy did a pretty good job with all that, and I trust we had a lot of the same conditions even if not exact. The test would be a lot more valid in my mind of each test is done say 10 times
 

fwafwow

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The drop test here are interesting and have peeked my interest. But as skeptic in everything I read, I had a lot of questions after reading through a lot them. Were the exact same conditions used on each test, to include exact height and angle, location, same substrate, atmospheric conditions, elevation etc. was shooter error factored in, ammo reliability etc. now the guy did a pretty good job with all that, and I trust we had a lot of the same conditions even if not exact. The test would be a lot more valid in my mind of each test is done say 10 times
This has been covered in other threads, quite a few times. Others can probably speak to these points better than me, but fwiw. The slight variance in conditions mimics field situations, but apart from temperature and the exact substrate, they are pretty similar. Repeating the test 10x is impractical - it’s done on a volunteer basis with ammonia costs donated by some RS members. Are you familiar with the testing procedures?
 
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Yeah I agree with most of that . And yes no pro but we hunt mid long range and keep growing.

And all this stuff is a great indicator. However we already know that any scope ever made can fail one way or another. What we really need to know is rate of failure by how much and we need to know that by which brands we are comparing. Which will never get.

The drop test here are interesting and have peeked my interest. But as skeptic in everything I read, I had a lot of questions after reading through a lot them. Were the exact same conditions used on each test, to include exact height and angle, location, same substrate, atmospheric conditions, elevation etc. was shooter error factored in, ammo reliability etc. now the guy did a pretty good job with all that, and I trust we had a lot of the same conditions even if not exact. The test would be a lot more valid in my mind of each test is done say 10 times

10 repetitions on the drop tests would be awesome, no question. Form (the guy who is behind those) isn’t a jo blo hunter…if anyone could come up with a test and run it properly, I’d trust him to do it.

That 5:1 - 10:1 failure is compared to Nightforce. They’re the other company with a contract. So not a failure rate, but a gnarly failure ratio. Imagine if a vehicle manufacturer was failing at a ratio of 5:1 or 10:1…

We don’t have an exact failure rate. But as others have pointed out, most Leupold hunting scopes are going onto guns that get shot a handful of times a year, at distances that wouldn’t be noticed if there was a failure. Rokslide and other hunting/shooting forums are collecting the most avid of our respective sports/disciplines. I think that’s why we see these issues crop up on forums like Rokslide. We’re a large group of people who are actually testing and paying enough attention to our gear to notice something like this. And it seems like as soon as a person who knows what they’re doing starts to pay attention, they’re seeing some issues. That Rokslide poll certainly points in that direction.


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Marbles

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While true if your goal is to find or know if there is/was a failure. However the rate of failure is vastly more important then if something has failed, as we know all scopes fail already.
You are conflating two different things. Dismissing a single failure as a sample of one (what I am discussing), and wishing for better data.
Some good info on this page but you have to understand what you are looking at. Even the drop test that people are taking as gold, have a lot to be desired. For one the test would really need to be repeated the same way for each scope x amount of times to make the test relevant.
No, you are conflating relevance and statistically significant. In the lack of better data, even poor data is relevant, but we must acknowledge its weekness. Statistically significant data is what you get with a large enough sample.
Yeah I agree with most of that . And yes no pro but we hunt mid long range and keep growing.

And all this stuff is a great indicator. However we already know that any scope ever made can fail one way or another. What we really need to know is rate of failure by how much and we need to know that by which brands we are comparing. Which will never get.

The drop test here are interesting and have peeked my interest. But as skeptic in everything I read, I had a lot of questions after reading through a lot them. Were the exact same conditions used on each test, to include exact height and angle, location, same substrate, atmospheric conditions, elevation etc. was shooter error factored in, ammo reliability etc. now the guy did a pretty good job with all that, and I trust we had a lot of the same conditions even if not exact. The test would be a lot more valid in my mind of each test is done say 10 times
10? Unless the failure rate is very high, 10 would not get one to statistical significance, so it would be providing a prettier veneer to still statistically invalid data.

Cost and time is a limitting factor, the people with the money and the vested interest are the manufacturers. Their refusal to do so, gives a pretty strong data point against them when they could settle the question. Particularly large manufacturers like Leupold, Vortex, Etc.

Ignoring the available data because it doesn't meet a certain standard is simply arguing with reality, which unless one is willing to invest the effort to change really, is a waste of time.

But, I got to tell you, short of a double blind RCT powered to find equivalence at p 0.01 and using a robot in a tunnel to shoot, one can find issues in whatever data is available. The goal posts will just be moved to let people hold onto what they want to believe.

What needs to happen is scope makers need to establish a test standard and pay to have products tested and certified. Until they do that, I have no problem trashing any manufacture with suggestion of high failure rates in the available data.
 
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This was pretty well covered by someone else.
but yea. Remove sponsorships. Remove prize table scopes. Then the "data" starts to look different.
Then you are showing you have not been to many or any PRS matches as those guys re zero before every match. Isnt the definition of having to re zero the fact that the scope lost zero at some point.

So if competition shooters make their living by winning (per a previous poster a few posts back), and the scopes are such crap, then why would they continue to use them sponsored or not?

Marketing loves to brag about winning and if you aren’t winning, you’ll be dumped like a hot potato by the company sponsoring you so I don’t see how this argument holds water.


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mxgsfmdpx

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@Nards444 at the end of the day, this is a “take it out into the field and use it” kind of forum.

If you’re wanting to buy a Leupold, have at it and let us know how it goes. Include detailed use results if you could. That’s what this forum is all about.
 

mxgsfmdpx

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So if competition shooters make their living by winning (per a previous poster a few posts back), and the scopes are such crap, then why would they continue to use them sponsored or not?

Marketing loves to brag about winning and if you aren’t winning, you’ll be dumped like a hot potato by the company sponsoring you so I don’t see how this argument holds water.


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If you can’t decipher that there is a large difference in use case between a PRS shooter and back country backpack style hunter, then you don’t have a large grasp on how either of those things work.
 
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So if competition shooters make their living by winning (per a previous poster a few posts back), and the scopes are such crap, then why would they continue to use them sponsored or not?
Because the way the scopes are "crap" is irrelevant to PRS shooters. If their zero gets bumped during travel or whatever it doesn't matter since they're always able to re-zero before the match starts. And then once the match starts unless something goes fairly wrong their scope won't be bumped again.
 
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So if competition shooters make their living by winning (per a previous poster a few posts back), and the scopes are such crap, then why would they continue to use them sponsored or not?

Marketing loves to brag about winning and if you aren’t winning, you’ll be dumped like a hot potato by the company sponsoring you so I don’t see how this argument holds water.


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Competition shooters don’t make their living by winning. They make their living by sponsors. One guy makes his living by winning.


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Weldor

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Excuse my ignorance, but don't PRS shooters hit a steel plate a certain size per yardage? not a 1" bullseye? wondering zero of a certain amount would not seem as critical? Please educate me.
 
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