Leupold Engineer's Comment on Tracking.

[Mountainrancher]

The more I hear people who work at leupold speak the more certain I am becoming that I won’t spend any money on their products.

 

[wapitibob]

Turrets are different than the erector assy, we made thousands of erectors back in the day for an ID company.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Please do. This thread has some good ideas of what several of us consider the perfect hunting scope. Can’t remember if you were on there or not but there was discussion about trying to get something going.

Thanks. I'll add that thread to my watch list.

 

[woods89]

Nightforce must have their grease spreading technique dialed.......

 

[Str8shooter]

"Then gently tap the elevation dial 3x and whisper 1 hail mary for every 100yd interval to the target."

 

[Reed104R]

My Dad always pecked on the Weaver turrets with a screwdriver handle after adjusting.

 

[BBob]

He said that when you get a new scope, to follow this procedure of turning the elevation and windage back and forth a bunch of times to
spread the lubrication around properly.
Also, always dial "up" to your elevation adjustment, meaning return the turret to zero before dialing an adjustment again.

They've been advising this for decades. Premier Reticles used to advise the same thing for the Leupold scopes back when they worked directly with Leupold. Still doesn't change the fact that such a high number won't hold zero over time no matter how you dial them. I still have an old MK4 that works properly. It's the only one that ever worked right and hasn't failed over time. A unicorn

 

[Hnthrdr]

As a 20 year employee of an optics manufacturer… That’s not how that works.

These companies are making it more and more tempting to venture into the sporting optics market and make shit that actually works.

Do it!!!!

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Do it!!!!

I actually already wrote the business plan, MRD, TRD, PRD, etc. over a year ago once I realized what Form and Ryan were trying to achieve. Once I realized they weren’t recommending that people actually drop their scopes, and that there was much more validity to the testing being done, my eyes opened up very wide. Let just say that all of my rifles now use ugly as all heck SWFA scopes…


Really I just need to polish and refine my proposals and get it in front of the right folks to get it approved and start the ball rolling…. However, we are talking about a company that has annual revenue with 9 zeros… this is both good and bad. It’s good in that, if approved, funding for development isn’t an issue. It’s bad in that it moves very slowly.

Even if approved, we are talking 2026-2027 or later before anything would come to market. I’ll probably stop talking about this here, or really anywhere publicly at this point… Just know that y’all’s feedback here and Rokslide in general will definitely be involved if they have interest.

 

[pirogue]

My Dad always pecked on the Weaver turrets with a screwdriver handle after adjusting.

Are you sure you are recalling that correctly? For a Weaver, you had to tap (read beat) first to unfreeze to adjust, and, if you liked to shoot(back when ammo was cheap), you pecked lightly to knock it off target, to get to do all over.

 

[packer58]

Bottom line is they should work as intended / advertised straight out of the box. At this point with all the social media no one should have the warm and fuzzies when they unbox their new Leupold optic.

 

[Reed104R]

Are you sure you are recalling that correctly? For a Weaver, you had to tap (read beat) first to unfreeze to adjust, and, if you liked to shoot(back when ammo was cheap), you pecked lightly to knock it off target, to get to do all over.

My recollection is accurate. I have used countless Weavers over the years and generally had good service. I had a few fog up after 40+ years. For at least 25 years, I have used a K8 for testing rifles. I have a 80+ year old model 70 with the original Weaver 330. It has never lost zero in the 15 years I've had it (I wonder what would happen if I tried to adjust it after so many years?). In my opinion, the traditional gold standard for tracking (excluding external adjustment scopes) was always the US made T series Weaver Target scopes. I never found the early Weavers to track well, but they held zero for me.

 

[Coopsdaddy]

If a leupold needs dialed to spread the grease before use but they are to lazy to do it from the factory to verify than im out.

 

[Felix40]

Leupold: you have to return to zero before dialing or it won’t be accurate

User: but how do I return to zero if my zero is floating?

Leupold: ……..

 

[jimh406]

I'm not sure "referenced an engineer" matters. Maybe they didn't work on the product they were talking about or maybe it was made up. It would be interesting to get this statement in a verifiable quote. Also, Leupold makes a lot of different types of scopes and have changed them over the years.

Otherwise, it's just the internet. Note: I'm not saying the OP is trying to make things up, but the podcaster might be exaggerating.

Back to the point, for a hunting CDS or similar, I think it makes sense to start from the same point each time, so in practice I think it's advantageous to start from zero each time.

 

[Mtndawger]

Mule deer buck chasing does “he’s 325 but won’t stop. He stopped range him again. He’s 380 now. Ok hang on I have to go back down to my zero and dial back up to 380”. Christ sake.

You would only need to do that if he was 380 going down to 325 is the way I read the recommendation. And then probably only down to 300 or so and then up. It makes sense from a mechanical perspective. No way to manufacture a gear system with no runout at all. The question would be how do other manufacturers overcome this fact and why doesn’t Leupold adopt it?

 

[woods89]

Well.......

I had a Nightforce SHV on a pic rail (loctited, torqued, witness marked) survive getting knocked over on some rocks and then a vehicle rollover where it was laying uncased in the back of a 4runner. Zero was right where it was supposed to be after all that. I think Leupold needs to learn from their competition.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Why would he admit that? Did this confession occur during the course of him being waterboarded?

 

[Axlrod]

Well.......

I had a Nightforce SHV on a pic rail (loctited, torqued, witness marked) survive getting knocked over on some rocks and then a vehicle rollover where it was laying uncased in the back of a 4runner. Zero was right where it was supposed to be after all that. I think Leupold needs to learn from their competition.

That's not how it works.
They learn from their customers that:
1) Keep buying their product.
2) Think it's normal to "sight in my rifle" every year.

 

[Bubblehide]

Interesting - I could see the initial 'break in' with spinning the dials a couple of times.
It also makes sense for the greatest level of accuracy to return to zero to make sure that everything is lined up.
I think in the field I wouldn't be doing that at the ranges I'm shooting - but if I was going to be shooting 1500-1600 yards than I would. You would also have the time.

Your comment insinuates that the scope does NOT adjust correctly to begin with. Granted, there is always a margin of error. But scopes that are reliable minimize the margin of error so such a process a Lupy suggests, is not necessary at all. That fact strongly suggests that Lupy scopes just don't work.