Q&A Leupold VX-3HD 3.5-10x40mm

[long hunter]

The Elmer Fudd one, seems to me I am not the only one who has read the entire thread.

 

[Axlrod]

You really only need to go to the range in the weeks leading up to rifle season. At ours there are many Leupolds and Vortex with the caps off for "sight in". A LOT of them were sighted in one year previous, taken hunting a handful of times shot between 0 and 3 times since, then put away.

We have a rimfire off-hand shoot on the weekends Nov.-May. Range is 75 feet. Before each match competitors check their zero using a rest. It is overwhelmingly Leupold and Vortex owners with their caps off.
There are also a few guys that use the externally adj. small tube low power ancient scopes on Schutzen type rifles. They adjust theirs after every few rounds fired it seems.

I have 3 guns I bring, my primary: an Anschutz 1710/NF SHV, and 2 loaners: CZ 457/NF NX8, Tikka /SWFA 12x. The SWFA has gone 6 years without ever being "re-zeroed" The SHV 4 years, and the NX8 2 years. This is the entire time these scopes have been on these rifles.

Some people say that you can have a successful hunt with a Leupold, but why chance it?

 

[Justin Crossley]

I have been a fan of Leupold scopes for a long time. I grew up thinking it was totally normal to sight in your rifle, hunt with it, put it in the safe, and repeat the process every hunt. It literally never crossed my mind something was wrong when 9 times out of 10, I needed to make at least a small adjustment to my zero.

I now know my scopes/rifle systems were the problem.

 

[huntnful]

I have been a fan of Leupold scopes for a long time. I grew up thinking it was totally normal to sight in your rifle, hunt with it, put it in the safe, and repeat the process every hunt. It literally never crossed my mind something was wrong when 9 times out of 10, I needed to make at least a small adjustment to my zero.

I now know my scopes/rifle systems were the problem.

Same here dude. I used to just pull the scope caps as soon as I got to the range before even shooting the first shot hahaha.

 

[Justin Crossley]

I want to address one more thing. I have seen it mentioned many times including at least once in this thread that Form (and other staff) are posting positive reviews of some scopes due to getting deals or getting paid.

That is absolutely false.

I can shoot almost any brand of scope for free. Same for a lot of our staff. Leupold and Vortex specifically will send just about anything we want for free.

With that said, I literally pay retail for Nightforce scopes or buy them used because they pass these tests over and over again and I refuse to use a product just because I get a discount or get it free.

 

[cmahoney]

I have been a fan of Leupold scopes for a long time. I grew up thinking it was totally normal to sight in your rifle, hunt with it, put it in the safe, and repeat the process every hunt. It literally never crossed my mind something was wrong when 9 times out of 10, I needed to make at least a small adjustment to my zero.

I now know my scopes/rifle systems were the problem.

Same experience for me in the 90’s when leupolds were the standard and I didn’t have a lot of money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kurts86]

Honestly the Leupold almost did better than I thought it would.

I figured the zero was going to shift 6-12 MOA. Instead it passed the pie plate zero -2 day/year Eastern deer hunter test.

 

[sbaker0029]

My biggest question is, how does Leupold respond when confronted with results like this?

Like if you were to contact Leupold customer service and tell them that the scope is not holding zero and present them with the results from the test.
Would they just ask you to send the scope in and "retest" in their facilities and call it good or just send you a new scope and call that one a fluke?

 

[2-Stix]

I called Leu...they said it was not a failure...but a shift. Anyone else call?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I called Leu...they said it was not a failure...but a shift. Anyone else call?

I sent a VX-5, VX-6, and two VX-3s in as they wouldn’t hold zero. Leupold “repaired” them and sent them back. They all had zero shifts with almost no impacts, but significant ATV and truck time.

I traded in every Leupold I owned to the tune of 9 scopes (was sponsored by a local Leupold dealer for 8 years) and switched to Meopta/Zeiss. Had much better luck but still had some issues.

Everything I own now is Nightforce or SWFA. I learned the hard way.

 

[sbaker0029]

I called Leu...they said it was not a failure...but a shift. Anyone else call?

That blows my mind. A shift is a failure for an aiming device. It failed at the one thing it's supposed to do.

 

[Formidilosus]

My biggest question is, how does Leupold respond when confronted with results like this?

Like if you were to contact Leupold customer service and tell them that the scope is not holding zero and present them with the results from the test.
Would they just ask you to send the scope in and "retest" in their facilities and call it good or just send you a new scope and call that one a fluke?

“Reworked erector system, checked and cleaned lenses”.

 

[JFK]

At some point that arrogance will catch up with them. Why wouldn’t they take what is, on paper, a good design, and figure this out? Make them reliable. I used to have leupold, now have NF. Would never purchase another Leupold until I saw reliability addressed.

 

[SouthPaw]

I've witnessed multiple Leupold VX-series scopes lose zero on hunts. Just this past season on a remote hunt, one of our group members had a Leupold VX-5 on his rifle. A couple commercial flights in a padded hard case, and a bush flight riding on top of soft gear and packs. The zero was off by 6moa at 100 yards once at our destination.

 

[Justin Crossley]

At some point that arrogance will catch up with them. Why wouldn’t they take what is, on paper, a good design, and figure this out? Make them reliable.

The answer is simple. Consumers don't demand it.

 

[manitou1]

You've shot the same lot of ammo (or bullets and powder) over those years?...

I reload. And yes, same powder lot and same primers, same bullets... Accubonds.

 

[BjornF16]

I reload. And yes, same powder lot and same primers, same bullets... Accubonds.

Leupold should pay for a trip for you to visit Form then, and prove him wrong

 

[JPeters218]

The answer is simple. Consumers don't demand it.

Very true. Growing up we‘d “sight our guns in” every year before season. Most years they’d ride around in a case in the backseat of a truck for the 2 weeks of whitetail season and then sit in the safe for the next 10 months. (never had any Leupolds, but the idea is the same). Thats just what you did every year. It wasn’t until this finding this forum years ago that I realized that’s not normal. My Rifles are now all Tikkas wearing Trijicons.

There are huge populations in the Midwest and I’m sure many other places that will never find forums like this and never realize there is actually a problem. And they’ll continue to support the Leupold’s and Vortex’s for the rest of their hunting careers. And around here “a really nice scope” is the Leupold VX Freedom price range.

 

[sndmn11]

At some point that arrogance will catch up with them. Why wouldn’t they take what is, on paper, a good design, and figure this out? Make them reliable.

Because they sell! Consumer see price vs "features" (on paper) and that is what gets them to purchase. It makes little difference to 99% of consumers if those "features" are useful or a positive idea. On paper "features" like weight, "custom" dials, and of course the "glass" when standing in the store looking through it like a pirate. That business model seems to be successful and I think Vortex dwarfs any other optics brand except Bushnell and Leupold.

There are people on here that still don't buy into this sort of testing, I think the common, "I don't drop my rifle" explanation has come up a few times in this thread already. They don't understand, or do but won't accept, the correlation between wandering shots over X time period and an efficient 7 shot proofing method. When those people "upgrade" they follow the same mindset as above and see spending more as getting them more "features" and therefore they will shoot better. Or, as is the case in a current thread regarding bullet trajectory for a sheep hunt, anything new will be an upgrade even though it's the same as the old.

What it would really take is Rokslide renting a range at SHOT show with a handful of vetted rifles and shooters, then inviting any and all brands (I didn't say manufacturer...) to bring their wares. Brands would have to bring 10 samples of their chosen sku because we have seen scopes sent back and claimed to working fine, and it would avoid a small sample size excuse.

 

[gatekeeper]

Just saw this post from Form...


Made me remember this was another issue I had with the AR I had posted earlier about with the vx3 wandering zero.
Had first round flier at start of every range session similar to above, thought I had a big cold bore shift going on and was thinking it was the suppressor weight on the 16" spr barrel causing it.
Funny that has gone away now that it wears a Trijicon