What happened to Vortex?

[5MilesBack]

Is there really that much difference between their Viper HD and some of the other mid to higher end glass?

Yes. On lower powers their stuff was just ok, but at higher powers everything I've tested from them was grainy. I tested one of their rifle scopes and as soon as I'd raise it to full power it was as if someone just turned the lights out. Same for a pair of Viper 15x50's in comparison to other's 15 power bino's. Clarity and brightness are two of the characteristics I value most with optics.

 

[Powder]

I appreciate all the replies. As I may have mentioned, I have next to zero experience with binoculars. I just don't hunt out west enough to justify them yet.

 

[Seeknelk]

Had a Viper PST for my first long range rifle I built. I was lured in by all the "features" including illumination, for 6-800$ whatever I paid. It worked well, I don't care too much about "glass" for my scopes, as long as I can steer bullets with it fine. Worked great for one year. Next year, drew a tough to draw Muley tag, I was stoked. Shot plenty getting practice. I was dialed. Had a chance at a really solid buck after a week of fun hunting. Bottom line, checking zero later, scope had lost zero and I wounded a beautiful buck. Still sick. Couldn't handle the 10 degree weather or mountain life apparently. Mounted in locktited seekins rail and rings. Would have been farrrr better off with a 6x SWFA. Wish I knew bout em.
Anyway, if they just.made.scopes.that.didnt.break. The big Razors are probably bombproof from what I hear. Anyway. Your buying a warranty gamble. Not a product with some of the things they market.

 

[mgebs311]

Well you’re comparing alpha glass to a binoculars that can be had on sale for $300…

Yep, you are right, it is quite the difference in cost. Took 6 months of donating plasma, not that big of a sacrifice when you really think about it. Well worth it. I’d rather benefit from the top tier glass now while I’m young. I’m a poor Fireman, but I’d still do the same over again.

 

[Marbles]

I said vortex sucked 5 years ago...

#MeToo

 

[fwafwow]

Yep, you are right, it is quite the difference in cost. Took 6 months of donating plasma, not that big of a sacrifice when you really think about it. Well worth it. I’d rather benefit from the top tier glass now while I’m young. I’m a poor Fireman, but I’d still do the same over again.

Damn. You donated blood for binos? You could have just posted about being scammed and we would have passed the hat for you. (Yes, I’m still annoyed I don’t know what snacks were purchased at Dollar General by OH23.)

 

[pc3]

There's definitely a lot of truth to that. For my eyes iv'e looked through Swaro and my 15X56 Meopta's and can't justify the price diff. If the S2 glass is on par with the 15"s i'll be a happy man without the cost of Sworo's.

The S2 is amazing. You won't be disappointed. I have the 20-70x eye piece and its is clear and resolves well right up to 70x

 

[packer58]

The S2 is amazing. You won't be disappointed. I have the 20-70x eye piece and its is clear and resolves well right up to 70x

Thanks for pushing one step closer to an empty wallet, i have yet to look through one yet but everything iv'e heard and read echos your experience .......

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Started with Vortex. I was a FNG to hunting and had nothing. It was a good compromise for value and function. I had so much gear to buy the first few years I couldn't even think about alpha glass.
I now have Swaro and there is no comparison. I kept the Vortex scope b/c I don't glass with it, only need crosshair to do it's job, and turret adjustment to be precise and return to zero after adjustments. That it does so I probably won't change anytime soon. As for nocs and spotter I have moved away from Vortex.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Anyone notice a difference of when they changed their production from Japan to China? Reading the posts it seems like people were more satisfied with the original stuff

YES.
I had 10x50 which were decent glass made in Japan.
I sold those but should have kept them for my truck.

 

[tdhanses]

I think most of us got sick of everything we bought needing warranty work and moved to quality over replacement.

 

[matpc1]

Sent a rifle scope in that the turret quit turning. This was during a hunt. Have several friends with vortex binos where the bridge got floppy. If they work for you that's great but I wouldn't trust their stuff especially a rifle scope. My wife won a viper spotting scope last year but it just sits on the shelf in the original box wrapped in the original plastic. If it were mine I'd sell it.

Lol. I've got a pair I've been needing to send in - loose bridge!
FYI - An outdoorsmans stud can tighten your bridge up and make your binos usable again sometimes.

 

[Balderdash]

Have always felt that for a given price point, you could do better by some measures, so have owned comparatively few of their products.

Can't say I've had trouble with the couple of Razors I owned, but didn't have them long, either.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Never an issue with Vortex binoculars.

I'm not interested in their rifle scopes. Too much weight is the over arching reason. In my experience Leupold is going to give the lighter weight in a scope that I haven't had one fail in 30 years.

I have a pair of 12x50 vipers that were made in Japan. I like them quite a bit. Have picked up some of the 10x42 Vipers that are offered in Bass Pro/Cabela's sales over the past couple years.

I'm a very tall human being, my hands are just too large to use the 10x42s for longer periods and comfortably.

I've alternated days in the field with the 12x50s and 10x42s over the previous good number of seasons hunting deer and elk in Colorado. Cannot say optical quality is better or worse however something that fits my hands properly is everything for as much as I use them.

This was my first year hunting deer in North Carolina. Opening day evening I could hear a deer slowly working its way across the opposite hillside (crunch, crunch). 210 yds based on lasering after the fact.

However light was fading/had faded and I could not pick it out with my naked eye. The 12x50's allowed me to pick apart the hillside and I caught a vertical line of the white tail as the deer stood broadside to me in a blackberry bush hillside with lots of vertical lines from the bushes making it hard to pick out a deer. The deer was well hidden with the bushes and the vegetation on the hillside.

The Leupold VX3HD 3.5-10 and 35 Whelen AI did the rest.

I will be honest, if I did Vortex again it would be a Razor or Razor UHD.

Vipers have worked great, however I do know the next price point up brings quite a bit of improvement. Past that, I feel it's diminishing returns to the next level.

Put a good scope on your rifle, however use great glass for binoculars. Time to up my game and practice what I preach on the binocular side.

 

[Balderdash]

Never an issue with Vortex binoculars.

I'm not interested in their rifle scopes. Too much weight is the over arching reason. In my experience Leupold is going to give the lighter weight in a scope that I haven't had one fail in 30 years.

I have a pair of 12x50 vipers that were made in Japan. I like them quite a bit. Have picked up some of the 10x42 Vipers that are offered in Bass Pro/Cabela's sales over the past couple years.

I'm a very tall human being, my hands are just too large to use the 10x42s for longer periods and comfortably.

I've alternated days in the field with the 12x50s and 10x42s over the previous good number of seasons hunting deer and elk in Colorado. Cannot say optical quality is better or worse however something that fits my hands properly is everything for as much as I use them.

This was my first year hunting deer in North Carolina. Opening day evening I could hear a deer slowly working its way across the opposite hillside (crunch, crunch). 210 yds based on lasering after the fact.

However light was fading/had faded and I could not pick it out with my naked eye. The 12x50's allowed me to pick apart the hillside and I caught a vertical line of the white tail as the deer stood broadside to me in a blackberry bush hillside with lots of vertical lines from the bushes making it hard to pick out a deer. The deer was well hidden with the bushes and the vegetation on the hillside.

The Leupold VX3HD 3.5-10 and 35 Whelen AI did the rest.

I will be honest, if I did Vortex again it would be a Razor or Razor UHD.

Vipers have worked great, however I do know the next price point up brings quite a bit of improvement. Past that, I feel it's diminishing returns to the next level.

Put a good scope on your rifle, however use great glass for binoculars. Time to up my game and practice what I preach on the binocular side.

I apologize for the following tangent. It does fit in the context of this conversation due to the topic of weight.

Last fall I had a 2.5-8 VX-III on a 35 Whelen bolt action fail. Scope was on there for 12+ years. Like a lot of Leupolds, it took a bit to get it sighted in, but it held well for a long time over a lot of shooting and use that included more than a few accidental drops, some falls and a lot of rough back country miles. All of a sudden groups opened up. Put an older Meopta I had on the Whelen and went right back to the tight groups was used to.

I had had trouble with a couple of higher end Leupolds I dialed on, but the many 2.5-8's I have had always been solid in set it and forget it use. As a result of the failure, I rarely take any of the Leupolds I still have afield these days. I'll take the weight penalty to get something I can rely on. When you look at the the Leupolds and Swaros, the weight they cut to keep their scopes so much lighter than the competition is weight that needs to be in there.

 

[35WhelenAI]

I apologize for the following tangent. It does fit in the context of this conversation due to the topic of weight.

Last fall I had a 2.5-8 VX-III on a 35 Whelen bolt action fail. Scope was on there for 12+ years. Like a lot of Leupolds, it took a bit to get it sighted in, but it held well for a long time over a lot of shooting and use that included more than a few accidental drops, some falls and a lot of rough back country miles. All of a sudden groups opened up. Put an older Meopta I had on the Whelen and went right back to the tight groups was used to.

I had had trouble with a couple of higher end Leupolds I dialed on, but the many 2.5-8's I have had always been solid in set it and forget it use. As a result of the failure, I rarely take any of the Leupolds I still have afield these days. I'll take the weight penalty to get something I can rely on. When you look at the the Leupolds and Swaros, the weight they cut to keep their scopes so much lighter than the competition is weight that needs to be in there.

Bummer the Leupold's have not served as well for you.

You mention up front there were "more than a few accidental falls" and rough handling.

If weight needs to be in there against human error and accidents, I'll take the chance that I can overcome most of it versus rely on the scope to handle it.

My experience is 30 years in the backcountry and can say they've endured everything I've put their way. I could not hold something accountable for failing to perform (in the moment or later on) after the treatment that has been openly shared. I am sure a Meopta that hadn't been used like that has held up well, unless it has had the same life as the Leupold and it is being said the Meopta handled the same "more than a few accidental falls" and rough handling as the Leupold.

Have been using Leupold's for 30 years on a 300 Winchester Magnum, a 35 Whelen AI, .280 Remington and haven't had an issue.

300 Winchester Magnum round count is over 1,000 on a 3-9 Vari-X IIc put on in 1996, 35 Whelen well over 600 with the 3-9 VX-2 put on in 2001, another 75 rounds with the new VX3HD 3.5-10 put on this year and a 280 Remington with a 3-9 Leupold compact. Always held zero and the clicks on the VX3HD worked just like they should using a 100 yd zero and reaching out past 200 yards. At the end of each day I would click it back to the hundred yard zero. Then click up to what I needed for the next shot at hand in the following days.

Thanks for willingness to share your experience on it, and felt it was good with respect to the discussion to give a bit more detail on my experience to the positive.

 

[Balderdash]

Bummer the Leupold's have not served as well for you.

You mention up front there were "more than a few accidental falls" and rough handling.

If weight needs to be in there against human error and accidents, I'll take the chance that I can overcome most of it versus rely on the scope to handle it.

My experience is 30 years in the backcountry and can say they've endured everything I've put their way. I could not hold something accountable for failing to perform (in the moment or later on) after the treatment that has been openly shared. I am sure a Meopta that hadn't been used like that has held up well, unless it has had the same life as the Leupold and it is being said the Meopta handled the same "more than a few accidental falls" and rough handling as the Leupold.

Have been using Leupold's for 30 years on a 300 Winchester Magnum, a 35 Whelen AI, .280 Remington and haven't had an issue.

300 Winchester Magnum round count is over 1,000 on a 3-9 Vari-X IIc put on in 1996, 35 Whelen well over 600 with the 3-9 VX-2 put on in 2001, another 75 rounds with the new VX3HD 3.5-10 put on this year and a 280 Remington with a 3-9 Leupold compact. Always held zero and the clicks on the VX3HD worked just like they should using a 100 yd zero and reaching out past 200 yards. At the end of each day I would click it back to the hundred yard zero. Then click up to what I needed for the next shot at hand in the following days.

Thanks for willingness to share your experience on it, and felt it was good with respect to the discussion to give a bit more detail on my experience to the positive.

35:

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

I wanted to provide accurate information on how the scope was used. As such, I didn't mean to imply that the failure was all the fault of Leupold or even the scope being comparatively lightweight; the scope in reference held up well to a lot of hard use for a lot of years. Likewise with the other 10 or more 2.5-8's I have and have had. Instead, my point was that things happen when a guy's in the field, and I don't mind carrying a little more scope weight in the cause of more rugged internals.

Even after I had troubles with a couple of Leupold dialers, I never seriously considered pulling all the gold rings from my levers and larger bore "woods" rifles that weren't really ever going to get shot beyond 300 or dialed; however, having the experience described above resulted in me loosing the faith a bit.

Right now my Whelen bolt has a NF SHV 3-10 on it. I have this same scope on a couple of other rigs, including a LW 338 WM that has made a few scope's go wonky. So far they've been great, and I twist on and carry them a lot just to see how they do.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Your 35AI is a nice looking rifle!

There are more precise and consistent dialers out there. One can't expect a good scope to be all things at certain price points. I will definitely post if I run into issues in the offseason as I work on dialing at longer ranges.

Bringing this full circle, I would share the VX3HD on highest magnification (10.5) was very clear and every bit as easy, if not easier, to pick out that deer on the hillside once I had located it with the Viper 12x50s. Very pleased with the glass on the Leupold from that experience.

From what I understand Leupold has put their focus on the colors in the spectrum their HD glass helps to stand out as much as they've worked on overall light transmission.

 

[Powder]

Since I started this thread I think it's only fair I provide this information. I bought a pair of 15x56 Vortex Vulture HD's about 7 years ago. They were used. I don't hunt out west very often so they mainly stay in my closet. I think used them on a couple of hunts and that was it.

About a month ago I went with my Dad on a muley hunt and I didn't think they were very clear. When I got home I emailed Vortex and told them the same thing. In less than a day they had emailed back, included a pre-paid shipping label and said they would take a look. About 10 days later I got an email saying they were being sent back to me. When I opened the box there was a BRAND NEW set of binoculars. free of charge. The box still had the cellophane wrapper on it. I never really expected them to do that. I just wanted to know if they should be cleaned or if there was something wrong with them.

I get the point that we shouldn't have to worry about them not working. But I can't say enough good things about their customer service.

 

[jayhawk]

I started with their Diamondback binos back in the day. They worked fine, but I upgraded to Zeiss and now they sit in my truck. Saw a lot of deer and elk with those things though.

Only had one of their scopes, but never had any problems with it on my coyote gun.

Like most things nowadays, the quality hasn't kept up with the price increases. If you can find 'em on sale they're still worth the money though.