Vortex Crossfire II distortion

O

OldRussian

CGN Regular
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Edmonton AB
I just got a Vortex Crossfire II 1-4 in the mail from a fellow cgn'r. When I look through the glass walls and and objects bend and warp as the get close to the crosshairs. Has anyone else experienced a similar issue to this with their scopes?

I will likely send it to vortex for warranty and am not faulting the gentleman I traded with.
 
Your low dollar low quality scope has parallax issues? I'm shocked.

To be serious, if your head position remains constant from shot to shot, the parallax isn't an issue. However, acquiring consistent head placement from shot to shot isn't the easiest thing to do which means such parallax can and usually is an issue. The other possibility is indeed a faulty optic.

Tdc
 
This isn't parallax, this is cheap Chinese garbage manufacturing. Fish eye (there is a proper term....spherical aberration, or barrel distortion...one or the other) is due to cheaply and improperly ground glass and is common on these low power scopes.
 
After I called and left a message Vortex emailed me saying they sent the scope to the USA for repair and that it will be a few more weeks before return. It is going to be a lengthy wait before I get my optic...
 
Hitzy said:
This isn't parallax, this is cheap Chinese garbage manufacturing. Fish eye (there is a proper term....spherical aberration, or barrel distortion...one or the other) is due to cheaply and improperly ground glass and is common on these low power scopes.
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Yep - cheap crap. The one I had was surprisingly clear, except for the whole cross hair assembly rotating in the body when I shot the gun... Better off with bushnell trophy. For the cost of a new one you can get into a Leupold HOG without illumination.
 
i have only owned one vortex. first time to the range the retical broke. was replaced with new under warenty and i sold it nib.
 
I noticed a few recent threads on snipershide, standard "Vortex 6-24 vs Sightron SIII 6-24, which one should I get?" and the tide seems to be turning away from Vortex, even in the US, which kind of surprised me. Vortex was an early leader in "affordable" tactical scopes. The weights on them are not unreasonable (except the razor) and they worked well at what I used them for. EVERYBODY seems to have a story about how they had an issue and the warranty is fantastic blah blah blah, I would love to see the numbers of percent of product returned under warranty. I only rant a bit, as I am on the fence about a Viper HST 4-16 right now and it seems like a crap shoot.

Meanwhile, the new Razor 4.5-27 HD latest and greatest at 3LBS weight, is getting rave reviews, great quality etc, kinda like the high end vipers used to get. Every brand has occasional issues, but I could search on here and only find a handful of warranty instances on bushnell elites, but PAGES of stories on the Vortex, yet everybody lines up to buy them. Am I wrong in my thought process?
 
I have vortex on ALL of my hunting rifles.... I have never had a single failure.... that being said, only two of them are crossfire II's and those are on rimfires..... To compare a crossfire to an elite is a stretch.... crossfire is more like a banner, which is what the cheap package scopes that come with an Axxis are....

Like anything else, you get what you pay for and if you buy a bottom line scope you will get a bottom line scope.... at least vortex will replace it if it breaks.... good luck with the bushnell warranty department.....
 
Fish eye is normal in 1-4 and 2-7 crossfire/diamondback scopes - but towards the center it should always be flat. Also, the fish eye should only be noticeable when scanning from side to side or viewing perfectly straight lines. Yes it is chinese made, but the quality of the crossfire is not "cheap crap". It is more than decent. Its easy to discard something that is chinese made and I totally understand why, but seriously these scopes are awesome. Research any scope and there will be a review somewhere telling you to stay away from brand X because they tried 5 different scopes from them and had issues with all of them etc... Using a random number here, if 1'000'000 scopes are sold and 0.5% fail, this means 5000 people have issues. Most of them will return them and warranties will be honered and it will be the end of it. But even if 500 of these people report some issues all over internet forums and e-tailer product reviews, then it will seem like the company is falling appart, when in fact they are well within the average manufacturer defect/return margin.

I would love to see number comparisons between each brand to see which one actually fails the most often.. I bet there would be many surprises.

By the I have owned two vortex scopes and they were both stellar performing, I was sad to part with the Viper I had, I had to fund a shotgun rig. I don't consider myself biased at all since I made tons of research to narrow to the Viper. Quality of it was top notch for a hunting scope.
 
Funny, I've never seen a negative review of a swarovski, s&b, trijicon, nightforce, leica, March, zeiss, premier, leupold mk6 or 8 series? Must be the low numbers that are sold.

Tdc
 
TDC said:
Funny, I've never seen a negative review of a swarovski, s&b, trijicon, nightforce, leica, March, zeiss, premier, leupold mk6 or 8 series? Must be the low numbers that are sold.

Tdc
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And I have never seen a bad review on a Cooper rifle either..... but I can't afford one.... What is your point?
 
I already documented on a few posts my issues with Leupold, wont repeat it. Every manufacturer has issues, the percentage of those issues, and how the company treats its customers is more important.

I know a guy who had a good spill on a Quad and seriously bent a Vortex main tube. Not at all the companies fault, still replaced it with a new one. Would suspect that no one hears about problems with S & B or Nightforce, not because they don't happen, but because of the customer service/warranty that kind of glass buys......and because someone who spends 4K on a scope is never going to admit to anyone(especially themselves) that they got a lemon.
 
Gillen1 said:
I guess us peasants who can't/wont drop $1000+ on a scope don't deserve any optics.
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Its called a budget and setting priorities. If a good optic is a priority you'll ssell, save and wait until you hav e the funds. If you're ok with distortion then run lower quality optics, just don't b!tch when you're frustrated or it fails.

Tdc
 
Superbrad said:
I think I mentioned that earlier.... :) .... my experience with all of my vortex optics is I have gotten more than I paid for.... and I have the peace of mind of knowing that if something goes south I will get a brand new optic....
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The better brands have the same warranty, but what's better is that you'll likely never need it. That's what you pay for.

Tdc
 
nowarningshot said:
I already documented on a few posts my issues with Leupold, wont repeat it. Every manufacturer has issues, the percentage of those issues, and how the company treats its customers is more important.

I know a guy who had a good spill on a Quad and seriously bent a Vortex main tube. Not at all the companies fault, still replaced it with a new one. Would suspect that no one hears about problems with S & B or Nightforce, not because they don't happen, but because of the customer service/warranty that kind of glass buys......and because someone who spends 4K on a scope is never going to admit to anyone(especially themselves) that they got a lemon.
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Leupold sucks aside from their mark 6 and 8 lines. consumer grade slap together junk. Sad really, they used to be the benchmark for hunting/general use optics.

Your buddies "warranty" from vortex is called marketing. It got you to buy their brand and likely your buddy for life. Doesn't matter they over charge and find it more cost effective to replace over repair(that's called a clue)their optics. Sure, they're great disposable optics with lifetime replacement. Walmart offers the same policy on all their "goods".

Tdc
 
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