King optics?

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Pyd

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My local shop is now carrying King optics, I have never heard of them?
I looked through a couple and they were not all that bad, some of he reticle choices were "busy", others had some neat features.
They say they are made in Canada, and their price is up there with the big boys, does anyone have any experience with them?
 
Handcrafted by Bubba. The truth is in this thread...;)

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389219

I finally had a chance to get out to 1 of only 2 firearms places this spring that are in my area. I don't know if I can say their name but it was Paradise Kayaks in Louisburg Nova Scotia, just 20 minutes outside Sydney NS. He sells kayaks, firearms and hunting supplies and he is also a gunsmish. I was actually looking at some kayaks but ended up talking about rifles. First thing that bothered me was he was smoking in his business which is not allowed. His shop is in his yard next to his house.

Somehow scopes came up in our conversation and he brought out the king optics scope, their demo that has been dropped probably 1000 times over. Looked like it was taken to a wire wheel to make it look more damaged and started a speal of this is what you need and nothing else compares. I mentioned the bsa and bushnell scopes I had and he bashed any and all names mentioned. I said to him I'm not going to put a $1000 scope on a $200 rimfire or let alone my rifle that works fine with the bushnell it has.

He kept on about how well their built and blah blah blah was all I was hearing because after he called what I had garbage I didn't want to hear anymore. So while I was there he showed me his back room and said he could only open it for a second and inside were all the king optic scopes, and assembly area, boxes, hundreds of parts. He told me that he assembles them. Don't get me wrong the place was clean but if you seen the place and met who was selling them then you start to wonder why there are so expensive to make.
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Their website for king optics show his address, so you would think he is the owner and also the building it shows is his building but someone did some photoshop work to the pic and added the names to the building and added grass and trees and made the building look new.
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Despite that we sell Nightforce, we take exception to the the "best in world" claims. Experience shows exagerated claims equate to inferior product.

We respect: Nightforce, Schmidt und Bender, Zeiss, Leupold, the new Japanese Sightron products and a few others. We do not respect companies with falacious advertising.

Regards,

Peter Dobson
 
I started with a genuine interest, after reading every thread I could find on these, and seeing how the owner reacts to any form of criticism I no longer have a desire to own one.
 
I have never used a King Optics scope myself...and due to price I never will lol.... but I do know a guy that got rid of a Bushnell Elite 6500 for a King, and likes the King better.
 
alberta tactical rifle said:
Is his name Stevie Wonder???:p
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I'm not trying to be hard to get along with here, but have you actually used or seen a King Optics scope ? I will admit that I don't know much about them, but I'll also say that the only reason I won't try one is because of the price alone. A lot of people on here seem to be pretty quick to say they are no good just because they aren't made in a 20,000 square foot facility like Nikon or Leupold. The guy I know that uses King Optics scopes used to have Bushnell Elites because he thought they were top-notch...he switched to King for a reason... and it certainly wasn't for the price lol. All I can say for sure here is that Leupold, Nikon, Bushnell, etc., were not always the big boys that they are now... at one time they were probably a laughing stock like King, but now they are the best.
I thought that most people on here were pretty objective when it came to products for guns and such, but I'm not so sure. For people to say a brand is no good without personal experience is ridiculous... that's like me saying that Sako sucks a$$. I really have no idea, because I have never even held one... but I would love to give one a try.
 
steve-o1979 said:
I'm not trying to be hard to get along with here, but have you actually used or seen a King Optics scope ? I will admit that I don't know much about them, but I'll also say that the only reason I won't try one is because of the price alone. A lot of people on here seem to be pretty quick to say they are no good just because they aren't made in a 20,000 square foot facility like Nikon or Leupold. The guy I know that uses King Optics scopes used to have Bushnell Elites because he thought they were top-notch...he switched to King for a reason... and it certainly wasn't for the price lol. All I can say for sure here is that Leupold, Nikon, Bushnell, etc., were not always the big boys that they are now... at one time they were probably a laughing stock like King, but now they are the best.
I thought that most people on here were pretty objective when it came to products for guns and such, but I'm not so sure. For people to say a brand is no good without personal experience is ridiculous... that's like me saying that Sako sucks a$$. I really have no idea, because I have never even held one... but I would love to give one a try.
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In fact I have. Both in finished product and the raw pieces, courtesy of "twister" at a local gun show here several months ago. From a machinists point of view, "crude" machinework in the making of the tube and housings is being polite. The coatings lacked consistency both on the inside of the tube as well as on the len's.
To me the optical clarity closely resembled that of looking through an empty beer glass shortly after consuming the contents. Eye relief in my opinion was far too critical and likely to get a person scoped in the head.


That all being said, I am very used to high end optics, my own personal rifles wear NFs, MK4s, S&Bs and recently a Premier. The King scope does not even come close to approaching the clarity or quality of any of these in my opinion, yet they are trying to claim they are by virtue of price.

If given the choice of King or Tasco at the same price the Tasco would be my choice.

This may be a harsh review, but that is my opinion based on what I have seen and handled.
 
steve-o1979 said:
I'm not trying to be hard to get along with here, but have you actually used or seen a King Optics scope?
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While I have not seen one in person a friend of mine, who is a manufacturing engineer, has. In fact he also knows the owner of King optics (and his antics) and Nick was doing his best to try and impress by showing my friend finished scopes and raw parts in the "manufacturing facility". He was less than impressed.

steve-o1979 said:
A lot of people on here seem to be pretty quick to say they are no good just because they aren't made in a 20,000 square foot facility like Nikon or Leupold.
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No they are assembled in an old outbuilding that was probably built as a barn in the 60's and hasen't seen many upgrades or improvements since then.

steve-o1979 said:
All I can say for sure here is that Leupold, Nikon, Bushnell, etc., were not always the big boys that they are now... at one time they were probably a laughing stock like King, but now they are the best.
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No they were not big boys right out of the gate but they built a quality product and answered questions from potential customers with openess and honesty.

steve-o1979 said:
I thought that most people on here were pretty objective when it came to products for guns and such, but I'm not so sure. For people to say a brand is no good without personal experience is ridiculous... that's like me saying that Sako sucks a$$. I really have no idea, because I have never even held one... but I would love to give one a try.
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Most of the people on here are quite objective and are willing to give new products a try. There is a vast amount of experience represented on this site and these people could help be one of the best marketing tools in this country. Many businesses have introduced themselves and their products here and have earned their reputations.

In the case of King Optics we have an owner with a "checkered" past in regards to his businesses who is flogging an expensive product he will give few details on. Even the makers of cheap scope lines will give details and answer questions on their products.
On this site and others there have been very lame attempts by some people (associated with King) to flog the King Optics products, only to disappear when real questions have been asked.

If Nick and King Optics were serious about getting their products out there, they should have become a dealer on this site and started answering questions about their scopes. Sending out a couple of demo models for members to evaluate would have been a boon for business if they were of the quality King claims. Anybody in advertising will tell you that word of mouth advertising is as good as it gets. They will also tell you that it can kill a company if it's bad.


If these scopes were being sold in the $100 range nobody would care but King is asking for serious money for a product they cannot seem to stand behind.
How would you feel if you paid $1000 for a $100 scope?
 
steve-o1979 said:
I'm not trying to be hard to get along with here, but have you actually used or seen a King Optics scope ?
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I have, now.
My local gun shop was the one that told me about them, that is what started this inquiry. Now they have some in stock and I got to hold them.
I didn't find the optics terrible, and I thought some of the cross-hair combinations had potential too.
When I went to look at them the first thing that jumped out at me is that they look cheap, they look like BSA and Tasco came up with them together. A closer look and I couldn't get my head around the fluting, not just the fluting it's self, but the paint in the grooves looked like it was done by a kid.
And human nature always drives your eye to the price, it just feels wrong to get that first impression of cheap then get slapped in the face when the price is in excess of $1000. I think the scope company could give the market a good run if it competed with the $100 to $300 scopes, in my opinion that is where they belong.
However, even if they were in a lower price range I would choose a scope manufactured by a more established company before I invested in the new guy.
 
We have looked at the King Optics line and mounted one scope for a customer. It is my opinion they are entry level products comparing with BSA/ Tasco but without the backing of a large company with a positive history in the optics business. We will not consider carrying these products due to low quality and high price. Phil.
 
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