Don't waste your money!

T

Tumbleweed

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A nearby thread regarding low priced binos got me thinking about one of my own follies.

A couple of years ago there was a guy from Vancouver selling Chinese knockoffs of Leupold 3.5-10 Mk. 4's for $135 a pop. There was a quite a buzz about them on CGN, and I thought "What the hell - for that price I'll give them a try!" so I ordered two. They came with really nice clear optics, illuminated reticles, etc. The glass seemed really quite good. Externally, except for the absence of markings, they were dead ringers for Mk.4's.

Well, they sat on the shelf for a long time I finally got around to trying one a month or so back, on a .270 with 130 gr. bullets - a reasonably low recoiling rifle - and got exactly three shots out of the scope before it crapped out. It went completely out of focus and stayed that way.

I decided to try the second one yesterday on a very accurate SAKO .308 that gives me moa groups with a Leupold M8-4x. The Chinese 'Leupold' gives me shotgun patterns at all power ranges. It remains clear, but is obviously pooched inside.

The point? Don't waste your money on crap. You do indeed get what you pay for - in my case, a decent used M8 Leupold for $270 would have been money much better spent than the same amount wasted for two useless pieces of garbage, no matter how good the garbage looks on the outside.
 
I bought a tiny Chinese knockoff video camera for 12 bucks (the one it copied was 200) for on my rc car and its been great, going on 2 years with it now, its been through more then I expected and still works perfect.

Sometimes the cost savings are worth it. Depending on what you are doing with it and if the savings is worth the risk.

I am a firm believer of buying the good one first though, I know a lot of people that buy a lesser model to start with and then buy the one they originally wanted a bit later, all that does is cost you more money in the long run.
 
Couldn't agree more. Doesn't have to be top of the line, but quality is hard to beat. I also just posted to the other thread my personal experiences. If my funds are limited, I'll shop around for used quality over brand new junk any day of the week. This principle applies to optics, firearms, gear, vehicles, etc...
 
A friend of mine and member here (paging sgt tackleberry) has a fake Leopold he bought in China and has had on his M14S for over a year...I've shot it many times, and it functions flawlessly. Luck of the draw?
 
shootemup said:
A friend of mine and member here (paging sgt tackleberry) has a fake Leopold he bought in China and has had on his M14S for over a year...I've shot it many times, and it functions flawlessly. Luck of the draw?
Click to expand...

I have no doubt some of them function flawlessly. I have a friend who swears his AR7 fires every time he pulls the trigger. :p

My point is, that you can COUNT ON a genuine Leupold to function flawlessly, or you can send it back and they'll stand behind it. If you buy the knockoff and it proves to be junk, you're on your own. Believe me, the Wi Got Yu Import Co. in Vancouver couldn't care less.
 
Those Leupold knockoffs are a lot of fun on a rimfire. I wouldn't put one on anything that failure has any consequences. You have to look at it as a toy, more than anything.
 
All good points! I agree with buying the quality the first time around. I've been super lucky with my (don't buy one, but buy TWO of them) fake Leupolds. Not everyone will be as lucky. I've mounted them on my .22LR CZ452 Style and also on my .223 M70 Varmint gitter. Lots and lots of groundhogs have fallen to these two rigs.

Gotta keep knocking on wood that these cheap shzt scopes hold out. Frankly, I just got lucky and I'm not sure I would recommend them to anybody else. Any rifle that has little recoil are perfect candidates for these $ 100ish scopes because you still would be spending that much for you .22LR, but now I've got the ability to dial in (side focus) and clear up the scope at 25 steps, I could not do that with my Leupold VariXII 3 x9x 50mm in the past. The earth pig popping up for a look at 25 steps was blurry (but dead anyways)... I like to enjoy the drama of the impact.:D

I've just bought a .308 SPS... maybe I'll mount the fake Leupold on there and see if I can 'kill' it with the recoil and give it a great death! :)

Thanks for the idea! :evil:

Cheers,
Barney
 
question really is "how cheap is cheap?"- and when you include shipping from wherever if you bought it on e-bay or something- the lowest end bushnell used to run about 30 bucks and about 15 for a 22 tasco 4x 20 air rifle scope- i haven't priced them lately( no need to) but that seems fairly inexpensive to me- plus, bushy. at least , will replace it in the first year if defective- EVENTUALLY - plus, you can go back and b*tch at the store - something you can't do over the internet or mail- and you pay shipping BOTH ways, typically
 
Cheap tools, cheap optics, cheap anything, and you're taking your chances. As was mentioned earlier, it's the luck of the draw, but that doesn't mean you can't get a good score once in while. In my case, years back, there was a Russian importer at an sportsmans show with a line of newly imported binos, and they were in the process of breaking into the Canadian market. I checked them out, and they SEEMED to be typically solid-built soviet stuff. I bought a set of big high power 20 X 60 for $175.00 (not having the budget to get the 25 X 80). WELL!!!! They turned out to be the best bucks I ever spent on binos! They came with haze filters and a tripod mounting bracket, which I had to sleeve and modify to north american standard thread. The optics are multi-coated and clear as a bell. A buddy of mine who's into astronomy checked them out, and raved over them. Some time ago another friend expressed an interest in getting a pair of his own, so I checked out the importer here in Toronto. I told him what I had, and asked, "how much now?" Would you believe $580.00! As it turns out, the Russians had dismantled a German optics factory after the war and shipped it, and the technicians, back to Russia to make their own superior optics. I think it was a Zeiss plant if my memory serves me right. The long and short of it is if you're in the right place at the right time, you can get a good deal.
 
I've had a post in the EE in the past, looking for a few broken "Mock4" scopes.

Shoot me a PM if you want to be rid of them for postage and a Timmies card.

Cheers
Trev
 
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