If you have time take a read, this is from a few years ago but goes into Leupold having binos and rangefinders made in China and then shipped to rest of world for Leupold to resell.
Now where it gets interesting is a Chinese company actually registered the Leupold name after they started making items for Leupold. Then they took it a step further and registered a bunch of other scope company names, some names they sold back some they kept.
Pretty greasy no doubt but really what did US companies think was going to happen when they opened Pandoras Box and asked the Chinese to make them goods...
Anyway its about half way down in the document it mentions the riflescopes and then goes almost to the end of the doc in a couple sections. Guess Leupold tried to work with the Chinese then filed appeals and failed, in fact could have been charged themselves due to the Leupold name being registered to the Chinese. This makes total sense now why these scopes cannot be stopped from importation. Leupold cannot have it both ways they lost the fight when they approached the Chinese to make products bearing the Leupold name. When they figured it out it was too late. To date Leupold still are using China to make some of their goods. In fact it has also been stated the glass is from Japan but Leupold is pretty tight lipped where their components are sourced, they only say the scopes are assembled in the US to Leupolds standards.`The fact they continue to still market fully assembled goods made in China demonstrates that they are not prepared to go after the Chinese fully, like I said can`t have it both ways....
Don`t think it is really a money thing to Leupold but a reputation thing for scopes but then again why do they continue to sell China manufactured items with the Leupold name to this day.
I was surprised to learn the Chinese are manufacturing far more scopes for well known brands then I thought, so good chance you scope has Chinese components without scope companies disclosing this fact.
So I think we may need to revisit who we trust as far as not using Chinese parts or companies that continue to resell Chinese goods under their label while complaining about only certain products being counterfeit.... What we have here is a very very slippery slope of what we thought was the truth about Chinese outsourcing.....
I sincerely hope this thread is not compromised as this is info we all really need to understand as it is buried pretty deep and not fully discussed among scope makers.
From Leupold directly after it was asked from a Cabela client::
All Leupold rangefinders are designed in Beaverton, Oregon by our in-house optical and electrical engineers and
manufactured by trusted business partners in China. Unfortunately, just like all other electronics today (your TV, phone, computer) the industry moved off-shore in search of more favorable conditions. As a result, electronic products have become extremely expensive to manufacture domestically. While people favor goods made in the US, our research shows they are not willing to pay the premium required to manufacture this category of product domestically.
From Leupold confirming their binos are imported, yes from China... Just not specified.
5. Do your binoculars have a lifetime warranty?
Imported binoculars and spotting scopes are covered by our Leupold Limited Lifetime warranty. “Limited” means they are warranted to the original purchaser.
The question of counterfeit seems to be unclear when viewed from both sides of the globe when we consider Leupold themselves having some of their products being made in China, and sold in the US, but with made in China on the product info. So would a Chinese M1 or M3 style scope that is a registered name of Leupold in China but with made in China on the packaging be the same. I just don`t know anymore after digging into what Leupold is doing in China and over here....
I was skeptical as well before I found this US Government doc!!
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-109shrg63758/html/CHRG-109shrg63758.htm