Vortex's Warranty = Good | Vortex's Turrets = Not as good

Haagen_Dazs said:
This is exactly what I was told was normal by the Vortex techs and is also what turned me away from the product. Now I have my SWFA SS HD and will not be switching it out for anything else.
Click to expand...

I actually don't have a problem with it at all, since I use Burris Signature rings to roughly align the scope and rifle so that the windage is mechanically zero'd when sighted in. As it sits, with the scope zero'd, I have 68MOA of usable elevation, which is plenty for me. I don't dial in windage, instead I use the excellent EBR-1 reticle to hold off. So the whole setup works well for me. Although I understand the SWFA SS HD is an amazing scope. How would you compare it to the PST, and what did you end up having to spend to get the SWFA in your hands, if you don't mind me asking?
 
I payed $1450 all in to get it here. The Vortex has nicer cosmetics and a slight edge towards the reticle design, but the SWFA has internals that work which is all that maters for me. Mine tracks a true rectange that measures 30 mils of elevation and +/- 10 mils of windage. It gets more a few clicks more than that but I just round it down. I also found the SWFA was a bit more solid.

I keep asking every dealer I know to bring them in but they are not popular enough for them to take the chance.
 
Haagen_Dazs said:
I payed $1450 all in to get it here. The Vortex has nicer cosmetics and a slight edge towards the reticle design, but the SWFA has internals that work which is all that maters for me. Mine tracks a true rectange that measures 30 mils of elevation and +/- 10 mils of windage. It gets more a few clicks more than that but I just round it down. I also found the SWFA was a bit more solid.

I keep asking every dealer I know to bring them in but they are not popular enough for them to take the chance.
Click to expand...

the manufacturer has no desire to do business with canada, so these scopes will never be available. how you got yours is beyond me.
 
masonicshooter said:
the manufacturer has no desire to do business with canada, so these scopes will never be available. how you got yours is beyond me.
Click to expand...

I've never heard about SWFA not interested in the Canadian market, but I have heard about US manufactures keeping their products in the US. Wouldn't be suprising if that was the case with SWFA.


I got mine mail ordered from the states. Was the 4th scope that I bought from the US. It's not bringing it into Canada that is the issue, it's exporting it from the states which is why I always buy from someone who can export them. I payed the duty on all of them. I'd love to buy from a Canadian supplier but it's hard when there's only so much to choose from.
 
masonicshooter said:
the manufacturer has no desire to do business with canada, so these scopes will never be available. how you got yours is beyond me.
Click to expand...

You mean the distributor has no interest.

SWFA Super Sniper scopes are made somewhere in Japan in a Super Secret factory, or so it seems as SWFA is unwilling to disclose who the manufacturer is. That alone has always made me a bit suspect. In all reality, it probably doesn't make any difference (and that has been their opinion on the subject) but then why the secrecy?
 
medvedqc said:
bearkilr,

doubt it will another place than LOW (light optics works) there is no secret place in Japan for public optics ....
Click to expand...

They could be made there, or it could be that it's easier to let people assume that's the manufacturer, when in fact it's a lesser known one. ;)

Bottom line; secrecy leads to suspicion, at least in my books. To each their own, but personally I like to stick to the transparent companies. Vortex has always been pretty open about their originating manufacturers.
 
iirc, SWFA has publicly denied that SuperSnipers are made by LOW or Hakko (or whatever they're called now). Lots of the SuperSnipers have the little 'Kenko' sticker still on them when they reach stateside so it's a pretty good bet that Kenko Optics makes them for SWFA.
 
bearkilr said:
You mean the distributor has no interest.

SWFA Super Sniper scopes are made somewhere in Japan in a Super Secret factory, or so it seems as SWFA is unwilling to disclose who the manufacturer is. That alone has always made me a bit suspect. In all reality, it probably doesn't make any difference (and that has been their opinion on the subject) but then why the secrecy?
Click to expand...

I was also curious about where SWFA came from so I emailed them. Didn't expect much but got a pretty good response:



Kevin,



We do not divulge any information in regards to any of our suppliers. FYI, LOW does not make Sightron.



Best Regards,



Chris Farris



--------------------------------------------------------------


Chris,

Thanks for the quick response. May I ask why it's such a secret?


Cheers
Kevin


---------------------------------------------------------------


Kevin,



It is not as simple as people make it out to be in regards to who makes what and for who. All of the factories in Japan are capable of producing any level of optic. They have off the shelf items that they design and will put your name on or they will take your specifications and build to them.



You would not know any more than you do now if I divulged to you what took us 15 years to establish. People assume that if brand X’s scope is made by the same factory that produces brand Y’s scope then they must be the same, which is far from the truth.



IE:, GM produced Chevettes and Corvettes at the same time and although they both came from the same factory and company they are drastically different.



We have nothing to gain by publically listing our suppliers and there is not just one or two. We source our reticles from a European company for instance and have them shipped to Japan. We are working on a USA made Zero Stop turret that will also be sent to Japan for assembly. Our windage and elevation assemblies are very specialized and come from yet another source for example.



So laying out the blue prints and sources of our products has absolutely zero benefit for us, I hope you understand. I can assure you that we take a different approach than others when designing and building our scopes. We never look at the bottom line when it comes to the quality of materials used. The scopes will cost what they cost at the end and we know that no compromises were made to keep the bean counters happy. We started doing this to get the best scopes possible into the hands of our troops at the lowest cost possible to them by having a low overhead and no distributors or dealers to mark up the products.



I appreciate you going to bat for us with your friends who probably think our scopes are made by Tasco, which by the way has never made anything they are just a name but that is another story. Our scopes are made to the best of our ability and sold at the lowest margins that we can and still keep the lights on.



Best Regards,



Chris Farris
Click to expand...
 
You're absolutley correct.


As a partial update; I recently purchased a 4-16 pst ffp and from the preliminary test, I see it should not disappoint. However, I can tell it will not pass the 'box test'.


This is the 3rd Vortex PST scope I've had in my hands.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom