Nikon Monarch or Leupold VX III?

[jmason]

That's the best cs story I've heard. I have used Luepold, Nikon, bushnell, and BSA's cs and all were nice and all took about the same amount of time to turn around regardless of geography. All experiances were great!

 

[piutemike]

For all the talk of purchasing Leupold for the customer service, haven't used the CS of Sightron. I had a issue with a scope just days before leaving on a hunting trip. Called Sightron and they next day aired a scope to me and told me to send the faulty scope back after the return of my trip. I had many other scope but this was my first opportunity to use Sightrons CS.

I have a 2.5-8X36 VXIII at Leupold that has been there for almost 3 weeks. It's suppose to ship today and I'm sure it will but next day is nice.

If you contact them at the time, the wait is about 3 weeks.

Sightron all the way

Rob

Rob Welcome to the forum. I have enjoyed some of your scope reviews on the campfire, I just don't post over there too much for various reasons. I recently put a Sightron S11 big sky on my wifes 7mm08 and I am pretty impressed with the quality of the scope.I'm just pulling in to Grand Junction Colorado. Archery Elk starts Sat. Hope I have some pictures and a story to tell in about 10 days.Mike

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

This is why I like the Monarchs over the Leupolds. The Monarch has 40 feet field of veiw and 4 inch eye relief on the 2.5-10. The higher power Monarchs typically have greater FOV and maintain long eye relief. When looking for a hunting scope I compare the following charachteristics and come up with the best of all the numbers. All have lifetime warranties.
1. Wide field of veiw is critical in a hunting scope.
2. Edge to Edge Clarity. When testing a scope I am looking down the edge of the veiw to determine how good it is, not down the center.
3. Brightness
4. Paralax if it does not have the adjustment on it. The crosshairs wobble bad all over the place on some scopes as you move your eye around.
5. Ability to bring the reticle into sharp focus.
6. Ability to look near the angle of the sun and still see well. Some are horrible at this.
7. Look at some type of object or paper with fine staight, crossing lines. Look toward the edges of the scope and see if the lines stay straight edge to edge.
8. Weight. I backpack and/or walk miles while hunting and weight is critical. A top scope can be had in the 13-15 ounce range in 2-10 power and 18-20 ounces in 4-16 and 6-24 power. No way I am going beyond this in a hunting rifle. I can easily take big game at a half mile with a ten power scope. 16 is all you would ever need in any legitimate big game hunting situation if you are good enough to hunt big game at long range. If you can't you need more practice. If you don't have to hike while hunting then this doesn't apply. The best rifle in the world is no good if you can't tote it all day. You have got to stay within tolerable weight parameters.

I could go on and on but my fingers are tired.

 

[mtmuley]

I had a CS issue with Nikon over a rangefinder. You couldn't GIVE me another Nikon product. A few years ago, a cow moose and myself had a bit of a run-in on a fall bear hunt which resulted in my VX-2 being severely damaged. The opener of general big game was 9 days off. I talked to Leupold. They said ship to them overnite and it would be turned around in 7 days. Got it back in six. Besides, if you make scopes for 100 years, your bound to put out a good product. mtmuley

 

[Brocksdad]

Mike, if you've been to the campfire, you have seen many flames fly.

I wish you the best of luck on you and your Bow Hunt.

I still spend alot of time with scopes and rifles and test endlessly but, don't post my results for obvious reasons any more. I have many people that PM me for direction on a scope for a particular gun and a particular use.

Have Fun

Rob

 

[ScottBerish]

So, Scott,

Are you saying that Nikon can be difficult to deal with on warranty issues?

Thanks, Rick

I think it is safe to say, on average, that the level of unresponsiveness on any given CS interaction would be a bit higher with Nikon vs Lupy.

How's that for lawyer-speak??

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

Mtmuley, I was a dealer and heard many stories like yours both for and against all scope companies. I lost interest in the Leupolds about ten years ago when there quality control got very poor. I was sending back a lot of stuff to them and in some cases they would just send me a new in the box one to replace it and do it promptly. The problem would be the new stuff would have the same defect. But then I had similar problems with Burris, Nikon, Bushnell, Pentax, etc. I am just saying they all can have issues so I look for particular things in a scope that fit my hunting situation the best and go with it and brand really has nothing to do with it. Same thing with rifles and cartridges.

By the way those first couple of sentences in my first post had to do with Leupold and Nikon. All the other stuff are just a few things I look for in general and I could add a bunch to that list.

 

[mtmuley]

Ranger, I understand what you are saying. But when a company treats me right, and another does not, it's a no-brainer. I looked at a lot of glass before I bought my Leupolds. I'm not disappointed at all. mtmuley

 

[Brocksdad]

In some conversations with Nikon and talking to customers, Nikon has vowed to improve CS. Many have posted on different forums that the nightmares of the past have been non existent but, we will have to see what will happen in the long run.

Only time will tell and I wish them luck. Good product doesn't make up for poor CS.

Rob