Perhaps I did misunderstand your reason for posting the thread. Certainly anyone can buy whatever they wish. I own several brands myself. The problem is you based your research on a very unscientific sample and made a decison about an entire brand based on a handful of threads.
Then, with no personal experience of your own to contribute, you opted to "publish" the results of your "findings". Why? All you accomplished was to intimate that your exhaustive search of supposedly qualified posters proves Leupold quality control is bad. What purpose does it serve to regurgitate other people's opinions?
So now you have added to this body of internet "evidence" that Leupold is bad.
To be fair to Leupold- they arguably have more scopes in the field than all the other makers combined- and they still warranty them. Of course there are more disappointed owners- there are a LOT more owners overall. If I did internet research on Ford and Tesla I'm fairly certain I'd find more complaints about Ford. Does that mean Fords are all junk?
I'm not gonna say Leupold hasn't cut a corner or two and made some mistakes. But I will say they stand behind their products.
I'm sure there are lots of wonderful optics choices out there- buy one and tell everyone on the internet how awesome it is before you even mount it on a rifle. Then we can reference your opinion to justify buying a 'Nitron Benderski X7". They must be the best scopes ever made since I never read a negative comment on a bulletin board.
No offence meant, but you might wish to consider reading my posted statements again, as I in no way made any unsubstantiated claims concerning Leupold QC. Read my postings and you will see for yourself what I based my concerns on. As a matter of fact you can do a search here at LRH and you should find the same thread that was IIRC over 20 pages long that quite a few members here expressed displeasure with the lower end Leupold scopes such as the VX II's and VX IIIs having more instances of not adjusting or returning or maintaining zero reliably and not as reliably as the higher end Leupolds.
AS far as being "Scientific" in my data, would you sir be so kind as to tell me exactly how anyone can gather evidence with the level of accuracy needed to be certified as "Scientific" unless one was to buy scopes from the majority of scope manufacturers in the same price point as a VX-3i then subject them to a brace of tests needed to accurately evaluate them?
I can not speak for anyone but myself, but if I could afford to buy enough of scopes to perform such a test I wouldn't be here asking advice, I would just buy a S&B scope and call it a day. I like the other 90-99% of people have little other choice but to come to forums such as this and ask advice form people we hope are FAR more experienced than we are to help us make the best choices in spending our in my case VERY hard earned money.
I research all my major or important purchases the same way if they are rifle scopes or a vehicle, I use the internet to find out as much information good and bad as I can on the item. I might be going out on a limb here but I'm willing to but you do pretty much the same thing.
Unfortunately scopes unlike vehicles, or house hold appliances don't have a "Consumer Reports" type magazine that gives fair and unbiased reviews of them. No I like the other 95-99%+ of hunters and shooters almost entirely on the internet to gather information to on which to base our to buy decisions on and for better or worse that information can never even approach the threshold of being "scientific".
All a person such as myself can do is perform multiple goggle searches and post requests in forums such as this one for people to share their first hand experiences and when it comes down to it you have no way of knowing if the person is being honest and unbiased or not. IMHO all you can do is gather as many first had experiences that people share with you and base your findings on weather the majority of the data allows you to conclude the product in question is reliable or not.
In the case of my research into weather or not the VX-3i model of scopes were reliable enough for me to place my faith in, I based it on not an over whelming no# of negative posts, but again this in MY OPINION only, there were enough negative posts that I shouldn't keep the VX-3i I had ordered because I needed more research to give me the confidence I require to place the fate of my most important hunts on any scope. I'm not saying I will not end up simply buying another VX-3i, as I very well just might, but I need some more information be fore I do.
Keep in mind I am but scraping the tip of the adjustable scope technology ice berg, and the more I am learning what goes into making a scope like the VX-3i that is designed to be adjusted for long range shots, the more I start to understand how much more complicated and precise such an optic is VS my decades old bomb proof VX-II scopes that are by comparison dirt simple set and forget optics.
I am also learning it is very difficult some times to discern the wheat from the chaff when it comes to accurate information collected from the internet.
Just a different point of view.
