Almost none of the opinion in this makes any sense, and most is easily disproven. Specifically, Nikon’s customer service was highly restrictive compared to Vortex’s. Not making any claim that Vortex’s low end scopes are anything but low end, but taking shots at their customer service and saying Nikon’s provenance based, no-negligence, limited warranty was better than Vortex’s turnstile type customer support is absolutely laughable.
Believing Nikon couldn’t compete is also pretty funny. They took a shot with the FX-black line, realized they still weren’t selling because customers expected better performance, AND they started getting more and more pressure from their left-leaning photography customers to get out of riflescopes - after it became apparent abandoning their hunting lines and trying to keep sport shooting lines open - so they took the opportunity to bail on riflescopes altogether.
They were largely an anti-gun and anti-hunting organization for a long time. Guys bought their scopes thinking they were getting the same great glass found in their photography lenses… often not. The other consequences of limited elevation adjustment, lensing edge effects, and lacking market-relevant features were a result of their lack of interest to invest in the market opportunity, not because they “weren’t able to compete.”
