Leupold Warning

[Ruger Redhawk]

I received this from a buddy of mine who owns a gun shop back home.


Counterfeit Leupold Riflescope Warning
Leupold® is issuing a customer alert to purchasers of products, particularly via Internet sales, in regards to bogus Leupold products that are apparently being illegally imported from the People’s Republic of China. These products bear many of the marks and trade dress of current Leupold & Stevens riflescopes making them very hard to distinguish externally from authentic Leupold products.
In recent months, counterfeited Leupold Mark 4® riflescopes have begun to arrive with increasing regularity at the firm’s Beaverton, Oregon, headquarters for service. These products are not manufactured by Leupold and are not covered by the Leupold Full Lifetime Guarantee.
Leupold employs serial number tracking for all its riflescopes, so if a customer finds a scope that is suspect, he or she can simply write down the serial number and call 1-800-LEUPOLD to confirm if it is indeed authentic.
In general, most of the scopes appear to originate from Hong Kong (People’s Republic of China), and have “Leupold Mark 4” laser engraved on the bottom of the turret in a silver etch, while the black ring on the objective is etched in white and does not include the name “Leupold.” The scopes also do not bear the Leupold medallion, a mark all Leupold scopes will always possess. An authentic Mark 4 riflescope will always be engraved black on black and have the name “Leupold” engraved on the black ring.
Identifying Marks
· Adjustments
· Objective
· Bottom of Turret

 

[Gewehr98]

Well, that's good, I guess.

Hopefully the Chinese counterfeiters aren't reading this, and learning what else they have to add to the faux scopes to pass them off easier...

 

[Outlaws]

There was a thread or two a while back on here about them.

 

[taliv]

sucks. i'll ad to it. i've personally seen fake Knights Armament AR15 rail systems and fake aimpoints. both were indistinguishable from the real products from the outside. the quality of the glass and red dot inside the aimpoint knockoff would be obvious to someone familiar with real ones, but a n00b would never know.

 

[Eightball]

You could just bypass the whole thing by buying straigt from the source.....

That being said, I'll make sure that warning gets posted around the FFL where I work. Thanks for the warning--I, being low on the rungs of the ladder, haven't seen something like this yet, but at least want to make people aware of it to the best of my abilities.

 

[kcmarine]

Communism, mass production methods, consumer electronics, firearms and accessories... do the Chinese ever design their own things?

 

[Spiggy]

they tried and it came out looking like this

 

[foghornl]

There will always be someone [or some country] out to make a cheap (And I DO mean low-quality CHEAP, not inexpensive) knockoff of the good name & product of someone else.

Anyone else remember waaaaaayyyyy back when 'transistor portable radios' first became popular? Story was... "US Builds Something, Soviet Bloc claims they made it first, Japan brings out a minatureized transistor version."

Now, back to your Regularly Scheduled Thread....

Thanks for the alert. As popular as the Leupold optics are, sooner or later somebody had to try a knockoff to make a few bucks of Loopy's reputation

 

[slylikea_fox]

I've heard before from a very reputable source that the glass in a real Leupold was made in china anyways. Has anyone else noticed in the last couple of years that the scopes don't say made in the USA and more on the bottom???? Maybe these knock offs are made in the same factory as the real ones, wouldn't that be funny.

 

[azhunter12]

do the Chinese ever design their own things?

Nope.

 

[Gewehr98]

The Chinese are following in the Russians' footsteps.

It's considerably less costly in the R&D world to copy an existing design than to start from scratch, be it the Soviet Tupelov Tu-4 bomber (aka Boeing B-29), or the Chinese Norinco AR-15/M16 currently being imported into Canada. Let the Americans do all the R&D.

 

[fgr39]

looks like someone rolled a ribbed condom over the handguards

 

[Thin Black Line]

looks like someone rolled a ribbed condom over the handguards

Somewhere there's a porn* unprotected right now.

 

[huntinstuff]

We had some guys selling those rip off Leupolds on Canadian Gunnutz and guys were buying them hours after the post.....I can't figure it out. I'd rather buy something made in the USA for 3 times the price than something similar looking from the East......

Maybe I should move to Wyoming. I think I'd fit in there. Montana for sure.

 

[glimmerman]

I have a couple of the leupold copys from china and YES they are made in the same factory as the usa leupold scopes. Leupold has them made in china and imported here. Thats why they no longer say made in usa on them. The 2 i have are excellent quality and hold a zero on my .300 win mag and my HK91 and will walk a perfect square back to zero every time. I have a couple of the older leupold made in usa scopes and the optics are no better than the one's from china (probobly made there for the last 10yrs anyway). I know it sucks that everything is being made there now and taking jobs away from us but i think we need to get a clue and realize we are being outmanuvered here in the states and if we dont start doing something about it soon china is going to be the new world superpower and we are going to be in a world of S*#T!!!!!

 

[scubie02]

well, if this is true, I guess I'll have to start thinking about which Japanese scope to buy. Although I do have a couple of spare scopes laying around at the moment--all the damned manufacturers I used to buy keep letting me down *sigh*. I used to like Burris when they had the original Fullfield's/Signature's, then they had to get bought by Beretta and went to the FF II's, so I switched to Leupold, now they are Chinese--might as well go back to the Tasco World Class and save a couple bucks...

 

[slylikea_fox]

Thankyou Glimmerman for posting that. I can't wait to hear some of the comments this brings up. I'm sure there are plenty who won't believe this though.

 

[10MMGary]

I have a couple of the leupold copys from china and YES they are made in the same factory as the usa leupold scopes. Leupold has them made in china and imported here. Thats why they no longer say made in usa on them. The 2 i have are excellent quality and hold a zero on my .300 win mag and my HK91 and will walk a perfect square back to zero every time. I have a couple of the older leupold made in usa scopes and the optics are no better than the one's from china (probobly made there for the last 10yrs anyway). I know it sucks that everything is being made there now and taking jobs away from us but i think we need to get a clue and realize we are being outmanuvered here in the states and if we dont start doing something about it soon china is going to be the new world superpower and we are going to be in a world of S*#T!!!!!

Perhaps I am either misreading or reading something into your post and if so I apologize. Additionally I don't doubt that you do posses these illegal copies/counterfeits or that they are indeed made at the same facilities. What I don't understand is why you would admit it publicly and then go on to act as if your are worried about the future of American workers/manufacturers. Do you possess them as part of some type of investigation or the like or did you just recently discover that they were illegal copies and have not yet turned them over to the proper authorities? Again if I have misunderstood the intent of the post I apologize.

 

[glimmerman]

they are not illegal copies, they are made in the same factory as the leupold scopes you buy here at any gun shop. They were sent to me as "samples" from a person in china. I myself did not believe they were the same as the supposed usa leupolds until i recieved these.

 

[Thin Black Line]

I know it sucks that everything is being made there now and taking jobs away from us but i think we need to get a clue and realize we are being outmanuvered here in the states and if we dont start doing something about it soon china is going to be the new world superpower and we are going to be in a world of S*#T!!!!!

I'd like to start an American riflescope company to "compete" with the ones
in China.

Starting wage is $4/hr and health insurance will be provided by Medicaid.
Please PM me if interested....

Hmmm, better yet, I should be advertising this in Spanish and then after my
company has been up and running for a few months, do an IPO, then move it
to china and get a tax break from the feds for doing it. I can then sell
it to a foreign investment firm, but it will still have an "American" name.

BTW, I own one of the "old" USA made mil-dots.

 

[scubie02]

How recent of a switch is this? I have several Leupolds bought in the last couple of years, and they all say made in USA on them.

I emailed Leupold a few days ago to ask about this when I saw the thread--the silence has been deafening--no response

 

[Outlaws]

I have a couple of the leupold copys from china and YES they are made in the same factory as the usa leupold scopes. Leupold has them made in china and imported here. Thats why they no longer say made in usa on them. The 2 i have are excellent quality and hold a zero on my .300 win mag and my HK91 and will walk a perfect square back to zero every time. I have a couple of the older leupold made in usa scopes and the optics are no better than the one's from china (probobly made there for the last 10yrs anyway). I know it sucks that everything is being made there now and taking jobs away from us but i think we need to get a clue and realize we are being outmanuvered here in the states and if we dont start doing something about it soon china is going to be the new world superpower and we are going to be in a world of S*#T!!!!!

What a troll. Please provide proof. I bought mine last summer and the box still says Made in the USA.

 

[Lucky]

What a troll. Please provide proof. I bought mine last summer and the box still says Made in the USA.

Holy **** the USA still produces their own cardboard boxes?



But yea without any evidence, it's not smart to believe anything. When someone takes a pic of their Old Leupy, with 'USA' stamped in the housing, and their New Leupy, without that stamp - THEN Glimmer might be believed.



However, just subjective here, but they sell Leupolds at Walmart for reasonable prices... That's not a good sign.

 

[YodaVader]

I've heard before from a very reputable source that the glass in a real Leupold was made in china anyways.

In the late 90s I was ready to buy my first Leupold rifle scope. Sinclair Int. , (which caters to the benchrest crowd) had an open box Vari-XIII marked down low enough for me to consider buying.

The guy working the counter , was saying how he thought the Burris Signature was a better choice and had all of its components made here in the US. I told him that was true of Leupold too. He said the lenses in the Leupolds were imported.

So being skeptical I made the call to Leupold to find out if the Sinclair guy was getting the facts straight or blowing smoke. The Leupold representative I spoke with confirmed they did indeed import their lenses although he did not specifically name a country.
This was around 1998. I ended up buying the scope anyway and it has been the best rifle scope I have ever owned.

 

[Gewehr98]

So, if Leupold does indeed import their lenses from China...

Does that make Glimmerman a troll, Outlaws?

(With the ad-hominem attack out in plain view, this thread probably needs some moderator intervention right about now, I'd wager)