Springfield Armory Scopes.

[Megawatt maker]

May be a dead horse, Im very new here so I beg forgiveness if it is....

Springfield Government model scopes.

Unless you bought it new AND were not a young dummy like myself, and actually registered the warranty OR Saved the sales receipt....

They WILL NOT honor the warranty....no way...no how..tell you to go pound sand...no negotiations.

Oh...and they are also damned junk to boot. Overpriced, disposable, crap.

Not designed to be repaired. Put together in a one and done fashion...

I have one that went bad..wont hold zero..wont hit a barn now.
Called Springfield...see above comments.
Wont fix, wont replace, wont give credit....spent hours today searching internet for someone...ANYONE for even a remote chance of fixing this POS...no dice.

Called Ironsights...they tried at one point to repair them..but turned out to be an exercise in futility.
They are built in such a way...you have to destroy parts to get them apart..they have the parts to replace them...which is the problem. None to be had.

Lousy design...poor quality...but the price at the time didnt reflect this.

Its funny...you can get a Tasco, or a Simmons repaired (if one wanted to pay 100 times what they are worth, but can be done) but you cant get these supposed lower top end (for their day) scopes repaired.

Just the heads up.

Shame too...the love the internal level, even if it does take up space inside the scope. The tradeoff is worth it.

 

[Megawatt maker]

Update...

Got a call out of the blue from a very nice lady from Springfield Armory. After she endured my rage/rant, and I stopped to take a breath, she informed me that they would, in fact, take it back under warranty..no problem.

I profusely apologized for taking out my rage on her, which she very nicely excepted, and e mailed me the RMA number.

So, she restored my faith in Springfield Armory.

I kind of understand why they delayed to return. While I dont know for sure, but I have the impression she reviewed my orginal phone call and made the decision off of that. The fact that while I'm still not 100% Sure where I bought it over 20 years ago, but gave her my best recollection, my recollection must be correct, because when I named the vendor, it "broke" the case so to speak.

Still would have help if I'd kept the sale's slip. Going forward I'm filing those for everything I buy.

But I do have to say..Springfield is an awesome company!

 

[CapnMac]

SAI sometimes is a complicated bunch to deal with at times. And in these current plague times where fewer people are actually in offices to answer phones, it can be doubly so.

By "government model" are you referring to the Leatherwood scopes? Or the Hakko-built BDC reticule scopes?

 

[Texas10mm]

So a scope that worked for 20 years is a "lousy design" "poor quality" "damned junk" "overpriced" "disposable crap"?

Hmm...yet you kept using it.

 

[Megawatt maker]

SAI sometimes is a complicated bunch to deal with at times. And in these current plague times where fewer people are actually in offices to answer phones, it can be doubly so.

By "government model" are you referring to the Leatherwood scopes? Or the Hakko-built BDC reticule scopes?

Hakko-built

 

[Megawatt maker]

So a scope that worked for 20 years is a "lousy design" "poor quality" "damned junk" "overpriced" "disposable crap"?

Hmm...yet you kept using it.

I bought it, put it on a Bolt Action 308 win, zeroed it, and put it away. Over the years, I moved 5 times (between states twice), and never shot the rifle over all that time.

A few weeks ago, I bought a brand new out of the box M1A, and going through my safes (I have 4 gun safes, 83 firearms and 70 different scopes, I bumped back into that old Mauser I put this scope on. I took it off, put it on the M1A, put 6 shots through it, and it went haywire.

Put if back on the rifle it came off (just in case the New M1A was defective), and again, shot haywire. One shot 20 feet I front of the target (at 50 yards) the next 10 inches high.

So you see, I didnt use it enough "back in the day" to really get too acquainted with it. For its day, the optics were lower to middle top end. For its day, it had a lot of "before their time" features.

My opinion that its "disposable junk" is not my own. In fact, that's what Ironsights called it when I asked if they can repair it...they tried in the past to fix Springfields, and found them to be such a poor design, with cheap (and now impossible to get)parts. Nobody else who works on scopes will touch them either. Dont believe me...call and ask them yourself.

My opinion that's its overpriced, because it wasnt cheap when I bought it...is basically based in the reality...you can get almost any other brand fixed..even cheap Tascos...but not these.

That sum it up for you? Or do I need to go on?

 

[LoonWulf]

Hakko-built

That's a surprise. ive had a few of the Hakko built s&w scopes and those were really good for their time and cost.

 

[misser]

i actually have 3 of them Springfield Government scopes.

 

[Megawatt maker]

That's a surprise. ive had a few of the Hakko built s&w scopes and those were really good for their time and cost.

Hakko built scopes for a lot of companies. The early Nightforce scopes were built by them also. Supersniper was another one.

They went through a period of decline, and got bought out by another company. About the same period Springfield contracted them for their scopes. That company is called Japan Optics LTD, and they are not in the sport optics market at all anymore.

At one time, even the Germans are rumored to source some of their glass from Hakko, they were that good!

If one looks into it, Springfield had problems with these scopes galore. They sold most before the internet age, so I'm sure a lot of complaints will never be known, but there sure are a lot still on the net.

There is a reason they stopped selling them. Shame, they were onto something very cool. I love the reticle in it, and the internal level..nobody else did/does that that I've seen.

 

[LoonWulf]

Hakko built scopes for a lot of companies. The early Nightforce scopes were built by them also. Supersniper was another one.

They went through a period of decline, and got bought out by another company. About the same period Springfield contracted them for their scopes. That company is called Japan Optics LTD, and they are not in the sport optics market at all anymore.

At one time, even the Germans are rumored to source some of their glass from Hakko, they were that good!

If one looks into it, Springfield had problems with these scopes galore. They sold most before the internet age, so I'm sure a lot of complaints will never be known, but there sure are a lot still on the net.

There is a reason they stopped selling them. Shame, they were onto something very cool. I love the reticle in it, and the internal level..nobody else did/does that that I've seen.

Good info, thanks!

I can remember seeing the Springfield scope ads in the back of gun rags I think.

 

[CapnMac]

Yeah when their source for less-expensive Leatherwoods dried up, they wanted soemthing to replace those, and may have had it for a while.
This, sadly, is something of a pattern for SAI. They find a decent supplier they can use, apply their marketing to get them to sell, and make bank. But, they have to ride herd, hard, on those suppliers. Or it all goes awry.

Personally, in the modern digital age, I can't imagine a way to get into the hugely competitive optics market as a reseller/Value Added Retailer that would not wind up doomed.

 

[Megawatt maker]

Yeah when their source for less-expensive Leatherwoods dried up, they wanted soemthing to replace those, and may have had it for a while.
This, sadly, is something of a pattern for SAI. They find a decent supplier they can use, apply their marketing to get them to sell, and make bank. But, they have to ride herd, hard, on those suppliers. Or it all goes awry.

Personally, in the modern digital age, I can't imagine a way to get into the hugely competitive optics market as a reseller/Value Added Retailer that would not wind up doomed.

Vortex is doing it. They have their scopes made in the Philippines, as did Nikon, and no doubt others as well.
I think you are correct on Springfield. They contacted a well known and reputable company to produce their scopes to their specs, but didnt keep an eye on quality control. Hakko was on the downslope, but we know that now from hindsight. At the time, that was harder to see. The proof was when the warranty department started going overwhelmed with returns...but it was too late to correct the problem by then...then Hakko folded. (And got bought up). ABO was the designedated repair go to after Hakko, but their customer service was...less than stellar. When the owner died..ABO died with him. Ironsights bought up the remaining parts..so I've been told, and tried to take over the repairs..but found out it wasnt feasible.