I don't think that's accurate, Leupold has been making scopes a lot longer than S&B. JT
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From Leupold:
1947 -
Marcus Leupold misses a shot at a blacktail buck due to fogged lenses in a riflescope. According to family legend, he exclaims “Hell, I could make a better scope than this!” True to his word, he does, and Leupold enters the riflescope market with the introduction of the 2.5x Plainsman.
1949 -
Leupold employs a lesson learned making optics for the military in World War II, and becomes the first optics manufacturer to evacuate the scope interior of air and then fill it with pure nitrogen, which eliminates any chance of internal fogging. Leupold’s “weather-proofed” optics quickly become popular among sportsmen.
1957 -
Following the success of the Plainsman and other early entries in the optics market, Leupold expands its riflescope line-up even further. Their popularity in the optics market leads them to create other products for outdoors enthusiasts, including a compass.
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From S&B:
"Since 1957, in a small town where Germany's legendary optics industry was founded hundreds of years ago, Schmidt & Bender has been devoted to one thing only: building the finest riflescope money can buy."
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I like Cooper's stocks better than Anschutz'. They feel better in my hands and don't sacrifice much, if anything, in the accuracy department when it comes to a .22 rimfire for hunting small game. JT