Once in a while I review different ratings of rifle scope brands and usually see some information that isn’t exactly accurate. Because most of the companies offer different levels of quality within their models it is almost impossible to find out best brands just by products quality. It can vary inside of one brand. Such type of segmentation makes sense, but often complicates the situation for consumers. Many of them do not even know how the quality of the rifle scopes can differ between two product lines of the same manufacturer (brand).
In this article we will find out best rifle scope brands (note that I say brand vs. manufacturer, because one manufacturer can own a few brands) using following subjective criteria:
Quality: of course it is a complicated task, but I assume that good brand offer good quality in its price range. At this time I am not going to review various futures of rifle scopes. I will review the available futures.
Technical innovations: it will vary depending on price range. I do not expect to see many innovations in the cheaper products. There is nothing bad in manufacturing just reliable rifle scope, but I still would like to highlight the creative design solutions.
Money Asked: here I will evaluate how well the price matches the quality, as well as what is the best rifle scope for your money.
Products variety: this is one of the simplest criteria for analysis. I do not hope that every brand will cover every price range (and they don’t have to), but I should note that some brands cover a wider market than others.
Marketing: this is the most difficult criteria for me to evaluate. Some of you will be surprised by my definition of the marketing, but any way I will follow it. It is my personal evaluation of how well the trade mark is managed, how successful are the marketing efforts and how well the company performs the promises given by the marketing department. In some cases this is rather evaluation of how well companies manage to crate good image of the product. For example I do not like “Counter Strike” brand, but it is still on the market just because of marketing efforts. As you can see some brands are popular not because of good products, but thanks to good marketing efforts and I would like to show them to you.
Customer Service: I will consider my personal experience as well as testimonials of other people.
All criteria rate from 1 to 5, so you can see total points that every brand will get. Also I will try to update all data every year.
You will notice that in the column “total” the score varies from 6 to 30. The higher scores are better. I understand it is not the best way to rank brands by the score, so brands are not sorted depending on overall result. Brands are sorted alphabetically. And again – this is just my personal opinion which is subjective.
List of brands that participate in this review:
1) Aimpoint
2) Barska
3) Browe
4) Burris
5) Bushnell
6) Elcan
7) Eotech
8) Hawke
9) Hi-Lux-Leatherwood
10) Kahles
11) Konus
12) Leapers
13) March
14) Leica
15) Leupold
16) Meopta
17) Millet
18) Minox
19) Nikko Stirling
20) Nikon
21) Pentax
22) PFI-Rapid Reticle
23) Premier
24) Redfield
25) Trijicon
26) Schmidt and Bender
27) Shepherd
28) Sightron
29) Steiner
30) Swarovski
31) Tasco
32) Valdada IOR
33) Vortex
34) Weaver
35) Zeiss Optronics (Hendsoldt)
36) Zeiss Sport Optics
1) AimPoint
Aimpoint manufacture excellent red dot sights and nothing more. That is why I gave them a low score for products variety. I am not very familiar with their customer service, but was trying my best to determine it from user’s testimonials.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 3
Total – 20
2) Barska
The fact that this brand still exists, only proves that their marketing efforts are effective and that there are lots of inexperienced people on U. S. market of firearms who buy them. I’ve tested their best scope from SWAT products lane and the only good thing I can say about it is the fact that it does not fall apart.
Quality – 1
Technical innovations – 1
Money Asked – 1
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 2
Total – 10
3) Browe
This is relatively new brand that is attempting to be like Trijicon and Elcan. Besides it was founded by people from Trijicon (if I am not mistaken). As for now I do not know much about this brand, but I’ll try my best to find out more about it.
Quality -?
Technical innovations -?
Money -?
Asked -?
Products variety -?
Marketing -?
Customer Service -?
Total -?
4) Burris
Burris offers the wide selection of products which are not bad for the money asking. Their customer service, however, is mediocre. It seems that they have being improving lately and with the right management they could improve significantly in the nearest future. Their marketing became more effective in the last two years as well.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 5
Marketing – 5
Customer Service – 3
Total – 25
5) Bushnell
Bushnell has a very good selection of rifle scopes, but honestly some of their cheaper products are not impressive at all. Nevertheless, they offer a good price and acceptable innovations. There are different testimonials, but my personal experience of their customer service was rather positive.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 5
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 3
Total – 23
6) Elcan
Elcan is mainly focused on military orders and their implementing. Because of that their consumer marketing is not really effective to my opinion. Their rifle scopes are advanced and excellent – especially DR series and some of the offered reticles. However, they are a little bit overpriced.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 5
Money Asked – 3
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 3
Total – 19
7) EOTech
EOTech is the main competitor for AimPoint. Their main products are holographic rifle scopes so the variety is not really wide. Rifle scopes are well assembles and well adapted for the convenient use. They, no doubt, are selling well, and marketing efforts are focused correctly.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 3
Total – 20
8) Hawke
I think this is a good brand with a good customer service provided. Their products are presented in cheap and middle price segments, so the choice is not really broad. Reticles are innovative enough, especially considering such a great price. My opinion is that Hawke sells best rifle scopes that are manufactured in China.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 5
Products variety – 3
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 5
Total – 24
9) Hi-Tech Leatherwood
Just a few years ago I wasn’t a big fan of this company, but lately they surprise me. They always try to represent their own development (e.g. Uni-Dial and their side focus adjustments), and they are paying a great attention to the incoming testimonials. Products’ choice is not really wide: the models available are mainly in low/middle price range. If they will continue grow up like this, their rating will only go up.
Quality – 3
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 3
Products variety – 3
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 4
Total – 17
10) Kahles
It is not very easy to evaluate this brand, especially I do not know how they are doing in the rest of the world. They did a lot of mistakes on US market though. Kahles is the one of the best rifle scope brand with absolutely perfect optical and mechanical quality of the products. However, poor communication with distributors reduced their presence on the U.S. market. Currently they are trying to change this situation so we’ll see what happens.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 2
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 4
Total – 17
11) Konus
This is another mediocre Chinese manufacturer of the rifle scopes. They provide a little bit better customer service comparing to Barska for example.
Quality – 1
Technical innovations – 1
Money Asked – 2
Products variety – 2
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 3
Total – 12
12) Leapers
My first rifle scope was Leapers; it was also the last scope of this brand I’ve ever bought. There are only few brands that are worse than Barska, and Leapers is one of them.
Quality – 1
Technical innovations – 1
Money Asked – 1
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 2
Total – 9
13) Leica
Leica is a newcomer in the manufacturing of rifle scopes. Their current line of products is very narrow, but is high quality. They offer some innovations and excellent quality for the money asked. Their marketing is partly successful, and I hope in future they will do better.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 5
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 5
Total – 23
14) Leupold
Leupold has incredibly various models of scopes, which are very popular, although some of their products slightly overpriced. Lately, they began to develop more innovative products, which was their main drawback in the past. Their marketing strategy is incredibly successful, though is not always truthful. On the other hand, it is typical for any marketing department to use the abstruse terms to avoid lying.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 3
Products variety – 5
Marketing – 5
Customer Service – 5
Total – 23
15) March
March is one of the best rifle scope brands in the high-price segment. They manufacture high quality scopes that are assembled in Japan. It is pretty hard to evaluate their marketing strategy since they do not spend much effort on it. On the other hand they are known as the brand with a very good reputation which is definitely their benefit. Their scopes are expensive, but if you really need rifle scope from March it is definitely worse it.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 5
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 5
Total – 23
16) Meopta
Meopta is one of the best rifle scope brands in middle price range. They offer products with excellent quality, but their product line could be wider. They can release great innovative products, but only if they want so. They offer good but not the best selling products.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 5
Products variety – 2
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 4
Total – 21
17) Millett
It seems like Millett completely felt down since Bushnell bought this brand. Their future is very questionable.
Quality – 2
Technical innovations – 2
Money Asked – 2
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 1
Customer Service – 3
Total – 11
18) Minox
Minox is still a beginner in the manufacturing of rifle scopes. However their first models proved to be excellent in terms of design and very good for the money asked. Customer service seems to be good as well. If it will continue like that, Minox scopes will become a very good option.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 5
Products variety – 2
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 4
Total – 21
19) Nikko Stirling
Nikko Stirling brand is known better in Australia, than in U. S. In past they used to have a wider product choice including a few of good quality Japanese scopes. Currently the situation has changed and they produce ordinary Chinese rifle scopes that are not much different from the other similar manufacturers. Also Nikko somehow related to Legacy Sports and this is not a very good sign.
Quality – 2
Technical innovations – 2
Money Asked – 2
Products variety – 3
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 2
Total – 14
20) Nikon
Nikon certainly is a big player in this market, but their recent new products seem to be slightly “unfinished” or “not completely thought trough”. Customer service recently improved, but is still awful. Nikon products are very various. However many of them are either too expensive (Monarch X), or inferior their competitors (Monarch). On the other hand inexpensive series, such as Buckmarks and ProStuff represent a very strong offering.
Quality – 3
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 3
Products variety – 5
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 3
Total – 21
21) Pentax
Last year Pentax completely ignored the market of sport optics. Next year they will probably do better (there is no much place for further fall). Their binoculars and telescopes are good, so they can make good rifle scope if they wish.
Quality – 2
Technical innovations – 2
Money Asked – 3
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 1
Customer Service – 3
Total – 12
22) Premier
This is definitely one of the best manufacturers of expensive rifle scopes. They had some growth problems, but they have reached a good level of quality and innovation now. Their marketing is slightly weak, but they have some strong sides they can use to improve.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 5
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 2
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 5
Total – 24
23) PFI Rapid Reticle
PFI brand is built around their reticles innovations. They use reliable enough Japanese models of the rifle scopes, what is definitely beneficiary. Their customer service is at the decent level as well as their marketing. This brand is relatively young. Therefore they are approaching a turning point that will determine either they remain highly specialized player in the market or move to a quantitatively higher level of logistic, marketing and all its activities.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 3
Products variety – 3
Marketing – 3
Customer Service- 3
Total – 22
24) Redfield
Today Redfield is owned by Leupold, therefore it’s marketing is similar to Leopold’s. Redfield specialized on niche product lines. The design of their products is old-fashioned, but they are well made and they have an excellent customer service.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 1
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 5
Customer Service – 5
Total – 20
25) Schmidt and Bender
Schmidt & Bender with no doubt is one of the best brands on the market of tactical rifle scopes. They manufacture ones of the most expensive rifle scopes in the world. Their scopes are great assembled. They have excellent customer service. Their product line is not too wide, and marketing could be better.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 3
Products variety – 2
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 5
Total – 23
26) Shepherd
Shepherd rifle scopes follow the idea of double reticle and they stick to this concept from the beginning. I’ve never heard of a well made Shepherd scope, even though there should be some, considering they were quite a popular brand for a while.
Quality – 2
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 2
Products variety – 2
Marketing – 3
Customer Service -?
Total -?
27) Sightron
Sightron is undoubtedly one of the best rifle scope brands with the excellent quality and perfect price. Sightron scopes are not about innovations, but they sold well and perfectly designed for different tasks.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 5
Products variety – 4
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 5
Total – 24
28) Steiner
Steiner scopes are newcomers to this market and the current estimate is rather my early assumption of how this brand will evolve in the future. I’m going to keep a close eye on it.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 4
Total – 21
29) Swarowski
Swarowski have a narrow line of excellently made rifle scopes. They have both innovations and an enviable marketing combined with the impeccable customer service.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 5
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 2
Marketing – 5
Customer Service – 5
Total – 26
30) Tasco
Tasco is another brand that eventually became almost nothing. It is owned by Bushnell, so you get their service, but otherwise it will be the most ordinary scopes.
Quality – 1
Technical innovations – 1
Money Asked – 2
Products variety -2
Marketing – 2
Customer Service – 3
Total – 11
31) Trijicon
The Trijicon brand is all about their reticle illumination technology, which works fine. However, if they will not offer something new in the nearest future, their innovative spirit will disappear.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 3
Marketing – 5
Customer Service – 3
Total – 23
32) Valdada IOR
IOR scopes are manufactured in Romania. Valdada is their importer in the United States. They have an innovative design and good quality, but some models have reliability problems. Nevertheless, in the last few years IOR improved both quality and customer service.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 5
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 3
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 4
Total – 23
33) Vortex
Vortex is an example of a company that produces lots of different products. Their rapid growth occurs different management issues once in a while. They achieved excellent results in both: development and customer service. Their marketing strategy is extremely effective as well.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 5
Products variety – 5
Marketing – 5
Customer Service – 5
Total – 28
34) Weaver
During the last few years Weaver had changed the ownership several times. It is difficult to make a structural judgment, but I think that there were some positive changes while they were under the ATK management. Weaver’s products are more than good for the money asked. They compete well in the middle and lower price ranges with a wide selection of hunting rifle scopes and a couple of good tactical scopes. I do not know a lot about their customer service and I think they could be more specific in their marketing strategy.
Quality – 4
Technical innovations – 3
Money Asked- 5
Products variety – 4
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 3
Total – 22
35) Zeiss Sport Optics
Zeiss and Kahles are the oldest players in the world of rifle scopes. Zeiss, unlike Kahles, very carefully develops and supports its brand. The variety of scopes is wide enough – they range from the middle price range and go above it. All of their models are excellent quality with no room to failure. They are relatively conservative (so as Kahles) but are innovative enough to stay on top.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 4
Products variety – 3
Marketing – 4
Customer Service – 5
Total – 25
36) Zeiss Optronics (Hendsold)
Hensoldt is a division of Zeiss, which is engaged in the production of narrow and ultra expensive line of tactical riflescopes with the excellent quality. They are not actively promoted in the U.S. at this time, but they have an extensive history and good brand awareness.
Quality – 5
Technical innovations – 4
Money Asked – 3
Products variety – 1
Marketing – 3
Customer Service – 5
Total – 21
Additional Comments
Looking at the entire review (which is quite different than comparing one brand to another), I noticed that Vortex received the most points, slightly ahead of such brands as Leupold, Burris, Sightron, Swarovski and Zeiss. When I just started to rate these brands, I was sure that Leupold and Zeiss will win easily, just because of brand awareness and the wide product selection; and Swarovski will be slightly behind, as it’s product choice is more limited. Presence of Vortex, Sightron and Burris in the leading group shows their growing popularity and my personal preferences. Another company that got high score is Premier Reticles, which is now experiencing some internal management issues. However, it seems that they get over it lately and their product line becomes more promising.
Another point that effects score in “Product Variety” column is a factor of innovation. In recent years scopes with wide range of magnification become more popular. For a long time the most common configuration of rifle scopes was 3-9×40, but now many scopes offer twice wider range, for example 2-12×40. Such models allow to cover much broader tasks that can be solved with a single scope. Thus we can say that today “Product variety” is not determined by the quantity of offering models, but by the range of the tasks that can be solved with such products.
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