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Chinese Optics Reviews-Out of necessity

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stangfish View Drop Down
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    Posted: July/17/2011 at 13:00

I wanted to resurrect this topic due tothe lack of information on particular brands fom China. I was at a gun show yesterday looking for optics with the BIL and the Chinese stuff was everywhere. It was a full time job to keep him from buying one of the EOTech or Aimpoint look-a-likes. They are great cosmetic copies and the stuff looks pretty, but………

 

 To benefit those of us not financially in a position to buy NightForce, Ziess, Sworavsky or the like we need alternatives.  We are a R and D market for China. Their manufacturing processes are improving and will continue to improve based on what items are successful and which ones aren’t. If we buy their junk they will continue to flood the market with it. I have not found very many honest or informative reviews of the Chinese optical products, mostly negative bashings with few details. There is a need for accessible information that would help the everyday guy or gal make an informed decision on the Chinese optics and accessories. Maybe we can start something here that would help change that.

Here is one of my experiences.  

My brother was at the Shot Show back in 09 and told me the best stuff he saw from China for the money was probably the Konus-KonusPro 30. I was in need of a budget high power scope and gave Konus a try.

 I ordered a model #7280 4.5-16x40 30mm tube. It looks to be the same design as the Hawke scopes. The axis of the side focus/parallax is forward of the windage and elevation turrets in the elongated center section. The W/E clicks are easy, positive and audible. It has some very cheap locks on the tactical style knobs, the windage one has since broken but does not seem to effect the function although windage seems to need to (settle). Although repeatable the 1/8 moa seems to be to busy for a 100 yard shooter. For 300 it is not so bad. It has a bubble tube level internally that helps set the scope level but obstructs the bottom of the viewable area minimally. It is a very heavy scope.

 I am struggling with my eyesight compared to my days of youth and I am by far no expert on optics but I will give it a shot. The glass is incredibly clear. This scope has held zero on a bolt action and a semi 308 shooting as much a 200 rounds in a month. At high power there is an issue with eye fatigue due to an unforgiving eye relief and exit pupil. All in all I would not hesitate to use it on a bench gun and I have held 2 inch groups at 300 yards with it mounted on a 24 inch barreled DPMS 308. It is a single purpose scope and due to the weight has no use on a hunting weapon like brush or stalking rifle.

  Please post your experiences with brands to benefit others.

 

Thanks

Fish

Editorial:

Why we need to review Chines products. They are here to stay. Let’s face it I hate that 90+% of my options for anything thing I need is Asian made. We as Americns were sold on the the idea that moving to a service based economy was the direction we needed to move in the early eighties, so we moved away from a manufacturing economy and into the bright new world of midlemen and investors. America was the standard but now we have no manufacturers left to compete. We can't continue blaming the unions and the politicians, we as voters and consumers have made our bed, we thought we could trust our government and we wanted everything...Cheap. We are reaping what we sowed.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FreeJersey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/17/2011 at 13:13
Here's my review of all things Chinese.. You get what you pay for. Even if they were able to make a scope on par with a S&B, Henshodlt, etc. for 1/10th the price, I would wait until I could afford the real thing. I do everything I can to ensure all things brought into my household are NOT from China. I will not support that communist state or their lack of respect for copyright laws.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote usefulbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 18:23
It is true that all our actions have consequences, and I am opposed to spending my income on foreign goods, but I just bought a Barska (at way below retail) and intend to provide info on it. I will be posting in "Barska Optics Reviews..." a thread started by Cheaptrick in 2006.
 
By the way... we have US Optics, Nightforce (some), Vortex,  and Leupold. I believe all others are foreign made, and Leupold uses foreign glass.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cheaptrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 18:26
Originally posted by usefulbob usefulbob wrote:

 
By the way... we have US Optics, Nightforce (some), Vortex,  and Leupold. I believe all others are foreign made, and Leupold uses foreign glass.

We?? 
Who's We, exactly? 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote usefulbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 18:28
Um... the USA
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote usefulbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 18:54
Also Trijicon is made in USA
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 19:20
Tijicon is made in japan. Vortex is japan and phillipenes. Nightforce also mostly made in japan
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EAGLE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 19:27
I thought Vortex crossfire was made in China?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mike McDonald Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 19:28
Amazing where some of that USA made stuff really comes from.  As far as glass, last formula spec sheet I had listed over 800 different formulations for several different countries.  And that doesn't even start to take into account the various and sundry coating formulations and methodologies.
 
On the chicom stuff,  they can do a really nice job of things, espessially when they are trying to impress a potential volume buyer.  The problems lies in that they cannot replicate that success a couple thousand times in their assembly plants.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 19:36
Originally posted by Mike McDonald Mike McDonald wrote:

The problems lies in that they cannot replicate that success a couple thousand times in their assembly plants.


Or... they don't want to.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote usefulbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 19:39
OK so that leaves US Optics
 
 
Funny... others are claiming they are made in USA
 
Anyway that just about makes the made in China aversion a moot piont, unless one only is concerned with products made in China and all other imports are OK, which still contributes to the trade deficit...
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote usefulbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 19:44
Quality is not a priority in capitalism...
 
I worked for a local manufacturer (in the US) and my boss and I butted heads repeatedly because I kept trying to identify the cause of a quality problem and correct it. He just wanted to keep making more... faster. There is no money in correcting a problem if you can get away with ignoring it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote usefulbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 19:46
Anyone have info on US Optics being imported?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rainman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/06/2012 at 21:01
The Federal government ("who's just here to help us") establishes rules for manufacturers for source of content from domestic and foreign parts used to make up complete products as to whether they can be labeled made in the U.S.A.  It  may vary from industry to industry but at least through most of the '80's/'90s the domestic content for autos to be labeled as such was 85%.  If anyone has owned a mid to late 90s Ford F series truck and has changed various light bulbs you may have noticed a bunch of electrical components labeled made in Mexico.  This is a simplified explanation but does provide some reasonable level of assurance.  Allegedly Germany does not use this standard so it is never a safe bet to assume that German products are all made or entirely made in Germany.

I mostly use Leupold, Nikon, a couple of Bushnell's and several older El Paso marked Weaver scopes (Savage 99s and .22s).  All perform to or above expectations for $ spent and price normally correlates to overall quality.  On the other hand I have two inexpensive Leatherwood scopes that are stellar performers with great optical quality, repeatability, durability so far.  In the case of a 1 x 4x with the CRT reticle on my SR 556, it is very clear and effective out to at least 300 yards.  The other is the 2 to 8x scout scope that has held up on a Marlin .45-70 and  now a .308 scout rifle.  Supposedly Hi-Lux owns their factory in China so perhaps have more control over quality.

My pending purchase is a Weaver 30mm FFP 3.5 - 15x for a Savage .308 Precision Carbine.  Hopefully within the week SWFA will be shipping it to me.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gulf1263 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/07/2012 at 01:18
FYI, Leupold (VX-2 and above), Nightforce, Premier, US Optics use lenses blanked, ground and coated in Japan, the scopes themselves are assembled in the USA from US made components and QC'd in the USA.
Zeiss Conquest are made from lenses blanked in Germany that are ground and coated in Hungary and Czeckoslovakia (?) and sent to the US to be assembled here in their factory in VA.
Leupold has binoculars and spotting scopes made overseas, China, Japan, Korea, PI, etc.
Kahles sold binoculars made in Japan to their specs, then began making more and more components in Wein.
Different layers of coatings could be done in different countries.
Leupold at one time I was told sourced lenses from E. Leitz Canada, they still may for all I know (E. Leitz Canada became Elcan and is now something else?).
I have Leica's that have lenses from Germany and were assembled in Portugal.
A UPS pilot told me that they flew into some places in Africa and picked up handguns and lenses that had been coated there because the industrial processes were so nasty no one else would do or allow them.
I have heard some special industrial coatings have been applied on the International Space Station for certain widgets.
We all say we want to buy US made but then turn around and buy products made overseas because they are cheaper so debating where something is "really" from is irrelevant.
There are 320+ factories just in Japan that can do everything from make screws to produce lenses to assemble complete products.
Art

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote oldguy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/07/2012 at 07:59
quote(Quality is not a priority in capitalism...
I worked for a local manufacturer (in the US) and my boss and I butted heads repeatedly because I kept trying to identify the cause of a quality problem and correct it. He just wanted to keep making more... faster. There is no money in correcting a problem if you can get away with ignoring it.)quote
 
Excellent post,as a very old quality control tech. (years ago not firearm related) I had a engineer tell me (I had rejected his product) he did not care about quality just wanted to get the product out the door. that was in mid-eighty's and I seen quality drop from that point.
 
In another note I own 4 Mueller scopes( I understand China made) they all perform great with excellent
glass clarity they work for me but I'm a target shooter not a hunter.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/07/2012 at 09:32
All generalizations are bad - even this one.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kesi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/07/2012 at 11:21
I heard that Steiner is completed  in China. Shocked SIII & SII BS is really purely Japanese?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gulf1263 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September/07/2012 at 22:10
With international trade the way it is, who knows what part of what is made where?
Bits and pieces can come from anywhere, coatings for lenses can done in several countries and then the final assembly and QC done somewhere else.
Way back in the day the agency I worked for received and interpreted satellite imagery looking for signs of factories spewing pollutants that would help indicate to us what they were doing.
One company was very proud of a particular process but they sure as hell weren't doing it in country..we tracked it to North Korea, the components then went to Mainland China (Commie) and then back to Hong Kong, the company thought it was being done in Hong Kong, it was sub, sub contracted to the North Koreans!
Visit the Leupold factory in Oregon or the Zeiss Conquest line factory in Virginia (if they still have tours) and try to figure out where everything comes from..remember that some companies put out bids every few months and check QC so where something is from can change fairly quickly.
The major players have lines that are built to specifications, not price, their QC is rigorous and they reject anything not up to spec and if something slips through they will make it right.
Other companies build strictly to price, if you luck out and get a cherry example then you have hit the jackpot, if not you may have a piece of junk.
I am an optics junky and am constantly looking at the SWFA Sample List, many times I can find B Demo spec built gear close to or even below the price of the cheaper stuff.
Get the best you can afford and try to save up for an upgrade if possible.
Use and enjoy whatever you have.
Art
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