100% US made rifle scope?

I agree the big catch is the bucks we pay. We like to pay our employees good and they should be, have insurance, retirment plan, etc. On top of all that most places dont want to pay there employees a fair wage. No doubt it takes two working just to make ends meet. You see some real big companys and we all no who they are, they pay there employees hardly nothing, and try to keep them part time without no benifits. It makes the average person buy what they can get the best deal on, and in turn makes it worse. I sure dont have the answer, but feel sorry for our kids even with a good education. If you have two kid's, two cars because you both need to work, and pay for child care, and try buying your own house etc. you better be making alot of money or you will never make it. Once when I was a kid we done alot of traveling. I remember one time we had a new car, and a new trailer. We went to Montana for two weeks seen all the sights, bought lots of things to bring back etc. I can't even guess at what that would cost now. Just the car, and trailer without the trip. To me the min wage is some kind of joke, but thank god its there or I am sure wages would be lower yet. Very hard situation to fix, I have a few ideas but lots of peopld would probably think I am nuts.
 
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"Why is it sad? Otherwise even a Leupold VX-1 or a Nikon Prostaff would cost $300-$400."
Haha LukeA, thats the price we pay or more where I live as it is! I certainly hope they don't start making lense in the USA!
 
I have a Nikon Buckmaster on my M70 in .270, a Weaver K4 on my Rem 700 in .308, a Leupold VXII on my .22-250 and a Leupold Mk4 on my .338. None have caused me any problems yet. All perform as advertised.
 
Carl Zeiss builds optics in Dublin CA one of their many plants across the globe.
I agree with the Nikon statement,you have to spend hundreds more $ to get glass comparable.Night Force makes their own glass in Idaho or they used to not sure if they have farmed out their glass these days.The Europeans have always built better quality optics than the U.S. with the exception of Unertl which has been gone for years but their scopes are still sought after.

Just caught the age of this thread.:o
 
my two cents:

I frequently read about people complaining that nothing is made in the US anymore, myself included. However, with the economy being what it is and the sad fact the most people want the cheapest product possible, getting something made in the USA means higher costs which a lot of people aren't willing to pay. So, we have a paradox of cheap customers, seemingly overpriced goods and an unwillingness to spend more to buy something American made.

On another tangent, why is it that some people are opposed to Japanese made products and not German? It seems like there are those who still harbor bad feelings towards the Japanese over WWII, yet, wouldn't hesitate to buy a German made product. I happen to think Japan is leading the way to cutting edge technology and are our economic partners. Products made in China are one thing, but Japan make quality goods imo.
 
Don't buy anything metal made in China except golf clubs. I used to look at the microstructure (retired metallurgist) on Chinese and Indian iron samples and frankly it didn't even look like grey iron. And the first "test" lot (even after I advised against it) came with 50% of the parts broken. The other 50% was junk. There are things these people CAN'T figure out and one of these is foundry practices. SIL formerly worked for GM transmission division. GM built a huge, state-of-the-art iron foundry in China and taught them how to do it. After a few months the parts started breaking and were horrible. A "team" from GM went over and the Chinese running the factory had jacked up the times and screwed with the iron chemistry to try to get more production out then the plant was designed to produce. GM chewed them out, re-taught them they can't mess with that stuff and went home. A few months later the same thing. GM closed the plant and moved it to Mexico or someplace else. The Chinese can assemble things. That's about it.
 
gaseousclay said:
On another tangent, why is it that some people are opposed to Japanese made products and not German?
Click to expand...

Many of us remember when the Made in Japan stamp was synonymous with cheap products. I don't think that it has anything to do with wartime prejudices as much as it had to do with the fact that at one time the Japanese made truly cheap products. That's not necessarily true today, in fact, many optics companies worldwide use Japanese lenses.

The simple fact is that most shooters can't take advantage of the precision built into many scopes. While many of us here are capable to seeing the effect on the target of a 1/4 minute click, the vast majority of shooters simply don't need/want/use that degree of precision. Most folks aren't interested in repeatability, because they don't fiddle with their scopes beyond the initial sight-in.

I've got one scope on one rifle that hasn't been adjusted in years. I sighted that rifle with a particular load and set the scope for that bullet/powder combo and I haven't fiddled with it in four years. I shoot that rifle maybe a dozen shots in a year and it always satisfies.
 
SCopes

I was going to go with a Nikon Scope,? Call them up in L.I. NY & asked for a Catalog on their Scopes, To see the Specs etc.? & guess What.? They do not have Rifle Scopes Catalogs for Mailing.? what BS so I have decided to buy a Redfield Revelation 4-12x40MM Scope.? That is all made in OR.? @ the Leupold Plant from start to finish,? with their own Lens etc.? I called them up & the told me that the Revelation Scope is all USA made here.? But the Redfield Revenge model Scope is all made in the Philippines.? So looks like the Revelation,? For a few $$$$ more.? will be my next purchase.? :cool: :D
 
Considering that the USA pretty much pioneered corporate globalisation I am a bit surprised to see so many against it. It has given the US a great deal of wealth and I don't see that the quality of the products in mind has suffered arbitrarily.

The truth is, if you can get the components/labour at a cheaper price but to the standards that you want, why not?

If the brand is reputable I have no issue getting something "Made in China". It all depends on the specs they are built to.

A word of caution on seeking home-built stuff exclusively: the LGS that I bought my M400 from is now ceasing the sale of Schmeisser ARs. Now these are made in Germany, so only about 1200 miles away with only open Schengen borders between here and there. So why are they no longer selling them? They cost more than the Sig built guns from NH, USA, and the specifications are no better. So, buying from the EU exclusively would get me a product that is more expensive and no better. Perhaps even a little inferior.

You can get really good stuff that US companies have exhaustively researched suppliers for, getting you the product you want at the cheapest price. That is a fundamental basis of global free market trade.
How is that a bad thing?
 
P, JP,

Some folks really want the quality that used to be associated with the "Made in America" label, and some folks just haven't jumped on the globalization bandwagon seeing the "rust belt" wasteland of former US manufacturing cities, and I'm sure there are other reasons out there too including just simple patriotism.

Globalism has both good and bad aspects, but it is the way of the present and future.

Jimro
 
Will your MITUSA scope work properly aiming ammo with powder originating from other countries? Very little smokeless powders are made in the USA these days. To say nothing about where bullet jacket material comes from.

Check out the country of origin for all the parts of your shooting stuff. Your TV and your four C's, too; car, computer, camera and communications stuff.

Check out what's in the following link for what "Made in the USA" leagally and technically means:

http://www.business.ftc.gov/advertising-and-marketing/made-usa

Emotionally? That's up to you.

Sometimes, other countries people make stuff much better than we in the USA.

.....Consider the radio antenna's used in that WWII mission wherein a B-29 dropped Fat Man in 1945; it was detonated by signals from an antenna in the plane sent to antennas on the bomb that triggered the device. Japanese origin.

.....It was Japanese lenses (and later their cameras) that put the finest, highest quality professional camera and lens companies in the USA out of business dealing the first hand in the death knell game to the related businesses in Rochester, NY; Graflex and Kodak. It all started in 1950 with a young Japanese photographer using a Nikon lens on a Leica camera taking a picture of a Life Magazine photographer. That picture wowed the photojournalizm business like nothing else.
 
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Wow... This thread is old.


For what it's worth, the causes are varied and difficult.

You can blame workers, government, taxes, and corporate culture promoting short term profit over long term stability and growth.

Then you can turn around and point to places those things are not so problematic.


I tend to point blame more in the direction of corporate greed over the others, though it all fits together.

I get the system, I don't think it bad, I just think it's broken. A shift in priorities it seems to me at least.


In the US, between cost of living, and difficulty in finding affordable housing not plagued by bugs and crime is hard, healthcare costs and other things. Much pressure is on the work force.

Many (not all) government regulations, are in fact, necessary... Shocking I know.

There are tons of loopholes and tricks in the tax code, so most bigger companies can exploit them and pay way less tax than the raw tax rate suggests.

Layers of middle men in the supply chain.

But everything ties together... And the balance is out of whack now. So now costs to produce in the US is high.


All that was at best a glossing over of high points, and contains no real info to explain the position, but this is not the place for that level of discussion on the subject.
 
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