Vortex Scope

[cls]

Do you know what he was using -- Diamondback, Viper, or Razor?

I called him last night to verify and he tells me it was a Viper, he is heading back to Africa in June and will be leaving his replacement Viper at home.

 

[bilmcc]

This is relative of course but anything over 30-06 is hard recoiling to me.

I have a fascination with optics. I worked part time at a Cabela's gun counter for two years and while there mounted all scopes when on duty. I also have a small scope mounting business, I've mounted a whole bunch of scopes. Based on personal experience and the number of returns I've seen I don't believe Vortex scopes handle recoil well. The exception is the Razor, all models of which were made by LOW in Japan until recently. One of two Razor models are now made in the U.S. Vipers and Diamondbacks are made in the Philippines, Crossfires in China. Some pretty decent, tough scopes are made in the Philippines but I don't believe Vipers, Diamondbacks and Crossfires hold up to heavy recoil well. I also don't believe higher powered scopes hold up to serious recoil well until you get to some fairly high priced models and brands.

That's pretty disheartening, since I have Vipers on my 7mm Rem Mag and 300 Win Mag. They are working well so far. Maybe I bought them before shift in quality, but it sounds like you have been seeing this for quite some time. Thank you for the information.

 

[Dwight Beagle]

That's pretty disheartening, since I have Vipers on my 7mm Rem Mag and 300 Win Mag. They are working well so far. Maybe I bought them before shift in quality, but it sounds like you have been seeing this for quite some time. Thank you for the information.

They are much closer to a 30-06 than a .375 H&H in recoil. I picked 30-06 fairly arbitrarily. I'm reserving the right to change my previous statement from 30-06 to .338 WM. Based on experience I would not mount a Viper on a rifle for dangerous game. Sometimes price isn't the determining factor though because I'd trust a Burris Fullfield II.