Leica ER5 Scopes - Where are they made?

[rookhawk]

Not sure Leica will ever fess up. I searched the whole internet and couldn't get the answer.

Anyone know where?

I know they weren't made by Leupold. I had heard that some of them even were made by Leica because the US assembler couldn't keep up.

Thanks for revealing the secret. I'm assuming no big deal since they are discontinued.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Thought you said you bought a bunch of them recently. Why not look on the box or scope itself?

 

[rookhawk]

Thought you said you bought a bunch of them recently. Why not look on the box or scope itself?

Because the box says "Leica", not the actual sub-assembler, and the country of origin says "Made in the USA" even though rumor is they were made by Leica in some instances directly, perhaps in Portugal or Germany.

Leica doesn't want to divulge who is making their products. I *think* Zeiss was doing the assembly in the USA on this product line, just figured someone here would know for sure.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Because the box says "Leica", not the actual sub-assembler, and the country of origin says "Made in the USA" even though rumor is they were made by Leica in some instances directly, perhaps in Portugal or Germany.

Leica doesn't want to divulge who is making their products. I *think* Zeiss was doing the assembly in the USA on this product line, just figured someone here would know for sure.

Perhaps when the Conquest line was made here for Zeiss. That was pretty good glass for the money but proved less than durable for me.

 

[wesheltonj]

I talked to the Leica Rep at DSC and he would not say who was making them. He did say that it was not Leopold. He said the reason they discontinued them was quality control issues, that they were eating too many scopes.

 

[MikeW]

Cut and paste from a post on OpticsTalk from Koshkin in Jan 2015.

"I spent a fair amount of time with Leica and looked at the ER5 scopes in some detail.

I started recording my impressions while I still have them (here). I will add more as I go along.

The scoop on ER5 scopes so far is as follows:
- the glass is brought from Europe (from the Portuguese factory, I think)
- the design is done by Leica in Germany
- most of the mechanicals are made in the US (the tubes and all that are machined here)
- the assembly is done in the US

SHOT is not the best place to evaluate optics, but I liked what I saw with the ER5. Overall quality is good, eye relief is forgiving and weight is under control. There are some specifics with the design that will make this basic chassis a good basis for a variety of scopes in the future.

Some of the reticles are newly designed and I was very happy to find out that some of the feedback from last year registered: I complained that on some design the thick bars are so far apart that they are almost useless in low light. On this scope, none of the reticles are ultra thin and there is clear consideration of how usable these will be in low light.

I have a lot of mileage with ER scopes and I doubt that these are as good. However, they are not far off.

If I were to guess, I would say that the overall design intent of these scopes was to be better than Zeiss HD5. It is hard to say without a side-by-side comparison, but the ER5s are nice scopes.

Of particularly interest to me is the 1.5-8x32 model that weighs only 12 ozs and looked really good. However, I will likely look at one of the large models as well. If a particular confiuration is of specific interest, let me know."

 

[Red Leg]

I have around a half-dozenof the ER 5 tribe. I have taken everything from buffalo, to black bear, to whitetail with them. None has had a problem of any sort. They demonstrate phenomenal clarity in all light, and to date, perfect durability.