|
To celebrate one hundred years as America’s
premier scope maker, Leupold has introduced a new limited
edition scope to commemorate their landmark birthday.
Leupold has been the leader in quality American made rifle
scopes for many years, while most of the legendary brands that
American shooters have relied upon for decades are now being
made in third world countries. Leupold produces high
quality optics for shooters, hunters, law enforcement, military,
and bird watchers, and I have come to rely upon Leupold scopes
almost exclusively when testing rifles for accuracy.
Working up loads and trying to determine just how accurate a
rifle can be, the last thing that I want to worry about is if
the scope is holding its setting properly, so I usually bolt on
a Leupold.
This new Leupold Century Limited scope
celebrates 100 years of quality precision instruments from the
company in Beaverton, Oregon. Starting out repairing surveying
equipment, and moving later into production of highly accurate
measuring devices, Leupold & Stevens has an enviable
reputation for quality in sporting and fighting optics
throughout the world.
I often get requests to recommend a good scope
for a hunting or target rifle, and ninety percent of the time, I
recommend Leupold. Sometimes I write about a product that
performs well for me, a reader buys one just like it, and has a
problem with it. When this happens, believe me, I hear about it.
When recommending Leupold, this never happens, and saves me the
chore of reading through hateful emails. We put a lot of time
and effort into the products that we review here at
Gunblast.com, and I do not like wasting my time on junk. There
are many cheaper brands on the market. I have a few boxes full
of them. However, sometimes cheaper at the cash register is more
expensive in the long run. I have many scopes that I will never
use that seemed like a good deal at the time.
Another benefit of buying Leupold scopes has
always been that they hold more of their value than do most
others. I have noticed many times that when purchasing used
rifles, other brand scopes add little or nothing to the value of
the gun, but if it wears a Leupold, buyers are willing to pay
more. That doesn’t happen with a third-world manufactured
scope. Another intangible benefit is pride of ownership.
You never have to apologize for choosing a Leupold.
Anyway, back to the subject of this piece,
Leupold has this limited edition scope to celebrate its
one-hundredth birthday. The scope is a 3 to 9 power with a
40mm objective lens and a one inch tube. It is the classic
hunting scope, and is probably the most useful power range for
most hunters, balancing exit pupil size to power range, and is
entirely suitable for hunting anything from vermin to the
largest game on Earth. The reticle is Leupold’s LR
Duplex design, which gives multiple aiming points for longer
range shooting. The scope is gas-filled, and has one-quarter
minute click adjustments, with a total of 56 minutes of
elevation and 52 minutes of windage adjustment. The eye
relief averages about four inches, depending upon the power
selected, but is never any less than 3.7 inches. The scope
wears a gloss black finish, with Leupold’s famous gold ring on
the objective bell, and has a unique anniversary logo on
the side of the turret. Each scope also has a unique anniversary
serial number.

Leupold's LR Duplex reticle |
The Leupold Century Limited scope comes packaged
in a special embossed metal box with a cardboard sleeve.
Within the box is a limited edition CRKT fixed-blade
knife. The knife is marked with the Leupold anniversary logo, is
made of German 4116 steel, and has Turkish Circassian walnut
scales. The blade is hollow ground, and has fancy gold-colored
bolsters, and has a hollow-ground blade. Also included is a
leather sheath embossed with the Leupold logo, and a
gold-colored commemorative coin. It is a real nice package that
will likely become collectable. They will be made for one year
only, and are shipping now.
Suggested retail price for the whole package is
$439 US, but I have seen these for sale online at www.swfa.com
for just under 350 bucks.
Check out the extensive line of Leupold optics
at: www.leupold.com.
Jeff Quinn
 
Got something to say about this article? Want to agree (or
disagree) with it? Click the following link to go to the GUNBlast Feedback Page.
|
|
Click pictures for a larger version.














|