Originally Posted By: HOGGHEADOriginally Posted By: thegman1763Hogghead, not going to get in a peeing match here but I believe you are wrong about NF. I have a friend in ID who is a machinist who interviewed with NF a few years ago for a machinist position with them. Be kinda silly to employ a machinist if you didn't machine or manufacture anything now wouldn't it?
By no means did I mean to start an argument. My main point was that NF imports(if not all) the most important part of their scope or scopes. The lenses. And these lenses are only made by a small handful of companies that make lenses worldwide. And these mfrs. make lenses to specifications. As I am sure you already know. And since they are importing this glass, and not making the glass---that makes them a "trade name". Or at least that is my opinion.
Since they do not make these lenses then they will be limited to what warranties they can offer for a product that they truly do not mfr. Or that they may partially mfr---or simply assemble.
And this by no means would limit them from selling a different product that is built to a different spec.
I have talked to a good bit of NF customers. And one of the comments that I have picked up from them is that there have been some different levels of quality in the past(I am sure they are not the only ones). However I have heard that these problems are definitely in the past.
I am not knocking NF. I am strongly considering the purchase of my first one. However I keep getting scared off by their limited production and IMO experience. $1800 is a lot of money for a scope with a lifetime warranty if they are not around in ten years?? Tom.
Ah, it's so nice to come to a forum where people are civilized & can have discussions without slinging mud at each other. Sadly, not the case with some other places I am registered....
I agree that the glass quality is paramount in a scope but just because a company imports lenses or other parts of the scope, this doesn't make it a bad company or merely an assembler of parts & ergo, not really a manufacturer. I know it's slightly different but would anyone consider Rock River Arms to not really be a manufacturer of AR style rifles? Given that they don't make anything themselves in house & only assemble rifles, I guess they really aren't?
I work in the gun industry (now part time but previously full time) & I can tell you that there are very, very, few 'manufacturers' who do exactly that, manufacture every thing.
I would rather have a company realize that their strength is in the manufacturing of a certain number of smaller, really critical parts & farm out the rest of the parts to some of the finest names in the industry than try & do it all & make a mess of it. It's the care that's taken to assemble the parts that really counts though.
GAP make some of the finest rifles on the planet but they don't make a thing themselves. They use the best components they can find & the skill that is used in building the rifles is what makes the end result close to perfection.
My experience with NF has been with recent production & through work, not with plunking down my own cash for a scope. I sure understand the hesitation when thinking about laying out that kind of money & to be honest, I simply can't justify it to myself. I look at the scopes & think that I could buy at least 4 Leupold's (at dealer price) for what one NF would cost me. I'm not in a position where my life demands on my scope, nor do I do enough of the style of shooting that I would benefit from either a NF, S&B or other really high dollar scope.
I'm honestly not knocking the Huskemaw scopes as I only briefly looked at them at the NRA show in Phoenix this year but their weight & the price was enough to dissuade me from considering them. This was especially true when I spent about an hour talking scopes with the folks on the Leupold stand. Some of the new models of the VX-3 line actually come with a voucher for a free custom engraved dial which is a nice touch.
I can see the value with Huskemaw offering to actually shoot the rounds you specify for the dial to ensure that the dial is right, especially if you don't have a range to do that on. But & this is a big one, if you really don't have the time, range or money to shoot out at the ranges the dial gives you the ability to reach out to, you honestly should NOT be considering any kind of really long range shooting at big game animals. It's just not right, at least IMHO to do that.
Tom, nice to talk about this with you & hope you have more info than when you started! Best, George.