Boy talk about mixed thoughts. I'll start off with I think Leapolds are some of the best scopes on the market, but they've just about priced themselves out of my market. I've got several on different rifles and really like them. they also have one of the best warrentee's in the business and their customer service is at the top of the heap.
After I got retired I found it was still pretty easy to buy rifles, but staying with Leapold was getting beyond both my ability to pay and my desire to spend as much or more on a scope as a rifle.
I started searching for less expensive scopes with good optics. I've always felt that there are scopes out there that have excellent optics and still are affordable.
When I was driving truck I had the opportunity to stop in at Cabela's at Sidney NB every week or so and spent some time looking thru their extensive scope collection. They had a try stock available and I durn near wore it out.
Of all the scopes I looked thru, from the high priced imports to the cheapy 40 buck jobs I found the little 160 buck Simmons 2.8 to 10 AETEC just absolutly excellent. I now have two of them, one on a Rem 280 and the other on a Rem 8mm mag. I'm thinking about getting the 4 by 14 for a calling scope on the little CZ Varmit in 204 Ruger.
Bottom line is it's hard to beat Leapold and you will never regret the purchase, but if your ever in the market for a good scope for less money the AETEC falls into that class. By the way I liked both the Leapold and AETEC better than the Zeiss.
