I received this from a buddy of mine who owns a gun shop back home.
Counterfeit Leupold Riflescope Warning
Leupold® is issuing a customer alert to purchasers of products, particularly via Internet sales, in regards to bogus Leupold products that are apparently being illegally imported from the People"s Republic of China. These products bear many of the marks and trade dress of current Leupold & Stevens riflescopes making them very hard to distinguish externally from authentic Leupold products.
In recent months, counterfeited Leupold Mark 4® riflescopes have begun to arrive with increasing regularity at the firm"s Beaverton, Oregon, headquarters for service. These products are not manufactured by Leupold and are not covered by the Leupold Full Lifetime Guarantee.
Leupold employs serial number tracking for all its riflescopes, so if a customer finds a scope that is suspect, he or she can simply write down the serial number and call 1-800-LEUPOLD to confirm if it is indeed authentic.
In general, most of the scopes appear to originate from Hong Kong (People"s Republic of China), and have "Leupold Mark 4" laser engraved on the bottom of the turret in a silver etch, while the black ring on the objective is etched in white and does not include the name "Leupold." The scopes also do not bear the Leupold medallion, a mark all Leupold scopes will always possess. An authentic Mark 4 riflescope will always be engraved black on black and have the name "Leupold" engraved on the black ring.
Identifying Marks
· Adjustments
· Objective
· Bottom of Turret
Ruger Redhawk
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**** NRA Patron Life Member ****
The warning has been out for several month's now and can be seen on Leupold's web site.
That's a good reason why I buy all my Mark 4's from a reputable source and not off an auction site such as ebay. If you think you can get a $1200 scopefor $400 you are usually getting a knock off such as the ones described above. As far as I understand it's only with the Mark 4's and notthe vari x's.
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Life is good, Give God the Glory....doubleA
There is so much bull whooy, both goods, ingredients and food, coming from China to the rest of the world, including the U.S., it's getting to be alarming. Not just the poisonous wheat germ that made it into so much pet food, but ingredients to things like toothpaste that turns out to contain the equivalent to anti-freeze instead of glycerin that got into some Central Am. countries.
More and more I'm looking to buy things made as far away from China, as possible. Unfortunately, that's getting harder and harder.
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MinnFinn
"Now there you go again..." "I'm not going to hold your youth and inexperience against you." -- Ronald Reagan
Leupold Warning
