ShatoDavis

Leupold is most definately american made. They import their Wind River line and market them under the leupold name. The Gold ring series of scopes, binos, and Spotters are american through and through. I am personally a Leo man. Burris makes a good scope but I've never had a leo fail so I go by the old saying, "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

As to the question of higher power: I personally have a 2.5 x 8 on all of my hunting rigs. The only time the power get turned off of 2.5 is at the range. I've never needed or thought to turn the power up in a hunting situation. My Father has hunted all over the world, and he uses a 1.5 x 5 leo nearly exclusively (only exception being varmint guns). He loves the field of view he gets at 1.5x. I've personally seen him make some phenominal shots at terrific distances with that "little piece of glass". Like most things though its a question of personal preference.

I think a lot of people consider the longer range shots and think very little if any about closer shots. I've experienced a problem at closer ranges once. I had shot my weapon at the range to check zero. I had turned the power up to 8 and forgotten to turn it back down. While I was hunting a had a deer at about 20 yards. I threw my gun to my shoulder and all I could see was brown. I had no idea where I was aiming because I was zoomed in way to far. I had to fiddle with the scope and turn it back down to tell where I was at. I was lucky the buck didn't bust me and leave before I got my scope turned down. I was in camp one time when a buddy was telling of a situation exactly the same. He had his scope on 9X and couldn't get a shot off before a buck of a lifetime go away. Of course here in the ozarks there isn't much open country and the woods are thick. So lower powered scopes are the ticket. I've never thought of the lower powers as a hinderance in the mountains or plains though.