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I did some research on these scopes. You don't see them much because they are very selective about opening up dealers. Wether this is because they like to protect thier existing dealers by staying exclusive, or they have small output and don't want to risk quality (or can't afford to invest in high output) by high production number.
As far as I was able to find out, these optics are Japanese made. They are designed by shepard and seem to be of high quality. But I don't believe they are any better than other scopes of the same price range. What sets these scopes apart is thier famous 2 shot zero (or is it one shot). This makes it easy for neophytes to zero the scope but most of us can zero a scope in 5 to 20 shots anyway. If this easy zeroing capability is attractive to you, maybe you should get one. You should make it a point to compare these scopes with others in the price range, like Leupold VXIII and MKIV, Zeiss Conquest, Sightron SIII, Burris Signature select, Kahles AMerican, and Meopta. I am sure you would not be dissapointed in the optical qulaity of Shepard, but be aware that the mid priced optics field is CROWDED!!! This means that among the myriad scopes in the 400-800 buck range, there is something for everyone. And this competition has made the existing scopes better and better.
The fact that not too many people know about these optics doesn't mean that they are not good. Look at the Nightforce optics company. These high quality Japanese made scopes took the high power match shooting world by storm. They are made in a Japanese optics plant called (I think) Light Machinery of Japan. These are very high quality scopes and not cheap! But none of my hunting buddies know of them.
I think the main reason that Leupold is still number 1 in the USA is that thier optics are as good as any with regards to price range and thier customer service is legendary. On the other hand I only have one Leupold out of 7 scopes. Variety is the spice of life
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