RE: customer service. Leupold is absolutely incredible, but I have no experience with Nikon to compare (I am a very dedicated Nikon camera person though, have been for 30 years).

I have an old, I believe it's called, V-I from the early 80s that I bought USED without any documentation, in the mid-80s. Haven't used it a LOT, but it hasn't been babied either.

About a year ago, I just wanted the thing to have a look over. I was having some vague issues sighting in and wanted to make sure it wasn't a scope issue. Turns out it was normal varancy of ammo loads: it was the first time I was experimenting with various loads and didn't realize the inconsistency some loads will give in a rifle. I contacted them by email and they said send it in and when do you need it back. I had a hunting trip coming up in 2 weeks so I really needed it back within a week or so so I could mount and sight it. I paid for express shipping to them, but they expedited it in their shop, and overnighted it back to me NO CHARGE. I had several days to get it mounted and sighted in. Also, gave me the confidence to realize when I had a bad or good ammo match for my gun. DEFINITELY gave me confidence with my shots in the field, and that's hugely important.

They completely re-habbed it (not sure but think this was disassembly, clening, re-gassing, etc). and included a written tech report on the scope. The shop report showed the scope was rock solid (helping me to finally figure out my problems were ammo/load related, not scope). All this for a customer who really didn't have a problem, bought the scope used 20 years ago.

This, my friends, might trump any difference between Nikon and Leupold for me at least. I'll be hard pressed to buy any other brand in the future, although my prejudice would be that Nikon is an excellent product as well.

zeke