With all the "talk" about Leupold, Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski and even Schmidt & Bender; how come I NEVER heard anyone recommend Aimpoint, Trijicon, or even Nightforce ?

Trijicon! .

Swift............

Don't forget Kahles

Really?...

I own a few of too, and like them. Not premium but dependable.

Yes...if Lupy crap is considered in the same class with Zeiss, Kahles, Schmidt and Bender....they yes.

Getting a little offensive there with the brand bashing.

Upper crust Leupold, not the standard VX3 and lower that most own, is indeed top notch stuff. As for Swift, decent scopes for the green but not in the same category as the upper European stuff or Nightforce.

Speaking to my personal experience is all...I grew up 30 miles from the original Lupy factory and used them religiously till the late 80's when their quality went to crap and their prices went through the roof. Their quality hasn't kept pace with most others.

I sat for 30-45 mins last week at a Cabelas comparing several scopes for a new build I am working on...I compared the following scopes...

Nikon Monarch 3: 4-16x50SF ($475)
Zeiss Conquest: 3-12x50 ($1099)
Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 ($599)
Lupy VX 3: 3.5-10 ($549)
Lupy VX 6: 3-18x50 (1299)

The Zeiss were the clear winners for clarity (especially near the edges) and eye relief...the Monarch was a very close second the guy helping me agreed that clarity wise it was hard to really tell the difference between the Monarch and the Zeiss...the Lupy's real disadvantage was eye relief and how picky it is. The Lupy VX6 was clearly superior to the VX3 and the Monarch and the Zeiss were also clearly much better than the VX3...and still better than the VX6 when eye relief was taken into consideration.

Bottom line...the VX6 doesn't really compete with the Zeiss and doesn't even come close to comparing to my Kahles. Add in bang for buck and the Nikon Monarch blows the Lupy out of the park.