Thread: Chinese Brand Scopes

And I thought we covered this in the Power Tool thread FFS?

Originally Posted by shooternz

Why would any one buy wooden gloves from China? Crossfire11's are made in China so the chance is that they are the real deal the factory probably overruns orders
from Vortex and flogs them on Aliexpress

They were 1 dollar and free shipping so why not? If they're gonna be used in the bush they'll get cut up.

I see.

[QUOTE=shooternz;672638]Why would any one buy wooden gloves from China? Crossfire11's are made in China so the chance is that they are the real deal the factory probably overruns orders
from Vortex and flogs them on Aliexpress[/QUOTE
If they were over runs if that is possible they would be offered to dealers at lower prices, as you see at the Sika show, all the left overs were offered around the country, at lower prices, I was shown a lovely Carl Zeiss from Alieexpress, firstly Zeiss only put Zeiss on there scope, but on the upside it's the only scope that would adjust diagonally.

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

They were 1 dollar and free shipping so why not? If they're gonna be used in the bush they'll get cut up.

I see.

Context is always helpful to forming a opinion ....

Originally Posted by Taff:

but on the upside it's the only scope that would adjust diagonally.

Brings a whole new dimension to hunting, @Taff

Im borrowing a Konus Pro F30 6-24 FFP scope off a friend, He paid around 550 for it. On optic planets website its currently at 650usd Im surprised by it. Fired about 200 rounds. Zero hasn't moved. Dialed up and down from 100m to 700m on a Tikka T3 260rem.
I have not re shot my zero since i did a large amount of dialing. Optically it isnt amazing but its better than some Tasco and lower end Nikkon etc.
Two biggest issues are Eye box and the parallax adjustment is unforgiving compared to other scopes. And that over 20x the clarity decreases a little bit.

Wouldn't use it for a bush gun but for a dedicated varmint rifle it would be hard a good choice.

Originally Posted by shooternz

Why would any one buy wooden gloves from China? Crossfire11's are made in China so the chance is that they are the real deal the factory probably overruns orders
from Vortex and flogs them on Aliexpress

wooden gloves? wouldnt you get splinters or do they come with sandpaper ?

Nugget-a very reputable (at least I think he is) optics guru/supplier in CHCH rates the konus spotting scope very good value for money. No reason to think that the scopes cant be too bad either.

Based on the price, specs, and the looks of their scopes, I am guessing that Konus is an operation that uses a long standing European name (nut not necessarily a big nor well known one) as marketing tool, to sell cheap scopes that are fundamentally no different than those on aliexpress. You pay more than what you would pay on aliexpress but you get life time warranty (vs zero from Aliexpress) some level of quality assurance because the American/Italian/Kiwi behind the Konus brand would do quality checks regularly (or so you would hope). But otherwise, same glass, same aluminium, same factory.

In many ways Mueller and BSA operate the same way. Mueller was quite active a few years ago, recently pretty much gone completely silent/stalled, maybe the guy behind got tired of all. I would imagine it would be quite a stressful thing when you got no control over the factory and R&D.

Thats good to know about the Konus. I don't plan on buying a Chinese scope currently but will look at something in the future.
Yup everything is in the QAQC. I work in engineering, Oil and Gas based. I have seen projects where vessels and other items have been manufactured in china and shipped over here. If you can get your own QAQC people involved everything is good. But often its more involved than just spot checks its full time people managing the whole operation.
But it does seem production overruns are common and the factory sells them out the back door. Easier to get away with if the product is unbranded I guess. Happens with mountain bikes as well. I remember someone mentioning that one bike company has a whole division setup to investigate product overruns.

ive got a konus spotting scope and its a piece of shit

Originally Posted by Ryan

Someone with a lot of experience in China once told me (forgive me if I'm paraphrasing), "China will make the product with the quality that the customer is willing to pay for".*

*"Customer" obviously referring to the party seeking to have something manufactured.

Caveat: China are excellent imitators but not innovators (at least in contemporary times).

I've got an athlon Ares FFP 4.5-27 and the glass is surprisingly good, glass is pretty close to my Zeiss HD5. Not quite, there, but not far behind. Tracks perfectly, 10 mils/rotation. weak point is the focus, does not have the depth of focus.

Originally Posted by NZVarminter

I've got an athlon Ares FFP 4.5-27 and the glass is surprisingly good, glass is pretty close to my Zeiss HD5. Not quite, there, but not far behind. Tracks perfectly, 10 mils/rotation. weak point is the focus, does not have the depth of focus.

I suspect Athlon operate that exact same business model (as Vortex Bushnell Mueller etc). Pick a OEM good design -> set out spec for materials -> order them from Chinese factory.

So far most reviews say Athlon is very good.