I don't hate Leupold. In fact, I keep wishing I could find one of their scopes that met my needs.
There are a few things that frustrate me with them though. The lack of useful info on their website has already been mentioned but it does make shopping online for one a huge headache.
The major one for me is the lack of a mildot option on any of their less expensive scopes and the fact that the custom shop charges more for a mil dot reticle than other options. I can understand paying a bit more for custom work but is it really double the effort to fit a mil dot reticle than their far less useful duplex? Suddenly your $400 scope has become $600 and you are wondering what else you could get for that.
The other thing is that they charge so much more for features that are included in $100 scopes these days. I feel like they are only left out to avoid cannibalizing sales of their more expensive models. It's kinda like how I think the FX Wildcat only has smaller mag capacity and no HST adjuster to justify the extra $500 for the Bobcat and Impact. In reality, it would be far less expensive to add a gram of extra plastic for mags that held 12 instead of 8, or a spring with a screw for the HST. If they did that though, nobody would buy a Bobcat.
The main difference between expensive and cheaper scopes is the quality of the glass and the precision in the turrets. Most of the other features are relatively cheap as they are included with cheap scopes, so why does Leupold's more affordable products need to be so spartan in the features department?
It only bugs me because they have other features that I really want and some of them are hard to find on any other brand. Specifically, they offer very lightweight scopes with high quality glass. Most decent affordable scopes weigh a ton. They would be my dream scope if they just changed the options to cater to a slightly broader audience.
The glass on the clearidge scopes is made in the same factory as Leupold's glass. leupolds are slightly better overall but....when you look at what you get with a Clearidge 6-24x40 mil dot, their 4-14x40 mil dot or even their Ultra RM, it makes it harder to justify Leupolds custom shop nonsense for an air gun scope. The Clearidge products seem almost tailor made for PCP rifles out of the box and the quality is not far off Leupolds lower price models.
Just to reiterate, I don't hate Leopold though. I want to buy one. They are just annoying in some ways.
