TOM wrote:Warranty may be a consideration for you, 5 years on the March, versus lifetime on a Nightforce or Leupold for mechanical failure and workmanship.
Sounds like a buy once deal with a Nightforce or Leupold and You find yourself on your own with the March after 5 years, as with anything mechanical it will probably fail at some stage, personally I'd prefer the confidence of never having to buy again when forking out big money.
I would just like to comment on Tom's post.
I can understand that many people may be concerned about the "
only 5 year warranty on the March" but at the end of the day the owners of March scopes are not worried. Cause they know. Better to have a scope that should not ever need a warranty than possible have another type which may need it often.
I am finding now that most owners of March scopes are coming back to buy a second or third scope. Because they have learned to appreciate the value of their instrument.
DEON are a small custom manufacturing company in Japan. They are a specialist company building only March scopes. The reasons for the 5 year warranty is rather traditional Japanese for small to medium size businesses. In fact it is a recommendation by their Chamber of Commerce. I don't ever see it changing or the need to. Their form to date has been exceptional. They have repaired damaged scopes for very little cost if any. One F class shooter who had a so call "March scope failure" at the Mackay Queens a couple of years back actually had his scope tube bent as it turned out. Someone learnt something very heavy on the sunshade and the scope was forward mounted so that is a lot of leverage out there. It had 1mm of total runnout measured at the bell. I measured it and videod it to prove to the owner. DEON did a full dismantle and replaced the whole body and returned his scope to him. The Cost? $200 which was the material cost price of the body only.
Funny thing they didn't get much thanks from that owner. Probably still bitter that it was someone else's fault.
I realise that for people who have as No1 priority on their scope purchase check list being a scope which has a lifetime warranty will probably never buy a March Scope. I don't think it will change.
But I also often say its a funny thing about warranties. You can buy any brand of Korean made car these days with a 5 years unlimited K warranty but if you want a BMW or a Ferrari you get a 12 month warranty. Do these same people complain to BMW or Ferrari?
Also most of us who buy precision shooting outfits usually invest a lot of money in the whole system. Lets look at an example. You get yourself a Stolle Panda action, maybe a Broughton match barrel, Jewell trigger, Kelbly rings, MCMillian stock, top brand rear bag and Farley Coaxial front rest. Get a quality gunsmith to put all that together
very carefully. You invest in reloading equipment to suit etc. Whats your investment? Maybe $6000 plus, without the scope. Right?
So did you get a warranty with all that? Did you even get an accuracy guarantee with that? Why is no-one screaming about this?
I know it may sound like trying to justify why only a 5 year warranty on the March and in the beginning when March first came out I started to worry about that too. I don't any more and have no need.
Annie and visited DEON in Japan at their invitation last October along with Jim Kelbly and his wife Cheryl. After seeing the demonstration of the complete assembly of one scope (an 8x-80x model), which took all day, and how every single component is hand assembled and hand lapped into place and then bonded together we know why nothing moves where it shouldn't move.
The point of difference with this particular product (March) is that every single piece is hand assembled and matched precisely. Not a few parts or the just the turret parts. Every single piece. Their best quality materials and worlds best designs that exceed all others are secondary to this actually
in my opinion. They still have all the features and the quality materials but No1 on my list is that 100% hand built assembly and personal fit up. Just like a true precision instrument. Something to aim your Precision rifle with will need to be a precision instrument.
This is not say in any way that other brands of scopes are no good or that all will fail. that is not the case at all. They are just different. They are built different.
If these qualities (mentioned above) are something that is important to a scope owner then no other manufacturer or brand can match this. The only unfortunate side effect is the cost. The question is though, what is the real cost?
Sometimes a cheap scope on a top quality precision shooting outfit can actually in the end be very very expensive. Not only in dollars but in confidence.
Anything at all made by man or otherwise can have faults. That is why we have warranties. It would be usual though for any potential warranty issues to show up initially. DEON have told us their warranty return rate is very low. Less than 1/2 of 1%.
DEON tell us that of the scopes which have been returned to them for warranty inspection because the owners were sure that their scope was moving or changing point of impact etc, not one scope has had a proven mechanical problem or failure in that area.
They will test, they will disassemble every component and inspect, they reassemble to their same standard and then retest. They even now provide a report with photos. But still not one scope from any country of any model has had a mechanical fault that can or did cause point of aim shift. They do it and send back no charge within approx 3 weeks. This is also a bit better than 4+ months we are hearing about some other brands warranty or inspection repairs.
The number one important thing about any scope for a precision shooting rifle is not the optics. Everyone seems to focus on the optics but it is actually no2.
No1 is mechanical integrity and reliability and repeatability.
After that you can consider having good optics.
Then you have to very carefully mount your scope (any brand scope) and correctly adjust it and look after it.
If you think mounting a scope is like mounting the bullbar on the Landcruiser (just tighten her in shape mate) and leave your outfit out in the sun to cook off before you lay down to shoot etc then you aint gunna do much 'precision shooting' very often IMO. No matter what brand of scope.
In my opinion and experience one of the biggest single failures in a precision shooting outfit is people not understanding how scopes work, how to correctly adjust them, understand what mirage is and how to use it and how to look after everything in the system to ensure it keeps shooting good.
You may not want to take my opinion on the subject but regardless I can recommend a good book. Tony Boyers book called "The book of Rifle Accuracy" Chapter 10 in particular. It is all about scopes and installing them. Tony is a Leupold man. He is sponsored by them but he gives a very unbiased lesson in what is important and how to mount scopes and set them up. He beds all his scopes so the point of impact is where his point of aim is. Central for windage and even adjustment up as well as down for elevation. He also points out that when trying to diagnose a potential faulty scope actually just swapping to another scope (same brand or otherwise) very rarely actually proves anything like you think it does!!!
He should know. He has won more precision shooting matches than anyone on the planet.
Stuart Elliott
