Who is Cyclops?
If you two are referring to me, I'll just address that I hate lots of things as much as scopes that don't work.
If you aren't referring to me, well, I'll talk anyway.
I have killed multiple brands of scopes, had friends and colleagues that have also killed multiple scopes, and it can be really heartbreaking, at best.
The last one that broke was taking some pretty heavy (30+ pounds) recoil. It took me 4 rounds to notice, 3 to diagnose fully, and no more spent ammo. I was sad for as long as it took me to swipe the card for a replacement, and no real harm was done.
EXPERIENCE did that for me. The previous "harm done" to me from broken shit was enough to teach me to trust good weapons, trust my ammo, and trust my hold...so when holes start going where I didn't tell them to go, I start looking for the problem immediately.
30 years ago, I blamed myself.
Vortex is WELL known to have issues with durability of their lower end.
You might notice I'm not criticizing their 4-digit scopes? It's damn near like two brands...except the consumer has to defend themselves without any inside knowledge.
That's not unique to Vortex. All major brands have multiple lines of scopes, for different reasons. One of the reasons is so they can leverage their brand to sell a scope to EVERYBODY. Gone are the days when every item was built to as high a standard as possible. Thing is, to maintain profit on every level of scope, if you want to sell a budget optic, it has to be cheaper, or it will be a loss leader. Bean counters get pissed at product dev and brand positioning when they kick out losers...and bean counter's emails go higher up the chain. Way higher.
To make cheaper scopes, you can cut in a variety of ways. One way the sometimes-idiotic American shootercizer or fudsumer seems not to tolerate is in "glass": perceived image quality.
You'd be better to have a plastic-lensed POS with no coating...but that can be TRUSTED to adjust, hold, and put bullets where you point...than you are when your manufacturer gives you excellent image quality wrapped up in shit machining and delicate architecture
That, or even precision irons are better.
It's a SIGHTING SYSTEM, so first and foremost, it has to send bullets where told. If it can't do that, it is a liability.
I don't watch reviews, I guess? I tend to spend my time shooting, and teaching others about how to do it well, and fixing their shit, or telling them how.
I also test, and retest, and drill with my stuff. Not everything is top-tier; in fact, none of it is except my iron guns. But all my shit WORKS.
A scope that breaks becomes a nice lapping bar, or turn-in wrench, and I kept one old Bushnell, 1/2 taken apart, to teach kids with. So all is not lost.
On topic:
A Leupold M8, Sightron S2, Weaver Micro, Burris Mini....these are all budget options that are ia better solution than most of the new Chicom shit. China, etc. CAN make us very good stuff...but WE continue to gobble up all the trash "our" manufacturers pay China to make.
Trust: if it's shit quality, and Chinese-made sold here, it's because "YOUR BRAND" told them to make it that way.
I recommend you don't trust your equipment until it repeatedly demonstrates it can perform. Then, when it surprises you and stops performing, you'll know immediately. If you can shoot as well as you type.
