chinese scope quality increased?

[Cody S]

my father and I have unwittingly turned into glass snobs over the course of our lives thanks to so many bad experiences and so much wasted on cheap (probably) Chinese made scopes. we haven't tried anything Chinese made in about 5 years.
I was putting together a rimfire for kicks and giggles and ordered a 5-25 venom off amazon for 420$ honestly expecting to send it back.
first impressions of this scope are amazing. if it tracks close and repeatably it will definitely be a keeper for rimfire. no idea how it would hold up on a SA comp rifle but this may be the legit ticket for rimfire. first pretty day here I'll take the razor2, nf, tt, and venom out and snap a few pics because I'm flat shook.
turrets, VERY stiff(excellent) and positive, not near as much mush as I expected.
glass was devastatingly good, like old school viper glass...
parallax was stiff but it works so I can definitely get used to it.
is this the norm for chinesium scopes nowadays? really hope this thing lasts.

 

[SauerKraut]

I got no complaints so far about my Arken. Chinese made with Jap glass. It's a lot more scope than I expected.

 

[Mr. Z]

The sub $1k market is getting the trickle down bells and whistles from the higher end lines.

Not everything NEEDS to be bombproof, and some of them work quite well.

Until they don’t. But that’s another discussion completely.

 

[Cody S]

I'm starting to understand why so many take the gamble on these cheaper scopes... this kind of value is something that simply did not exist that I could find say, 8 years ago.
I notice they left out illumination altogether. excellent choice for a target scope imho.
I almost want to call vortex and ask them if this thing would survive a couple dozen rounds on my featherweight 270.

 

[sheepdog697]

The arkens have been impressive

 

[longshot2000]

It is like most anything else. There is very good Chinese manufacturing, if the specs call for well made and tight tollerences. What has happened in the past, and with many scope manufactuers is that they have opted for wider tollerances and less QA, which was produced a less than average product from China. To produce high quality anything means that you take a great deal of time dialing in the tollerances to the machines, and/or you reject a good number of products in the QA process.

OP mentioned that China seems to be producting better scopes. I think that is true. There is still the $49 piece of junk at the gun show, but the major brands are getting better products, it would seem.

There is a very popular scope manufactuer from the USA that offers scopes made in Asia (Japan, Phillipines, China), and offers a no questions warranty. That way, you become the QA. Bad scope, send it back, get a replacement.

Some have mentioned Arken. They pack a lot of features into a scope at an extremely low price. All made in China. We sell Arken. I am not sure if all of their glass is Low Japan, but pretty sure their high-end scopes are. Some are heavy as a hammer, but every year, they are offering new products. Our customers have been happy.

 

[Cody S]

I can't help but think I got abnormally lucky. this is basically the polar opposite experience I've had every time before. can't wait to mount this thing up Monday and do a tracking test.

 

[stanley_white]

I avoid funding the ChiCom war machine whenever possible.

-Stan

 

[Cody S]

I'd agree with that but I really can't afford another razor or tangent for this rimfire project.

 

[st1650]

The quality of high end Chinese scope has substantially increased over the last couple of years, same with their thermal offerings.
I’ve personally run these scopes with no issues and would rank them as high as low end LOW Japanese scopes;

Athlon ETR 1-10 better than my XTR ii 1-8 FFP
Athlon Gen 2 Helos 2-12 better than my VXR Patrol 3-9
Athlon Ares 4.5-30 and 3-18 as good as my Cronus 4.5-29
Athlon Midas 6-24 and 5-25 better than my Vortex PSTs.

Over the years I’ve had 1 S&B, all my Vortex PSTs, 1 Razor LHT-HD fail and 1 Leupold fail.
I’ve had zero failures with any LOW made scopes and no failures with the Athlon high end chinesiums I’ve listed above.
Also zero failures with a bunch of Holosun

 

[Cody S]

I looked at athlon but their ambiguity surrounding their warranty procedures made me decide to stick to vortex for this project.
I've never dealt with Vortex warranty people but I've heard good things.
I genuinely don't see how a scope could be any better than this venom for 400$ unless this thing gives up the ghost for no good reason or don't track close.

 

[W54/XM-388]

I looked at athlon but their ambiguity surrounding their warranty procedures made me decide to stick to vortex for this project.
I've never dealt with Vortex warranty people but I've heard good things.
I genuinely don't see how a scope could be any better than this venom for 400$ unless this thing gives up the ghost for no good reason or don't track close.

Next time before you get it on Amazon, check with a few of the vendors here and you might get a much better deal or at least save the sales tax.

 

[Cody S]

legit you think they could beat 420$ shipped?
I think it was 420 to my door, and they have Amazon return policy so if it performed well but I just didn't like it I can send it back for like 5$ in shipping.
but yeah I usually source my stuff here from the hide but I didn't see any used venom's

 

[W54/XM-388]

legit you think they could beat 420$ shipped?
I think it was 420 to my door, and they have Amazon return policy so if it performed well but I just didn't like it I can send it back for like 5$ in shipping.
but yeah I usually source my stuff here from the hide but I didn't see any used venom's

It would be worth checking with @CSTactical or others to see if they can meet or beat the deal.
A lot would also depend on how much you save in sales tax.

That being said $420 is a decent deal for the Venom 5-25x56 FFP EBR-7C MRAD Riflescope

But it's not a crazy deal, I'll bet most motivated dealers could do so if they wished.

Amazon returns can be hit or miss, it took me over a month and 3 sessions with Customer service to get a credit back after I returned a defective product, in the end I had to simply take Amazon credit or deal with doing a credit card dispute. Some folks have had easy returns with Amazon, so your mileage may vary on Amazon returns.

 

[Baron23]

It is like most anything else. There is very good Chinese manufacturing, if the specs call for well made and tight tollerences. What has happened in the past, and with many scope manufactuers is that they have opted for wider tollerances and less QA, which was produced a less than average product from China. To produce high quality anything means that you take a great deal of time dialing in the tollerances to the machines, and/or you reject a good number of products in the QA process.

OP mentioned that China seems to be producting better scopes. I think that is true. There is still the $49 piece of junk at the gun show, but the major brands are getting better products, it would seem.

There is a very popular scope manufactuer from the USA that offers scopes made in Asia (Japan, Phillipines, China), and offers a no questions warranty. That way, you become the QA. Bad scope, send it back, get a replacement.

Some have mentioned Arken. They pack a lot of features into a scope at an extremely low price. All made in China. We sell Arken. I am not sure if all of their glass is Low Japan, but pretty sure their high-end scopes are. Some are heavy as a hammer, but every year, they are offering new products. Our customers have been happy.

I agree...the Chinese can make any level of quality product that you like as long as you are willing to pay for it. But, it would appear that most companies that source in China do so for lower cost and hence a lower quality product.

 

[BCP]

my father and I have unwittingly turned into glass snobs over the course of our lives thanks to so many bad experiences and so much wasted on cheap (probably) Chinese made scopes. we haven't tried anything Chinese made in about 5 years.
I was putting together a rimfire for kicks and giggles and ordered a 5-25 venom off amazon for 420$ honestly expecting to send it back.
first impressions of this scope are amazing. if it tracks close and repeatably it will definitely be a keeper for rimfire. no idea how it would hold up on a SA comp rifle but this may be the legit ticket for rimfire. first pretty day here I'll take the razor2, nf, tt, and venom out and snap a few pics because I'm flat shook.
turrets, VERY stiff(excellent) and positive, not near as much mush as I expected.
glass was devastatingly good, like old school viper glass...
parallax was stiff but it works so I can definitely get used to it.
is this the norm for chinesium scopes nowadays? really hope this thing lasts.

Yeah they are getting better. My chinese razor spotter is excellent.

 

[918v]

I got no complaints so far about my Arken. Chinese made with Jap glass. It's a lot more scope than I expected.

I found the Arken hugely disappointing. Maybe the one they sent me was not assembled correctly but that in itself is evidence of poor QC.

 

[SauerKraut]

I think we're the QA as was mentioned earlier. I hope it was replaced for you with a better example under their warranty.

 

[jhoyda]

Next time before you get it on Amazon, check with a few of the vendors here and you might get a much better deal or at least save the sales tax.

You’ll get fantastic service too. I bought an Athlon spotting scope from Cameraland NY that had a substantial defect from the factory. Doug wasted no time contacting his rep at Athlon. I quickly had a return label to send the scope to Athlon.

As soon as Athlon sent the label Doug sent the replacement scope from HIS inventory.

 

[Cody S]

I bought my TT from CL NY, nice people.