Hi Everyone,
This is Dave at Vortex. I want to address this issue.
First, we have already shipped a few thousand of the PST Gen II. Including SH and other sources, as well as calls into our customer service we have not received many calls of issues at all. A very small handful. Seeing comments about hearing of all kinds of problems already�well, just keep the thread in context: There is one issue from the OP and we are about to get that scope back. The other post claiming seeing another on the range having the same problem as the OP; well, we have not heard from any other customer or received anything back from someone else with this problem yet. If that other person is out there I certainly hope they contact us so we can take care of their problem.
We certainly take QC very seriously. We are a family, veteran owned company and we want to do the best job we can in every way. No product under the sun has ever been made perfect. But we certainly do our best to achieve that. We certainly do not enjoy a large number of customers reporting they are happy when their product breaks. In fact, I have yet to hear of a customer who is ever happy when a product breaks. Knowing that we live in the real world abiding by the laws of physics and products will fail or break from time to time, one way, among many others, that we can help is through taking care of our customer after the sale. On the front end we certainly put every effort into design and material choices, and all types of QC to deliver the best product possible. There is no magic material or silver bullet to make something invincible. Something else to keep in mind: when you move a high volume of scopes, the number of failures will go up�the percentage of failures does not necessarily go up.
To be more specific to the OP�s issue we have been doing a lot of testing on the PST Gen II, even before receiving his scope back, and found that if you turn the turret to the end of travel (opposite end of the zero stop) and you really wrench on the turret, you can break the threaded post/nut on the end of the turret screw which keeps the turret from backing out all the way. It takes a pretty serious force. We have actually tested this and found this to be the case on many scopes from many other brands as well. These scopes are precision optical instruments. If you feel resistance where you don�t expect it (i.e. opposite the zero stop end of travel or anywhere else unexpected), then stop! Now, in defense of the OP, it�s likely his scope was handled before he got it (customer at a retailer, etc.) and someone who had no idea what they were doing wrenched on the turret and broke it before he received it. And honestly, we don�t care how it happened because we are going to repair it for free, even if he admits his crazy brother broke his scope for fun.
We will continue to monitor this issue and absolutely address anything further needed. And again, of the few thousand we have already shipped we have had a handful (as in one hand) of confirmed issues so far. And this being the only issue of this type that we have confirmed (i.e. we haven�t confirmed the other claim in this thread yet).
BTW, if you are still concerned that you can wrench the turret off realize that the rotational/torsional force that is transferred to the post/nut on the end of the turret screw is completely different than a force from knocking the turrets against objects in field use. If you knock the turrets around in the field this post/nut doesn�t take any of that force or impact. All the force and impact is take by the turret body/turret screw which is supported many, many orders of magnitude more and will definitely hold up to a lot of abuse. Nothing is invincible but they are tough.
Thanks everyone. Have a great night!
Dave
