With Vortex it is simple. Very simple in fact. If it is not a Razor, and specifically a Razor either made in Japan or in the USA. DO NOT BUY.
Razor = Good. Rest of Vortex Line = Bad.
Non Razor Vortex products are toys at best.
Are they still toys if you drive a 15 year old truck and crocs? Trying to work out what makes me a real man in this life and death sport.
I'm not very good at this PRS game but at least if I can look like the real deal no one will question my man hood.
The equipment should fit the mission. I'm not going to use a cable tie to wrap around a stack of index cards with notes on them when a rubber band will do. And I'm not going to use a rubber band to secure a bundle of heavy duty electric cables.
JB Weld will stop a radiator leak for a while but I better be looking for a new one. I won't cook a turkey over a Coleman burner when an oven is designed for that task.
The same goes with the Razors versus the Vipers.
I have a lot of rifles with the Vortex non-Razor scopes on them that are great at what they do. On the other hand, for shooting at 1000 yards and beyond I have Razors on the rifle.
I have a couple of Crosman CO2 air guns that have Leapers 4X scope on them for kids to use. They are fine for the task that the air guns were designed for. I won't put an expensive Viper on them.
I've had three of Viper scopes that had problems with the zero-stops. It was frustrating and pissed me off because of the ammo that was wasted by sighting them in.
That was three of Vipers out of the dozen or more that I own. I didn't like the inconvenience of sending them off and waiting to get them back BUT Vortex got them back to me in a reasonable time and repaired.
Confession time here: Several years ago, I purchased some Crossfire scopes and put them on some .22 LR rifles and air guns. I was reading the setting on the old Craftsman torque drive incorrectly and using much more force than necessary to tighten the ring screws.
The result was broken cross hairs. That happened to three scopes. Vortex sent me back three new scopes every time even though it was my fault!
After the third Crossfire scope broke I talked with the technician at Vortex and he asked me if I was using the correct torque setting. I felt like saying; "Look here! I know what I'm doing."
I bit my tongue and said that I will double check the torque settings. The old Craftsman torque drive has a weird clear plastic thing used to line up the torque setting. After looking at the darn thing with a magnifying glass, I saw that I was using a higher torque setting.
After that happened, I switched to the Fix-it-Sticks torque drives.
I have to reemphasize that Vortex replaced three scopes for me. Although these were inexpensive scopes it was still my fault and they had every right to say, after I broke the second one, to buy my optics somewhere else.
When a company goes out of their way to help someone who has been an idiot and screwed their product up the way I did, then I will buy their product.
Vortex either has my name listed under the bone-head file or frequent buyer list. It doesn't matter. I like the fact that they have the lifetime warranty and when used for the limits of the mission they were designed for; they are excellent scopes.