Rifle Scopes Who allows you to demo scopes? Or at least has a liberal return policy?

[JR_77]

I've always been under the impression you have to actually purchase a scope to try it and if you don't like it, you're SOL unless you can sell it. Which usually means for less than you paid. Sometimes quite a bit less.

So, does anyone know of a dealer/manufacturer/reseller that has demos to try or possibly allow you to return a scope you don't like? Maybe for store credit at the very least?

Hope I’m not stepping on any toes with other vendors but there is a retailer that sometimes has a few “Demo” scopes for sale they may have been LEO demos or customer returns so they technically have been used before not “New in the Box” so to speak. I called ahead and said I’m not sure which scope I want for sure so can I buy 2-3 of the demo scopes and I’m not going to put the demo scope in a mount and torque it down but I want to compare them at sunrise, sunset, and during the day to see how the glass looks and the reticle looks as well. They agreed and said I could return in 10 days with no restock fee only because they were used demos and I pay return freight and insurance. They said they will inspect the demo scopes before I ship out so don’t torque them down and all will be fine unless you damage it.
I ordered three different scopes plus two new ZCO‘s from Mile High Shooting full retail these were not demos. Out of the four I tried I liked a model I thought initially I would like the least which was one of the demo models. I preferred it based on the glass alone and that my eye seemed to like it the best but I did NOT torque it down and go shoot it until I decided I wanted it. I returned the other two demos and got a full refund no problems because I did not damage them or put them in a mount and torque them down. Downside obviously is I couldn’t shoot with them but looking thru the glass at various times of the day and even night was helpful to me. Again these were not “New in the Box” scopes all had been used before and you could see light ring marks. I sold the ZCO’s here. I only opened one of the two ZCO’s to check it out. May not be what you are looking for but was helpful to me.

 

[slambeach]

Although they don't have conventional glass for rent, "Nightvisionrentals.com", does offer night vision rentals, that gear can be expensive, so being able to rent it for just one trip, or pre-purchase is a bonus.

 

[impactaddict]

What exactly will happen is the "prospective customers" will test them out at the nice helpful place that has a high overhead to be able to do all the B.S. letting folks test stuff they want to do and wasting tons of staff time and demanding high paid knowledgeable staff spend a bunch of time with them and waste their whole day.

Then the "customer" will be like, "Thank you very much I'm going to go think about it and make a decision"
And then go hunt for the cheapest zero service, zero inventory, lowest price online place they can find, like the price whores they truly are.

On the whole, customers have turned into price whores these days and get what they deserve.

As a bonafide price whore, this is exactly what I would do. Wouldn't even feel bad about it

somebody please do this!

 

[TX_Sooner nee CO_Sooner]

I believe Europtic has a demo program.

 

[chevy_man]

I bought a Leupold Mark 4 that would not focus near as well as my others and they took it back no questions a few months ago.

Nobody talks about it, but I've seen them take care of and rebuild 30+ year old optics that were just frozen.

It's a big reason why the hunting community loves them. They can't adjust a scope from 1996, and Leupold will fix it and send it back.



I don't know how anyone would rent optics. It's not something a majority would rent and financing and rentals will just drive prices to astronomical levels.