By Dan Johnson
9/28/2022
OK, we’ve all been there. Searching for a new riflescope. Seems simple, right? Well, yes it is, if you’re prepared to just buy the first scope that crosses your path.
But, of course, most of us have more interest in our purchase than that. We want to select the ideal scope for our own specific, personal shooting needs. That’s when things start to become more complicate…
First Things First
Starting with the basics, scope selection depends on the use you have in mind, together with the rifle you will use it with and the price you want to pay.
Yet even with these top-level decisions, there’s still a huge number of choices available. It seems as if every company in the outdoor optics world has a range of riflescopes and they’re all crying out for your attention and business.
Maybe it’s time to delve a little deeper into the background of the riflescope supplier. I hate to say “riflescope manufacturer”, because there’s often a big difference between the brand name on the scope and the company that actually manufactured it.
That’s where a little research will pay dividends for your buying decision.
Leapers Company Background
Leapers, Inc. is a classic American success story. The company started in 1992 in a garage in Michigan. The first Leapers product was a compact, 4 X 28 riflescope.
Still headquartered in Michigan, Leapers has blossomed into a 4-building campus with subsidiary operations in Europe, Taiwan and China. The one employee has grown to over 380 and the number of products into the hundreds.
But two things have remained constant in the intervening 30 years. That first employee – David Ding, the CEO – is still running the company and riflescopes are still key to the business.
With a history like this, it’s clear that Leapers’ business model really works! And what’s particularly interesting is that it’s very different to that of many other companies selling scopes.
Most Riflescopes Are Produced Like This
As we’ve said, most riflescopes are NOT actually manufactured by the company whose name is on the product. Most companies simply produce a specification for a scope they want to sell, together with a price they’re willing to pay for it.
Typically they approach “OEM” optical equipment manufacturers and trawl for quotes. Unsurprisingly, most of these OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) companies are based in China. There’s also a few mid/higher end makers in Philippines and Japan, too.
These OEM manufacturers will take one of their existing designs and customize it for the scope marketing company. Mostly this customization relates to the external appearance of the scope – the design of turret caps and so on. Of course, the scope marketing company’s brand name and logo are prominently displayed on the resulting product.
But the fact remains that the majority of these scopes are manufactured down to a price from standardized specifications.
So the company whose name is on the scope often has very little control over the detailed optical design. Just as important, they have no control over the vital quality control stage that’s critical to delivering consistent performance.
Many scope marketing companies offload the optical and mechanical design to an OEM manufacturer, along with quality control. Why? Because they lack the in-house capabilities or knowledge to do so themselves, let alone to actually manufacture the scope.
So if you’re looking to buy a riflescope that’s “manufactured” by Company A, look at the underside of the turret. If it says “Made in China”, it’s not necessarily a bad scope, but it’s very likely to have been manufactured by an OEM company through this system.
Some “Made in Japan” scopes can also be the result of a similar process, although generally they have more demanding specifications and quality control.
Either way, these OEM scope companies need to make a profit on their products. So – naturally – they need to charge a profit margin to the scope marketing company. Who pays for that margin? You, of course!
Why The Leapers Business Model Is Good For You
Over the course of many years, CEO David Ding has consistently directed his company to develop outstanding in-house design, manufacturing and quality control capabilities.
“My philosophy”, David explained, “Is for Leapers to have end-to-end control over every aspect of scope manufacturing. That’s all the way from product concept to the dealer the shooter buys his scope from. So, the customer derives maximum quality at an attractive price”.
To achieve this vision, Leapers has invested in PhD-level optical engineers and tools to develop new scope designs. The company also invests heavily on test facilities and developing key personnel with the expertise to really understand the results and recommend changes based on their practical experience.
Given the company’s impressive year-over-year growth, it’s very tough to argue with this approach. To find out more, I asked David to reveal some more specifics, based on Leapers’ new high-end INTEGRIX product line.
INTEGRIX Scope Development
“At Leapers, we’re all enthusiastic shooters and we proactively invite hunters and shooters worldwide to play important roles in our optics developments”, David explained. “So we start from our own real-world shooting experience, validated by customer input”.
Then the company’s experts to translate those specifications into real life. (Well, into glass and metal, anyway). David explained the infinite attention to detail that such an approach requires…
“Basically, a riflescope is comprised of three lenses: objective, eyepiece and erector (to get the image right way up)”, David told me. “But each of these lenses – actually they’re lens groups – is composed of multiple different elements, each being a lens of its own.”
“So a riflescope is actually comprised of as many as 16 individual lenses, combined into one overall system.”
Leapers’ optical experts have designed every one of these individual lenses for each of the new INTEGRIX scopes. That’s calculating the thickness of the lens, the radiuses to which each lens must be ground (on both sides), inter-lens gaps and tolerances. Then there’s the optical coatings that must be applied (in how many layers) and – even – the precise formulation of the raw glass that needs to be used for each one.
“Most people don’t know that optical designs are not made just once.” David explained. “It’s an iterative process with endless performance simulations and modeling that requires substantial time, effort and knowhow.”
Add to that the extensive mechanical design effort required for the many precision mechanical parts in a scope. These include lens mounts, turrets, tube, and more.
Yet all that design effort, alone, is not enough. David stressed the need for precision tolerance control for high quality manufacturing, plus the testing and laboratory measurements to validate that the final product meets the “As Designed” performance.
Clearly, this is a fundamentally different level of expertise, knowledge, technology, and control by Leapers compared to the “scope marketing companies” that just provide a high-level spec to OEM manufacturers then negotiate on price!
Reinforcing that design effort is a huge investment in testing. “Leapers has an in-house, state-of-the-art 100 yard range at our Livonia campus,” David explained. “But of course, the real value comes from our people. We have skilled specialists who test, triple-test and feed back to our design teams to ensure that UTG and INTEGRIX scopes are the best they can be.”
We want our customers to have proven, solid Leapers scopes they can rely on,” stressed David. “We do the testing so they receive a quality product!”
Leapers Manufactures Them Too
Not only that, but Leapers also manufactures its own riflescopes. The company has invested in clean rooms, assembly facilities, CNC machines, dedicated, skilled employees and more.
So you’ll find Leapers scopes manufactured in the company’s own plants in Taiwan, China and – in the near future – the USA. Yes, INTEGRIX scopes will be manufactured in Michigan from 2023.
Whatever the country shown on the underside of a UTG or INTEGRIX scope, you can be sure that Leapers employees have designed, tested, manufactured and certified it, in the company’s own facilities and with the same dedication and skill.
That’s a significant advantage and it’s one you should be looking out for when you choose that new riflescope…
