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Word is Nikon is out of the scope business.
Locust Fork
Member Posts: 32,080 ✭✭✭✭
I was picking up some guns from a local dealer that is also a wholesale distributor. They had heard rumors, but it was confirmed yesterday that Nikon is no longer making scopes. Sad days.....people love them and they have a decent price level for a good product. I hate to hear it myself. There are a lot of scope manufacturers out there still, but I hate to see a major player call it quits.
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Comments
Vortex has taken over the optics market and is now the largest optic company in the world. I would hate to see Leupold's sales figures lately but I bet it is ugly. Leupold keeps changing their dealer policies in order to try and control the situation. We used to sell hundreds of Leupold and Nikon optics every year in the store and were kind of late to sign on with Vortex, we did so around 2 years ago, since then I bet we haven't sold 50 combined Nikon/Leupold scopes, binocs, spotting scopes, etc.
Word is Nikon is still going to do spotting scopes, binoculars and rangefinders but no longer through distribution, only dealer direct, which will further kill their sales in those categories, kind of like Leupold trying to get dealers to sign their reseller agreement.
I have a pair of Vortex Razer binoculars. Super pleased as they are close to Swaro performance at less than half the price. Day time they are equal but dusk and dawn you get about 2 more minutes with the Swaros. Bob
Yes, designed in America, stamped in Mexico by Panamanian workers. With Syrian oil, formed in German molds, controlled by Japanese electronics, shipped by a Norwegian ship.
I don't disagree with you often but this is not entirely true. They WERE a huge conglomerate but unless they have a huge business outside the optics world they own I think they are probably on the ropes so to speak. MAYBE rifle scopes at one time are were a minuscule part of there business but what would you say is there biggest part? Cameras? That was probably the big driver in their net worth but how is that doing for them now days. Digital camera sales are plummeting worse than watch sales. Most people now have a very good camera built into their cell phones so there is no need for a stand alone camera.
Nikon is very close to bankruptcy, I bet in less than two years they are either done or will be bought out by some other "has been" corporation on its way out. It will be similar to the slow death of Sears. It is a big shame but that is what technology was been doing, pretty soon there will not be enough jobs for everyone as technology and automation eliminate whole fields of jobs,
Vortex is already bigger than Nikon and they don't even build cameras.
The end is near folks. In like 30 years Amazon will be the only company left on earth.(I'm only half serious with that comment, half)
I was a big Nikon fanboy for a couple decades, it's a shame they are in shape they are in and hope they can come through it in the future.
Well the US now makes more steel than ever before, let the Chinese make plates for Walmart. No good optics are made in China, though Japan makes almost all of the decent glass except that made in Germany.
Like many of you are stating, I thought Nikon had a quality product at a fair price. Not enough products can make that claim.