Originally Posted by racin4ds
Votex optics have always gotten good reviews from the fellas in my circle that take long distance, target shooting seriously. I've personally never owned one but hear great things and this comes from guys using $3-4K Nightforce and Schmidt&Bender stuff...
I have the Vortex Gen II Razor HD, which cost me in Canadian pesos, over 4 grand. ($3700CDN + 13% HST). It's an excellent scope, and is reviewed as being an excellent scope. It is manufactured in Japan, has Japanese glass. It came highly recommended by my rifle manufacturer, CADEX Defence, who uses that scope on their demo rifle.
However
The lower tier Vortex scopes are NOT made in Japan and have been known to suffer spotty quality because of it. Go to any dedicated shooting forum and you'll find that by and large the most problematic scopes in the lower price range are Vortex. Hence my earlier qualifier in the thread. If you are looking at their high-end stuff, they are excellent, however quality seems to suffer on their lower price range products from what I've seen and that would in turn steer me toward a brand like Leupold where you'll find a US-made scope that might be a little lighter on features but will hold up better in service.