Which scopes are made in the USA?

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Leupold and Redfield (although it appears that their lenses might be made by Nikon)

Swift and US Optics are US based manufacturers.

Carl Zeiss makes some lenses here.

update.. I have no personal firsthand knowledge of the above. purely search engine info...
 
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The rough answer is "damn-few". Even those with US made and assembled components usually install off-shore glass. This country just does not have a great consumer optics industry for high-precision lenses. Even the raw optical glass is mostly NPH (Not Produced Here). This is not really a new situation; even before WWII our best domestic cameras (Kodak Retinas, Graflex, Graphic and studio cameras) used foreign-made lenses (usually German). Except for some very high-grade and specialized lenses for scientific uses, the vast majority of optical goods sold in the US (excluding eyeware) are using foreign glass. Apparently many "high-end" scope makers have their lesser lines built in China alongside what we may call "cheapies". Chose based on what independent testing and your own eyes tell you, not on price or brand name alone.
 
All Carl Zeiss lenses are made in the German factories at this time. But the glass itself maybe from anywhere except the low dispersion elements which come from the Zeiss Schott Glassworks in Germany. Swift is a Japanese company but whether their lenses are actually from Japan or not I have no clue. Most optical companies get their general glass types on the open market, like crown and flint elements, and may be from China or a few other locations. Only their low dispersion (ED) elements are bought from specified buyers, usually Shott in Europe and OHara in Japan. Some make their own if they have the foundries, but most do not. Many American companies use Schott glass from Germany when they want to use the best.
 
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dogboy99 said:
I guess I would have to revisie as to, What doesn't come from China? I'm just anti-china lately.
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Then I guess you don't shop at Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. The overwhelming majority of power tools from these stores are made in China. :)

Unless it's Delta, Stanley, DeWalt or Black & Decker, the odds are it's built in China.
 
photoracer said:
All Carl Zeiss lenses are made in the German factories at this time. But the glass itself maybe from anywhere except the low dispersion elements which come from the Zeiss Shott Glassworks in Germany. Swift is a Japanese company but whether their lenses are actually from Japan or not I have no clue. Most optical companies get their general glass types on the open market, like crown and flint elements, and may be from China or a few other locations. Only their low dispersion (ED) elements are bought from specified buyers, usually Shott in Europe and OHara in Japan. Some make their own if they have the foundries, but most do not. Many American companies use Shott glass from Germany when they want to use the best.
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The only other two makers of high quality glass are Nikon and Minolta - at least for the photographic industry.
 
dogboy99 said:
I guess I would have to revisie as to, What doesn't come from China? I'm just anti-china lately.
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Which is a problem for people looking for optics or electronics. Barring your finding a 19th Century American-made sharpshooter scope to fit your AR (do send pictures!), I would suggest contacting the major firearm optics makers and asking the source of their glass and if they affirm Germany or Japan as their supplier then go with that but be prepared to spend more than your rifle cost in many instances. Good luck with your quest.
 
Majorlk said:
The only other two makers of high quality glass are Nikon and Minolta - at least for the photographic industry.
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The Big 4 camera makers (Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Sony/Minolta) don't "make" glass (Canon sometimes uses CaF2 crystal which has to be grown and is very expensive which they do in house). They buy the glass blanks from everywhere because there are only 8 true glassworks for high end stuff but lots of places, including China that make standard glass type like BK7. Regular glass is a commodity that is bought and traded like soybeans on the international level. What the Big 4 do is "make" lenses out of the glass, which is a machining process these days. CaF2 is not used that much anymore due to the fact that is has to be cut with diamond machining gear and wears that out fairly fast. Instead most use a low dispersion glass called FPL-53 (FPL= Fluoro-Phosphate Low dispersion #53, there are a 51 and a 52 also) developed by Ohara in Japan (The Schott works has a similar product) it is doped with the particular elements during the glass making process. And being glass not a crystal is is cheaper and much easier to work. So when you see the word Fluorite it used to mean CaF2 but often these days, even with Canon, it means FPL-53 or a similar glass. the optical specs between the 2 is very close. But these days all optical systems are computer designed and they allow the inclusion of any available glass type in the optical system so a particular scope might have glass from 3 different continents in it. And a scope saying Japanese glass doesn't really mean that much as of the 8 foundries at least 4 of them are in Japan (Hikari, Hoya, Ohara, and Sumita.
 
OldEagleEars said:
Which is a problem for people looking for optics or electronics. Barring your finding a 19th Century American-made sharpshooter scope to fit your AR (do send pictures!), I would suggest contacting the major firearm optics makers and asking the source of their glass and if they affirm Germany or Japan as their supplier then go with that but be prepared to spend more than your rifle cost in many instances. Good luck with your quest.
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There are only 8 highend glass foundries in the world currently.
4 are in Japan, 1 in Germany, and 1 in Russia. The other 2 I am not sure about as they have initials for names. The way optics are designed today with computers you don't really know where the glass comes from. And it does not matter very much either. Glass is either bought in raw blanks to be machined or is machined by the glassmaker to the designer's specs. And even if the glass is bought and completely cut by say Schott in Germany it does not mean that all of it was obtained from in house. The common glass types like standard crown and flint glasses could be from anywhere as they are traded like soybeans on the international market so even Schott will use glass from Japan or China if they happen to have the best spot price. The high end glasses they make themselves.
 
I'd be happy if 90% of a product was made here. And you have to be careful on that issue, even American parts can be assembled in China.

The first electronic tachometer I had on a Harley had the words "Nippon Seki" in small print on the dial face. We later got Bosch electronics. Are the forks now Showa? Who knows.

Ernest Emerson even uses American fasteners. When my dad was alive he was very proud that Master Lock bought their own screw-making machines to repair presses. Recently I saw a combination lock at the gym with a Master Lock logo, and the word China below it.

But honestly, Japan now makes some of the best steel. Crucible filed for protection under federal law some years back, or was going to. I don't know if that was ever resolved.
 
Majorlk said:
Then I guess you don't shop at Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. The overwhelming majority of power tools from these stores are made in China. :)

Unless it's Delta, Stanley, DeWalt or Black & Decker, the odds are it's built in China.
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I've noticed that & I try & seek out the diminishing "made in the USA" labels, if any at all.
I had a bad experience with a chinese car jack once so I'm cautious with what comes out of that place.
 
The Tourist said:
I'd be happy if 90% of a product was made here. And you have to be careful on that issue, even American parts can be assembled in China.

The first electronic tachometer I had on a Harley had the words "Nippon Seki" in small print on the dial face. We later got Bosch electronics. Are the forks now Showa? Who knows.

Ernest Emerson even uses American fasteners. When my dad was alive he was very proud that Master Lock bought their own screw-making machines to repair presses. Recently I saw a combination lock at the gym with a Master Lock logo, and the word China below it.


But honestly, Japan now makes some of the best steel. Crucible filed for protection under federal law some years back, or was going to. I don't know if that was ever resolved.
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We lost our steel industry years ago unfortunatley. We have to import our steel from Japan that is used in our nuclear power plants. That is one of the big reasons building new ones have become so cost prohibitive.
 
Majorlk said:
Unless it's Delta, Stanley, DeWalt or Black & Decker, the odds are it's built in China.
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I have Dewalt stuff marked "made in China" too.:rolleyes:



The only Chinese products I will put on any of my firearms is Primary Arms optics. I wish they would have them built elsewhere, because I would pay more for sure. That being said, I've never had an issue with any of my PA optics, and I'm not exactly a weekend plinker.
 
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Gopher Slayer said:
I have Dewalt stuff marked "made in China" too.:rolleyes:
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I didn't know that. I thought it all was US-made.

The only Chinese products I will put on any of my firearms is Primary Arms optics. I wish they would have them built elsewhere, because I would pay more for sure. That being said, I've never had an issue with any of my PA optics, and I'm not exactly a weekend plinker.
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I would love to know just how many scope factories there are in China. I'm betting that the overwhelming majority of Chinese-made optics are made in the SAME plant, no matter what retailer's name is on them. :)
 
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