Any buy it for life optics?

Ok, here is an opinion coming from my experience… with high end photography lenses..

If you are 65+ years old, there are many “buy it and use till can no longer shoot” scopes.

However, if you are a younger guy, expect to see massive improvements in scope optics over the next 20+ years - especially in the area of digital optics.

I know from personal experience that a $1,000 lens from the 1990s is not up to the performance of a $1,000 lens from the 2010s...

Lens designs, manufacturing improvements, tolerences, materials, lens coatings are all continuously improving through the years.

Also, like has been said often, the point of diminishing returns applies. The difference in glass quality between a current $200 scope vs. a $1,000 scope is going to be far more noticeable than say the difference in glass quality between a $1,000 scope and a $2,200 scope.

I can only imagine the amount of information and resolution that a digital scope of the future will provide 25 years from now… and likely in a much smaller form factor than the huge “telescopes“ that we mount on our rifles today.

-Ed
 
This guy!
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I suppose it depends on what you mean by "buy it for life". For example, if you mean the manufacturer will honor its warrantee for all time, likely there is no such scope. Since all companies die, eventually.

My impression is most high end scope manufacturers have essentially unlimited warrantees. March will change the reticles on scopes for no charge (you pay shipping, though), even if purchased more than a decade ago.
 
I hope I don't have a scope that outlasts me. When I die there will be a box of broken ones to haul to the dump. I plan on falling over dead as the last one looses horizontal control.

Ì have a Zeiss scope on my Rem. 700 VS. It will take a lifetime to pay off the credit card. I figure that will be the closest thing to a "scope for life".
 
I have known Bill for some years; I knew he traveled the world for his company.I had my Swarovski Binos laying on the table,he ask me was I into optics,Ha, like over 50 years.That is when I found out he is a Physicist,and his company is one of the top optics designers in the world.That company is developing digital optics that can be placed in the eyes of blind people and wired to their receptors in order to give them some sight; it is in the early development stage.........so there you go about the advancement in optics; can not get better than helping blind people. They help scope manufacturers around the world, too.
 
Yeah that's the problem because the generations of rifle scopes keeps improving with each iteration.

But my 13 year old S&B PM2 5-25x56 is still very close to the best, and I over paid for it, so I guess I'm keeping it.

Doubt I'll be able to sell my March Genesis 4-40 even though I got a good deal on it so will most likely keep it too, and well it's got super nice IQ.

There's only one scope that I want that I doubt I'd ever own, or sell if I bought, and that's a Tangent Theta 7-35×56.
 
Gonna say no. Everyone here has hit on it.

  • Scope technology has come a long way in the last 25 years, so no reason it couldn’t go more.
  • Am I going to want the same specs scope for life? Same rifle or style shooting for life?
  • Eyes change. What looks good now, might not be right when you get older.
I have had scopes I loved, but none enough to say forever.