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Redfield high magnification blurriness? |
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gremlin
Optics Apprentice Joined: February/16/2004 Location: left of center Status: Offline Points: 115 |
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Posted: February/16/2004 at 15:10 |
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Chris Farris
TEAM SWFA - Admin swfa.com Joined: October/01/2003 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 8024 |
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Sounds like it died . Unfortunately so did the warranty when they went under back in '98. ABO co. in Florida will fix it for a small fee. Contact them at
That is a nice scope (as I am sure you know) and worthy of fixin'. We don't see those very often as people tend to hang on to them, but we do have a few nice old Redfields on the http://www.samplelist.com/ site right now. |
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gremlin
Optics Apprentice Joined: February/16/2004 Location: left of center Status: Offline Points: 115 |
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Thanks for the ABO USA Inc. lead. I figured that Redfield's warranty had croaked when they went under, but after reviewing the ABO website and repair policy, maybe I can get the Illuminator fixed for something less than what it costs to replace it.
I'm going to box it up and send it out tomorrow--I'll post here what comes of the situation.
Thanks again... |
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popgun
Optics GrassHopper Joined: February/27/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3 |
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Get a confirmation on the cost of the repair in writing from them. In the past they have taken advantage of customers with extra fees tacked on without checking with the owner of the scope. English is not spoken well there by the folks that answer the phones. You might want to seek another source of repair. Their work is so so with some jobs completed with success and others returned as fixed with the same problems.
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gremlin
Optics Apprentice Joined: February/16/2004 Location: left of center Status: Offline Points: 115 |
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To finish the story, I received my repaired 3X9X40 Illuminator back from ABO this week. It took quite a while, but I couldn't be happier with the finished product. It was returned in a well packaged container bearing a 30 day no questions asked warranty letter. I zeroed the scope on my Remington 30-06 700BDL with light handloads Friday and took it back out today to a better range with heavier loads and the zero held, the magnification worked flawlessly, and the optics seem even brighter and sharper than before it went in for service--there's no telling how long whatever went wrong had been 'going' wrong.
On top of everything else, they returned the scope with a "Redfield" labeled flip-up cap for the objective lens (it looks like a re-labeled Butler Creek, but it looks even better with the "Redfield" on the end), an ABO USA Repair Report sighting the repair descriptions, and a couple of photo copied pages out of an early 90's Redfield catalog describing the Illuminator, it's features, and the 3x9x40's specifications. All at no extra-charge.
To get a USA made widefield Illuminator repaired to premium condition, shipped (with $400 insurance, no less), a flip-up Redfield objective cap, and out-of-print catalog pages for $30 seems like one heckuva bargain to me.
It took 90 days to get it turned around, but in the process they claim to have cleaned, aligned, filled with nitrogen, and resealed the scope, reset the Objective/Reticle Parallax, Optical Center, and Point of Aim, adjusted the Windage and Elevation movements, repositioned and tightened the Reticle cell, and replaced the Pivot Screw Ring.
Maybe anyone could've done that for the money, maybe anyone could've done that quicker, maybe anyone could've supplied the extras. All I know is that I couldn't and it would've cost at least another $200 more than what I spent to replace it with a comparable quality new scope.
And a new scope wouldn't have had that wide, TV screen opening that I watched my first big buck go down in... there's something to be said for a new scope, but there's a whole lot more to be said for an old, quality made scope that you've hunted with for a dozen years.
Thanks for the tip, Chris, on ABO. My personal experience has taught me that good things are worth waiting for. Great things are worth telling people about after the wait.
--gremlin Take the long way home... |
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ranburr
Optics Master Joined: May/16/2004 Status: Offline Points: 1082 |
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Mike Sexton, (918)445-2286, in Tulsa, OK also does excellent Redfield work and usually has a very fast turn around time and reasonable prices. This is who Matt Dukes at Redfield/Weaver/Simmons recommends.
ranburr |
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