Beware of Fakes
By Dan Kidder Managing Editor
R
ecently I was cruising around a website of cheap Chinese junk, looking for cool new gadgets to feature in my speaking circuit as the Gear Guru. While scrolling, I came across an offer that caused me to pause in my tracks. An authentic, branded Leupold LCO optic for a mere $29. Knowing that this red dot retails for just under a grand, it made me read deeper. The description said it was made in America, referenced the Leupold name multiple times and the image was clearly an LCO. Now, my momma didn’t raise a dummy, that happened years later, so I knew that it had to be a fake, but yet here it was blatantly in my face. The part of me that longs for honesty and fairness in the world couldn’t believe that anyone could get away with such a blatant forgery. The part of me that knows better seized the moment and thought it would be a good opportunity to warn our readers about the potential for fraud in the gear marketplace. So, I whipped out the American Express and bought the knockoff LCO and a Trijicon RMR for good measure. What the heck, I am expensing it to Sportsman’s News, so what harm could it do? First off, if it seems too good to be true, you can be sure that it is. Though the
14 November 2018 | SPORTSMAN’S NEWS
fake LCO claims to be made in America and even has a laser engraved decal of an American flag inside a circle of text that proudly proclaims, “Designed, Machined, Assembled in the USA,” it shipped China Post from the Hubei Province of China. Two weeks later, it was in hand and my jaw dropped even harder when I saw the Leupold logo brazenly etched on top and on the sides. The weight, form factor and attention to detail of the forgery is impressive. Showing them to people in the industry, side-by-side and asking them to identify the fake, they showed some hesitation, but ultimately were able to pick the correct one. If they were shown just the fake and told it was real, they never knew the difference. Internally though, is where the value proposition becomes crystal clear. The fake, while it features both red and green dots, is not made to any quality control specifications. The dot is fuzzy and lacks clarity. While the real LCO has Leupold’s world famous glass and amazing light enhancing coatings to improve optical clarity, the knockoff is made of a glass that adds a grayish hue to everything and lacks the crispness of the real McCoy, kind of like looking through a muddy windshield. From the outside looking in, the real LCO has a nice golden hue to the front lens and more angle to divert glare. The fake has a cheap looking, silver mirrored coating, reminiscent of Sylvester Stallone’s Ray Bans in the 1980s action film, Cobra. The angle is almost completely perpendicular, so it acts as a big reflector on top of the rifle.
