August 8th, 2013

Chris Cheng Tours Leupold Optics Plant in Oregon

Chris Cheng, Top Shot’s Season 4 Champion, recently toured the Leupold factory in Beverton, Oregon. You can read about his experiences on The Firearm Blog. Chris was impressed with the scale of Leupold’s operation, particular the huge CNC machines “all cranking out parts for Leupold products. The machines run 24/7, and even at that rate Leupold says they cannot keep up with demand at this time.”

Read Full Leupold Factory Tour Report by Chris Cheng

Ranks of CNC Machines at Leupold Factory

Chris happened to be visiting the Leupold factory while members of the U.S. Marine Rifle Team were present. Here is a photo of Chris (far right) with the Leatherneck marksmen:

While Leupold’s production line is highly automated, Chris said that humans are still vital to the production of modern optics: “I was most impressed with the hand assembly line[.] No matter the industry, slowing things down for TLC usually increases the quality of the product. Additionally, the need for hand assembly produces jobs to help support the local community.”

Cheng was wowed by Leupold’s testing procedures: “Leupold has an intense stress test room where they push not only their products, but their competitors’ products to the limits. The details of their tests are proprietary information, but the lead tester told us stories about how he literally ‘sweeps up the floor’ when competitor’s products fall apart during stress tests.” By contrast, Leupold scopes are tough. Check out this video which shows a Leupold scope which “takes a licking and keeps on ticking” after being strapped to a running jack-hammer for 30 minutes:

Jack-Hammer Testing of Leupold Scopes

Photos by Leupold & Stevens

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