Leupold Rifle Scope Company

A History of The Leupold Scope Company

For a hundred years now Leupold Rifle Scope Company has been a proud American business that is family operated. In 1907, Fred Leupold initially began his company in optics design and manufacturing in Portland. He was then joined by his brothers-in-law, Adam Voelpel and Markus Freidrich, in a small shop on 5th and Oak Street. They named it Leupold & Voelpel. Later on Fred's son Marcus Leupold, as well as JC Stevens came to be part of the business, and then in 1942, as the company expanded, they changed the name to Leupold & Stevens Instruments Company. At this point, Robert, JC's son had joined and would go on to become the General Manager. Fred Leupold was always saying that, "the customer is entitled to a square deal" and Leupold Rifle Scope Company continues to operate with this belief, which is a contributing factor to their continuing success. Fred passed on in 1944 and Markus moved into the position of president. Another son of Fred's, Norbert, then followed in his brother's and father's footsteps and went on the become the Production Manager of the company.

Leupold & Stevens did not manufacture rifle scopes until 1947, with the first one being the 2.5x Plainsman Scope. It was the first scope that was filled with nitrogen instead of air, which prevented it from fogging over. In fact, several of today's standards in rifle scopes, including the VXIII are based on the things that Leupold has come up with. In 1957, half a century after launching the company, Leupold & Stevens were beginning to gain respect for their rifle scopes and had additionally developed a compass for outdoors-men. Since scopes had been so beneficial to the success of the company, it was decided that the very last part of the century would be spent centering on sports optics.

The past four decades have seen lots of new innovations in rifle scopes with the invention of compact scopes, the Dual Dovetail mount system and the Duplex- lightweight high power target scope. Leuplod & Stevens also began manufacturing binoculars again in the United States with the Leupold Golden Ring Binoculars. Then in 1998, after fifteen years as president, Tom Fruechtel replaced Werner Wildauer and remains president now. Leupold Rifle Scope Company made the very first Compact Roof Prism Waterproof Spotting Rifle scope, the first Lowlight Scope as well as a brand new series of competition scopes in 2002. In 2006 they came up with the new RX Rangefinder and the VXL scope.

For the past 100 years, Leupold has contributed positively to the lives of outdoor enthusiasts, hunters and shooters with their scopes. Following the same path as they have been traveling since 1907; really listening to the customers' need for a "square deal" sure would make Fred proud today!