I needed a couple scopes for some new .22 builds. Not looking to get too much into them but wanting something with tactical turrets, etc. the Diamondback Tactical looked like a great option. So I bought 2 of them new from Eurooptic/Scopelist.
Brand new 30mm Warne rings, mount one of them up and head to the range. Can't adjust parallax. The knob will barely turn, and when it does nothing happens. Took it home, same problem. Unmounted the scope, and knob turns fine and appears to focus as it should. Obvious problem with the rings I guess. The screws couldn't be tightened enough to hold the scope w/o causing the binding. So return rings. Ordered Vortex Pro 30mm rings (2 sets). Just got done mounting the other scope with new rings. Same problem. At the recommended 18inlbs the Parallax knob will barely move. Loosen the screws to just barely hand tight and parallax knob will turn very hard and will eventually focus, but turning it back and forth results in a different "setting" each time looking at the same wall. So one time it will focus at the 10yd mark, the next time at the 15yd mark, and not consistently. So something is still binding. And the screws aren't tight enough for long term use, they would certainly back out if left like this and scope will move around if bumped.
So now I have 2 scopes that I can't return that are unusable. Vortex will of course "warranty" them, and I already have a return ticket for the first one (before I decided it had to be the rings), but I doubt this will fix anything, it has to be something with how the scope is designed. Especially now using Vortex's own rings and exact specs for mounting them. So I'll lose half of what I paid trying to sell the damn things after they come back.
I own many thousands of $$ in Vortex optics, including several Razor2s, PST2s, a new set of 5000 ABs, etc. They've always been great. But skip this Diamondback POS, now I'm out $800 in two scopes that won't work and I could have just bought one nicer model (or a different brand) and at least have something up and running rather than wasting time with this crap.
Anyway, Vortex rant over.
*EDIT to change title so it isn't quite so harsh since Vortex seems to have resolved the problem with my two scopes at least*