I got couple of questions concerning my Leupolds M3 LR 3.5-10X42 w/ Mil- Dot scopes I have. First one (ser. #128000L) was bought from one dealer on AR15.com 5 months ago. It came with 3 BDC knobs, .223 Rem., .308 Win. and .300 Win.Mag. Dots in the reticle are round and BDC turns counter clockwise.

Other M3 (ser. #288683F) is same as descriped above but it came with 4 knobs (30-06 Spr.). 308 Win and 300 Win Mag knobs are calibrated for meters, not yards as in my first scope. It´s BDC turns clockwise and dots in the reticle are elliptical (USMC Mil-Dot). Scope was bought from friend of mine few weeks ago and it is about 4 years old.

My question is, is the first scope counterfeit? When did Leupold drop the fourth BDC knob off line.
Isn´t this supposed to be MIL SPEC scope supplied to US Armed forces?

Both scopes work fine and do their job as it was supposed to be and I´m really satisfied.

I would really appreciate if you could give me answers to these questions.

regards,
MN

Thanks Troy.

Here is the reply from Leupolds tech stuff:

[b]We changed the direction of turn on the elevation and windage dials in April of 1998 (serial # code = F). This change was made so that the Long Range M3 scopes would have the same direction of turn as all our other scopes. In fact we changed the Mark 4 10X M3 as well in January of 2001 (serial # code = F).  

About a year ago we changed the BDC dial kit, leaving out the .30-06 dial. This was done because the dial in this caliber was not a commonly used item.

The shape of the mildots reflects the type of material the reticle was made from.  The glass reticles, which are the new style, have round dots.  The older wire reticle has the off-round dots.


Garth

Leupold Customer Service
Product Specialist Group
Phone (503) 526-1400[/b]

So, both of my M3s are real thing and good to go.

MN