Leupold's motto is "America's Optics Authority." Founded in 1907 Leupold was a single man repair shop for surveying optical apparatus. He soon was joined by his brother in law Adam Voelpe. In 1914 J C Stevens joins the firm as a partner. His creation, the first water level recorder, increased the company's growth. Fred Leupold always believed that "customers deserved a fair deal."
Family legend says Fred Leupold's son Marcus missed a deer shot because of a fogged rifle scope. His oath that he can make a better scope led to the Leupold Company's 1949 entry into the sporting optics business with the plainsman 2.5X rifle scope. Using skills learned in the US Army Corps of Engineers, he bled off all the air in the scope and put in pure nitrogen. This kept water from entering the scope and fogging the lens. This improvement in promised Leupold a leadership role in America's optics business to this day.
Duplex reticle was introduced by Leupold back in 1962. Large dark posts attached to the rifle scope's cross hairs made it easier for shooters to find the center in poor visibility or light conditions. This grew to be the standard for all.
Now Leupold makes tactical for law enforcement agencies and for the army. Tactical are built strong and meet higher standards than sporting scopes. Tactical scopes require the strength to withstand the problems of combat and law enforcement uses such as SWAT teams. Leupold also creates range finding binoculars and rangefinders that are good enough for ranging targets even in combat conditions.
To supplement sporting rifle scopes, Leupold creates spotting scopes and binoculars. These optical devices are renowned with bird watchers and other animal observers and surveyors. The spotting scopes have more range than binoculars. As the size and the weight increases the range even increases. The highest powered spotting scopes are too heavy to use by hand, so they come with a tripod to help them.
Lastly, Leupold makes golf rangefinders, handheld monocular devices which provide range information to a point chosen by the user. This technology can cross over to sporting uses to determine if a target is in the range of a rifle.
