Leupold Rifle Scope Company

History of The Leupold Scope Company

For just over a hundred years now The Leupold Rifle Scope Company has been a proud American company that is family operated. In 1907, Fred Leupold initially started the company in optics manufacturing in Portland. He was then joined by his brothers-in-law, Markus Freidrich and Adam Voelpel, in that one man shop on 5th and Oak. They called it Leupold & Voelpel. Later Fred's son Markus, along with JC Stevens became part of the company, and then in 1942, as the company was beginning to expand, the name of the company was changed from Leupold & Voelpel to Leupold & Stevens Instruments Company. At this time, Robert, JC's son also joined the business and would go on to become the General Manager. Fred Leupold used to say that each customer is entitled to a "square deal" and Leupold Rifle Scope Company continues to operate under this belief system, which contributes to their continued success. In 1944, Fred died, and Markus took over as president of the company. Norbert, the other son of Fred, chose to follow in his father's and his brother's path and eventually became Production Manager.

Leupold & Stevens did not begin making rifle scopes until 1947, the 2.5x Plainsman Scope being the very first. It was the very first rifle scope that was nitrogen filled as opposed to air, preventing it from fogging. In fact, many of the standards of today's rifle scopes, including the Leupold VX 3 are based on the innovations and developments that Leupold has come up with. In 1957, half a century after launching the company, Leupold & Stevens were gaining respect for their scopes and had also produced a compass for outdoors-men. Since rifle scopes had been extremely beneficial to the company's success it was decided that the last half of the century would be spent concentrating on sports optics.

The last four decades have produced a lot of new developments and innovations in rifle scopes with the design of the Duplex- lightweight high power target scope, compact rifle scopes and the Dual Dovetail mounting system. Leuplod & Stevens also brought the manufacturing of binoculars back to the U.S. with the Leupold Golden Ring Binoculars. Then in 1998, after fifteen years of presiding over the company, Tom Fruechtel succeeded Werner Wildauer and is still president today. Leupold Rifle Scope Company made the very first Compact Roof Prism Waterproof Spotting Scope, the first Lowlight Rifle Scope as well as a cutting edge series of competition scopes in 2002. In 2006 there was the brand new RX Rangefinder as well as the VXL scope.

For the past century, Leupold has positively contributed to the lives of shooters, hunters and outdoors people with their scopes. Following the same road as they have been on since 1907; really listening to the consumers' need for a "square deal" absolutely make Fred proud today!