Leupold Rifle Scope Company

A History of The Leupold Scope Company

For more than a hundred years Leupold has been an American company that's family operated. In 1907, Fred Leupold started the business as an optics company in Portland, Oregon. He was joined by his brothers-in-law, Adam Voelpel and Markus Freidrich, in the shop on 5th and Oak. They called it Leupold & Voelpel. Sometime later Fred's son Marcus Leupold, as well as JC Stevens became part of the company, and then in 1942, when the company was beginning to expand, the company name was changed from Leupold & Voelpel to Leupold & Stevens Instruments Company. By this time, Robert, JC's son had also joined the business and would go on to become the General Manager. Fred Leupold used to say that every customer is entitled to a "square deal" and his company still operates under this belief system, which certainly contributes to their success even now. Fred passed away in 1944 and Markus then moved in to become president. Another son of Fred's, Norbert, decided to follow in his father's and brother's path and eventually became the company's Production Manager.

Leupold & Stevens did not make rifle scopes until 1947, the first one being the 2.5x Plainsman Scope. The 2.5x Plainsman Scope was the very first scope to be filled with nitrogen as opposed to air, thus preventing it from getting fogged over. Actually, several of today's standards in scopes, such as the Leupold VX III scope are based on the things that Leupold has come up with. In 1957, half a century after starting the business, Leupold & Stevens were beginning to gain attention for their rifle scopes and had also designed a compass for the outdoors-man. Because the rifle scopes were 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 so many new innovations in rifle scopes with the design of the Duplex- lightweight high power target rifle scope, compact rifle scopes and the Dual Dovetail mount system. Leuplod & Stevens also started the production of binoculars in the United States again with Leupold Golden Ring Binoculars. Then in 1998, after fifteen years as president, Tom Fruechtel replaced Werner Wildauer and is still the president of the company today. Leupold Rifle Scope Company made the first Compact Roof Prism Waterproof Spotting Riflescope, the first Lowlight Scope and brand new, cutting edge competition rifle scopes in 2002. In 2006 there was the brand new RX Rangefinder and also the VXL scope.

For the past 100 years, Leupold has certainly contributed to the lives of shooters, hunters and outdoors people with their sports optics. Following the same path that they have been on since 1907; listening to consumers' need for a "square deal" absolutely make Fred proud today!