When we first heard the news that Weaver was shutting down it’s optics manufacturing plants, a lot of us were really sad to hear the news. Weaver had a really good run in the industry and it also provided incredible value and design. The optics was well designed as well. Today, we are going to explore the history and legacy of weaver so, let us get started.
History of Weaver Optics
Weaver Optics was founded by a guy named William R. Weaver in the 1930s. When it started, Weaver was a brand that actually focused on providing super affordable rifle scopes. After two to three decade of its establishment, weaver became a major player in the scope market and competed with many scope manufacturers. You might have heard of brands like Leupold and Redfield. All of them were competing in the 60s.
Weaver was quite successful when it operated in these years. But then the company turned unsustainable because of some financial challenges that it went through. It also kept on changing hands until it was finally purchased by ATK sporting group which is an outdoor goods based company that owns many brands.
Many people have had really good experience with Weaver scopes when it started. A lot of people’s first scope was weaver. The K6 was it’s best selling scope of all time. It had a really great value. The scope manufacturer also had some really great other scopes like V-24 and more.
The current owner of Weaver is ATK which is a big company that also has ownership of super famous optics brands like Tasco, Millet, Simmons and even Bushnell.
Bushnell is probably one of the best brands in the optic world but there has been talks of even this juggernaut of going out of business. Let’s see if that is true or not.
Why did Weaver stop producing rifle scopes?
Well there are many factors here that has held back Weaver optics. Big businessmen really had to think it through before finally deciding to let weaver go loose. Some of the reasons for this decision is:
Too Many Brands
The ATK umbrella has too many rifle scope brands under them. They own Bushnell, Millet, Simmons and Weaver. The competition between these brands could have overlapped and perhaps the brands could not really compete with each other. So, this might have been the reason behind the decision.
Lack of Technology
Although Weaver makes some really good scopes, the brand has not been really updated recently. It never made a jump to First Focal Plane and it also never offered an FFP option as well. This along with their technology being outdated might be another reason why ATK decided to pull the plug. They were also pretty slow to migrate from Adjustable Objective Focus to a more modern lens design approach.
Loss of Market Share
Weaver definitely had a less market share as it got older. The scope market for the last few years really belong to brands such as Vortex. These guys were just trying to adapt to any changes in the market and they were doing exceptionally well as well. So, all of these factors might have caused ATK to finally lose it with Weaver and they decided to just kill the brand.
We know, Optics brand never really stay alive for long. This might be because of the constant new technology and sometimes it’s because of just too much competition.
Can I buy weaver scopes now?
Yes, you can definitely buy Weaver scopes but they are very limited. A lot of retail stores and amazon stores have stock that just did not sell. You can buy these. These are new but they are not freshly manufactured ones. Weaver has stopped all manufacturing so, you can’t really buy a new one. Also, only the latest ones are available for buying with the box.
The rest of the weaver catalog is not really present in the market. You can though buy them second hand on sites such as ebay. You can also look for used ones in amazon. The fanbase of the company is really strong and they have managed to really make the scopes available to a wider market.
If you were thinking about the warranty, well you won’t get a weaver replaced by a weaver on newly purchased ones but ATK is sure to replace it with something else. A Bushnell for a weaver is not a bad deal!
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