Are Meopta Scopes Any Good?

If you haven’t heard of the Meopta brand of rifle scopes, they are a European brand based out of Czechoslovakia, with manufacturing facilities and offices in both Czechoslovakia and the U.S. Meopta has been in business since the early 1930s and started out producing lenses and accessories geared towards cameras. They sort of backed into the riflescope business when the Czechoslovakian military approached them about providing optical gear (binoculars, rifle scopes, and spotting scopes) for their military personnel.

Now let’s address and answer the question about whether or not Meopta scopes are any good?

The answer is an absolute yes, and here’s why:

Meopta uses a very high-quality brand of glass for their lenses called Schott glass, and the end result in scopes is outstanding. The glass quality and clarity on Meopta rifle scopes are very much comparable to what you see with other high-end European scope brands like Kahles,  Swarovski, and Zeiss, at around half the price.

As a matter of fact, when Zeiss first introduced their Conquest line of riflescope models, that line was made by Meopta for Zeiss.

I’ve found almost all the Meopta models to have some of the best glass for the money that I’ve seen in a while, and I’ve been in the scope business for a number of years.

Now, that’s not to say that the Meopta line of scopes are “perfect” because they are not. The few complaints that I have with Meopta, (and I’ve mentioned these issues to their reps at the SHOT show) are as follows:

Restrictive Side Focus

With the exception of a few Meotpa scope models, most all have a side focus that won’t go any lower than 50 yards. This is a potential issue with hunters as any shot under the 50-yard range will be blurry and out of focus.

In late 2018, Meopta hired a new executive that was previously with Nikon Sport Optics and one of his first projects was to introduce a Meopta line of scopes that would all focus down to distances under the basic 50-yard mark. Those models were introduced in 2019 and are called the Optika6 line of scopes.

Antiquated Turret System

For a brand with such high-quality glass, the turret set-up on the Meopta line is about as basic and antiquated as it comes. The current turret system reminds me of turrets I had on the first 4X32 scope that I bought 30 years ago. It’s a super simple (and actually cheap-looking) finger turret set-up.

I had an older Meopta Artemis 2000 scope model, and the turrets on it were really old-school as they are adjusted with a coin or screwdriver via a coin slot. However, I’ve been told by Meopta reps that the newer models will be offered with a much more modern turret system.

Better Warranty

While the current Meopta warranty is considered a “limited” warranty, it’s still a pretty decent warranty in the riflescope world. However, it could certainly be better. I’ve always been a fan of the “no questions asked” type of warranty like Leupold or Vortex offers, and think that would help Meopta become better known in the U.S.

Meopta is one of those scope brands that are still becoming established in the U.S. but offer a very good value for the money just based on the quality of their glass.

If you wanted to read more about Meopta scopes, here’s a more in-depth review: Meopta Rifle Scopes.