Why Has Nikon Stopped Making Rifle Scopes?

Says the man with the Canon camera beside him. 😂😂

If Nikon stopped producing rifle scopes for political reasons. I wouldn’t purchase binoculars, spotting scopes or range finders from them either.

I just sent Nikon my broken 3-9 monarch scope not knowing if it was still under warranty and they told me as long as it was 3 years or older it would be . The sent me a email a few days latter and told me it was not worth fixing . I thought that was odd but they did me good as they gave me a $460 credit to use in there online store , So i was ok with that but i wonder if they would say that about all rifle scopes to get them off rifles ? Thanks

Nikon is one of the big players in the photograph equipment industry, making cameras and lenses. In fact, it is one of thier main income.
Spotting scopes was just a minor part of thier portfolio.
Nikon make some of the best long camera lenses, which are great for shouting wildlife and nature. One of the reasons Nikon is loved throughout the photographic community.
That they made spotting scope was not a big problem in the photographic community, as it was what Nikon did. They made glas.

Then in 2013 Nikon introduced the Monarch line of scopes for game hunting, and that is when they ran into trouble.
Game hunters have a habit of shooting the same animals as photographers like to shoot, just with one small difference.
The difference between dead or alive.

So, Nikon ended up having to make a decision. In the end, they made the decision to kill of all their rifle scope line, as to save face to the photographic community en large.
You can read more about it in this independent article:
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/the-wrong-kind-of-photo-shoot-nikon-in-the-line-of-fire-over-rifle-sights-for-big-game-hunting-8556123.html

Always had good luck with Nikon (got banned but they didn’t tell me why..I’m back with a slightly modified name.. guess I’ll try to be nicer)

A great quality 1-4 optic for the money is a Steiner. Although I exclusively use Trijicon now.

Rifle Scope Reviews website reports what a Nikon rep told them:

– The scopes that Nikon produced were marketed towards the entry level to mid-level range of the rifle scope market, which is extremely competitive, and it wasn’t really a very profitable market for them.
– Nikon wanted to divert the resources of their Sporting Optics division towards the more profitable product families of that division, which are spotting scopes, range finders, and binoculars.

Google this article: "Rifle Scope Reviews: Nikon is Exiting the Rifle Scope Business"

There was absolutely no political pressure from anyone to exit this business (I follow Nikon closely). It was a purely business decision. I think it's unfair to speculate about something based on assumptions. If you follow Nikon in the last few years, they have shrunk significantly as a company, because the camera business is going down every year due to overall market contraction. In 2016 they already pitched to their shareholders that they will cost down. This year they closed down their last Japanese factory and moved all optics production to Japan. They also laid off a lot of people overseas, closed some service centers, and are now very focused on a few key areas of the market: Mirrorless cameras of mid to high end, some DSLRs in that segment and lenses. They have no choice but to scale down and remove all loss or minimum profit making products in order to survive long term.