cheap scope

[subsonicwarthog]

I have a friend that has several BSA scopes and I have several Leupold scopes. Looking thru his BSA scopes you will notice a yellow color, they call a filter or coating. Well, Leupold also has coatings but do not make the view yellow. They are also very touchy dialing into focus. Their quality is less than good where leupold is excelent. Buy the best and do not test the reat.

 

[longrangegunner52]

thanks guys just wanted some opinions have not bought one and but this has helped me make my decision i am on a low budget right now and need some good glass for cheap.

 

[chessman]

OK, let me try this again. I tried to post a reply last night, but it isn't here today.

I found that good glass costs as much or more than the rifle it sits on. Now,I like toys, and hate to have rifles sitting around that I can't shoot because I don't have the money for the optics. I started mounting Ken Farrell bases on all of my rifles, and mount the scopes with Leupold QRW rings. I have a notebook with the micrometer settings for zero for each of my rifles and each of their loads. I swap scopes, dial in the settings, and I'm right on zero. I've been doing this for three years, and I haven't lost my zero yet.

 

[kmassaro]

For inexpensive glass, don't forget Bushnell. Start at the Banners and go up, as far as you can afford. They seem to hold up well for me, since 1968, we've never had one go bad. You might find one cheap on ebay.

 

[Guest]

I have had a few different scopes and have never had one go bad. The first scope I had on a rifle (.308) was a $40.00 (cdn) fixed 4 power. That was almost 20 years ago and that scope sits on a old 303 Brit. now and still works great. Yes the optical quality is not like the $500.00 and up scopes and I would not rely on them returning 0 but for the average hunter keeping shots under 400y and not dialing in each shot, just using holdovers, the cheep ones work fine. When the shots get out there and you need to put some elevation and windage on the scope the cheep ones won't cut it. If you can't afford a high $ scope and want to extend your range a little find a mildot scope and learn how to use it. I got a tasco varmit 2.5x10 mildot scope for $100.00 about a year ago and its seen about 700 rounds from my 270 win and works excellent.

 

[CWPINST]

I have 3 Vari-X-III, 50mm's, and have been pleased with them, but I had an experience a couple of years ago that opened my eye's(no pun intended). A friend of mine purchased a 3.5x10x50mm Weaver Grand Slam and said that he thought that it was "brighter" than a comparable Vari-X-III. I told him that I had some doubts about that. He asked me to go deer hunting with him and sit in one of his "condo" stands so we could compare scopes side by side.

Before going further, I need to say that here in SC you can legally harvest a deer up to 1 hour AFTER sunset. Consequently, high performance low light scopes are very important here. To make a long story short, we watched deer from about sunset until dark, comparing his scope to mine. We particularly watched a small buck at about 100 yards until about 50 minutes after sunset. At that time I could still count points with the Weaver while I could barely make out the deer with my Leupold. Needless to say, I was embarrassed that a $300 scope clearly out performed my Leupold.

In case anyone is wondering, we tried to do everything that we knew to make the test fair including cleaning the lenses, and comparing on the same power as best as we could tell.

 

[marc357]

A) ACCURATE

B) RELIABLE

C) CHEAP

(Choose Two)

 

[specweldtom]

I have a 3-12 x 50 NC Star w/ 30mm tube and lighted mildot reticle that is a warranty replacement for a similar scope in 3-9 that was on a 340 WBY. (the vertical crosshair broke). It has ~ 3" to 3 1/2" eye relief, decent light gathering, one piece tube, and a good warranty. The original 3-9 cost $89. Limitations are covered knobs, no parallax adjustment, fairly critical eye alignment, and uncertain durability. This one is back on the 340 and I haven't shot it enough to build confidence yet. If anyone else has tried these scopes, I would appreciate their comments. I prefer Leupolds, but can't afford many of them. Thanks,
Tom

 

[subsonicwarthog]

I got a Natchez book and it talked about a scope with Japanese glass. It is a Simmons 8-32x44 and sells for $129.00. I have expensive 45x45 competition leupold scopes and a few redfield scopes that are 6-20x50 that are excellent clear scopes to compare this to. I ordered the Simons scope above and took it to the range. The cross hairs are thicker than both the redfield and leupold which has a 1/8th MOA dot. This new simmons scope has about a 1/4 to 1.2 MOA dot and thicker cross hairs but did a good job. It is very clear at the lower powers but gets a little fuzzy at 32 power but is able to hold is own at $129.00 and I will buy another one if there are any left for another gun just so I don't have to keep changing scopes around when I want to shoot one of my scopeless guns. I have looked thru a friends BSA scopes and they are yellow coated or just not clear to me. I use shooting glasses and when I look thru the BSA scopes with shooting glasses or sun glasses it is not good. Hope this helps

 

[Mike in NC]

I don't personally own one, but I've heard some good reports on the Tasco World Class and Target/Varmint scopes (Natchez currently has them on sale). Varmint Al (http://www.varmintal.com/ashot.htm) has some good things to say about them, and if you look at the buyer comments on the Midway website, most are very positive.

For $90 to $120, I'm thinking about giving them a try on my long-range squirrel sniper 10/22.

I am very intrigued by the one-really-nice-scope-for-several-rifles concept. You can only shoot one at a time, so if the switch is quick and easy, it seems like this would have some merit.