How 'bout scopes that disappointed?

[desertbull]

I have tried to make Vortex work with several different rifle scopes, binoculars and spotting scopes. They all sucked. Never again.

 

[rafterfp]

Decided to give the vx 6 a shot....... Nope! Glass was good tracking was a JOKE!
I'll stick to my NXS/ATACR's!

 

[Deleted member 48126]

I make good money. I have nice rifles. How in the hell does anyone afford a **** nightforce?

 

[BWB]

I make good money. I have nice rifles. How in the hell does anyone afford a **** nightforce?

Sell one of the said "nice rifles" and buy one No car payments helps too.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I make good money. I have nice rifles. How in the hell does anyone afford a **** nightforce?

When I was working and wanted something I would save $50 per week till I could pay for it. The money was considered GONE! as far as anything else. When I bought a Nightforce they were $1,440 for a new 12-42X56. It took bout six and a half months to get it. Same thing for out of state hunts.

 

[ChrisInKY]

Redfields.!

Definitely. Will never own one again.

.30-06 destroyed the internals with one shot. Took it back to the store ... tried contacting Redfield's Customer Service ... just crickets. You only have to do that to me once to get your message across Lima Charlie.

 

[stomp442]

Vortex makes absolutely horrible rifle scopes but excellent boat anchors or paper weights. I have owned 5 or 6 of them over the years and not one of them lasted over a year before they had to go back for repair. I will never trust a vortex or own another again. Everything I own is slowly being converted over to Leupold VX3s and I haven't had an issue with them.

 

[BallisticsGuy]

I make good money. I have nice rifles. How in the hell does anyone afford a **** nightforce?

For many years I was in the same boat. Part of the issue was living in a very expensive place to live. Cost of living was killing me, still is in many respects. I'd have to move my 1 moderately good scope from rifle to rifle. Still am moving scopes around a bit now and then. Not all my rifles wear the scopes I want them to eventually wear.

Find ways to save. Quit drinking beer, $5:day saved, quit smoking $5:day saved. Don't buy lunch at work... bring one instead, $5:day saved. Before too many days you've got enough. Also, consider thoroughly which scope you want and why. There's a big price difference between a Nightforce SHV and a Nightforce BEAST. If you don't need the big one, get a smaller one.

My strategy was to use my company's referral bonus program and refer a couple candidates in to put me over the top. After I'd quit smoking and I didn't eat lunch during the week unless my office had it catered in for about a year that little extra from the referrals made it happen. After I got my referral bonus', that immediately went with my saved up nickels and times to get me my dream optic. Did it again recently, have another tier 1 scope coming as a result. It takes me about a year to save up for a decent optic if I can get a referral bonus during that time. Otherwise it's likely to take me 2 years or better.

Also, when NF or whatever brand you want comes out with new and updated models their older models will plummet in price and places like here or snipershide will have their for sale sections absolutely plumped up with great deals. Like when Vortex put their Gen2 Razors out, it seemed like all the Gen1's on the hide were suddenly for sale.

Biggest thing: Stay determined. Once you have it, you have it and it's something you'll be really proud to own for the rest of your life. Old men always have a couple great high quality things. They didn't probably get them when they were young.

 

[gohring3006]

I have noticed, once you cross that threshold of higher end optics, it sets a new standard. You won't be satisfied with lower end stuff.
I went to $300.00 to $500.00, then to $800.00-$1000.00 optics. Now I'm looking at the $1500.00 stuff.
Quit drinking and smoking has enabled me to buy more rifles and scopes..

My standard is... Decent glass with reliable tracking...

 

[Deleted member 48126]

Ballisticsguy...thank you for the advice. I think I'll do the $5 a day thing and see how that goes. I'm by no means a scope snob. I really love nikons. They are awesome for the money. I just really want a nightforce. SHV seems reasonable. But back on topic...stay the hell away from BSA!!!!

 

[SansSouci]

I've had great luck with Leupold. However, were I to buy another scope, I'd go with German optics, Zeiss specifically, but I'd look at other German manufacturers. Germany holds the patent on high-end precision quality.

I believe that the US military uses Leupold scopes, assuredly the very high-end models. But I might be wrong.

BTW, the scope I own that I like best is a 20+ year-old Leupold Vari-X II 4x12 AO. I like the Vari-X III's and VX_3 I own. I've yet to test the VX-3 4.5x14.

 

[Danehunter]

Gotta say all my Bushnell scopes, from the cheapest to the most expensive, have been VERY GOOD.

And my one SWFA 3 - 15 x 40 SS scope has been great.

So far I've returned only one scope, an original Burris Fullfield, which they replaced with a redesigned Fullfield that was much better in every way.

Eric B.

 

[BallisticsGuy]

So I think I've come up with a decent short list of what has been uniformly junk in my rather extensive testing as well as a way to calculate how much you need to save up to get into any particular class of optic.

First junk optics: BSA, Primary Arms low end (their really high end stuff is actually pretty good), Barska, NC Star, Centerpoint, Counterpoint, Nikko Sterling, anything else under about 200 bucks for a fixed power and under about 300 bucks for a variable.

That's for what I'll call "standard glass" which is what most people are used to and which I find incredibly hard to deal with as a match shooter or as a hunter. These are not hard and fast numbers but generalized budget numbers based on a sampling of what's available and what's popular enough to show up where I show up. So, think of it as a price guide, not a calculator or catalog.

A decent base optic should land you as discussed earlier at 200 bucks for a fixed and 300 bucks for a variable.

Illumination should add ~100 bucks.
Target turrets should add ~100 bucks.
If you want to add really really good target turrets then add ~200 bucks.
If you want to best possible quality target turrets add ~300 bucks
Side adjustable parallax should add ~100 bucks.
If you want a really cool reticle add ~100 bucks.
If you want locking turrets add ~50 bucks.

So if you want a decent variable with illumination, target turrets and adjustable parallax then you should plan on spending at least $600-700.

If you want to add slightly better glass to the package then add $300.
If you want top end glass $1000.

Let's see how that works out.

An SWFA SS fixed is ~$300 bucks, 400 bucks with side parallax.
An SWFA SS 3-15x is ~$700 bucks. Take the base variable and add really good target turrets and side parallax (300+200+100 = $600).
A Burris XTRII is ~$1100-1200. Take the base variable and add really good turrets, illumination, really cool reticle, side parallax and slightly better glass (300+200+100+100+100+300 = $1100).
A Vortex Razor II is ~$2200. Take the Burris XTR II and upgrade the turrets (+100), upgrade the glass (+$700) and add locking turrets. 1100+100+1000+50 = $2250.

Seems like it holds up pretty well if not exactly. So now you can tell if you go for a scope what it should cost and the compare that to what it does. If it comes in substantially under what the formula calculates then you can assume that quality is compromised. If it comes in above that feature you can assume that profit margin is optimized.

 

[Deleted member 48126]

Gotta say all my Bushnell scopes, from the cheapest to the most expensive, have been VERY GOOD.

And my one SWFA 3 - 15 x 40 SS scope has been great.

I have 7!

Two - 5x20 HDs

Two - fixed 6x

Three - 3-15x

I found a thread where they make a zero stop for them!! I'm in heaven now. I just wish they had a simple Xmas tree reticle like the bushnell G2/G3.

The 6x are probably my favorite for "cheap" scope. They sit on two of my long range ARs.