Tasco optics - good/bad?

sport22

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Joined
Apr 26, 2002
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Hi Goodfellas!
Just looked through the tasco website. What do you think of their riflescopes?
How are they compared to Leupold?
Stay safe
OneSot
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Oneshot-
I have had several and can say that they don't compare to a Leupold in any way. As most of my shooting is long distance, I use a drop chart and scopes with external knobs to adjust for each shot. The Taco's I have had do not track at all. They just aren't repeatable and for long range shooting, that's not acceptable. Having said that, for a typical, carrying hunting rifle, I don't see a problem with them. The clarity isn't bad and the price is certainly right. It all depends on what you want to do with one.
 
I may have just gotten really lucky, but I have their 8-32x50 World Class Plus on my Rem 700VSSF 22-250 and it tracks very well.

I placed a target at 100 yards and shot one shot at center. I then adjusted up 4 MOA and fired one shot. I adjusted right 4 MOA and fired another. I repeated this until I had walked around the paper three times with groups in each corner and the middle of each side (8 groups total). Each group ran from 5/8 to 1" across. Without making adjustments I was getting about 1/2 to 3/4" groups. I felt that this was very acceptable and I won't complain. So far the rifle/scope combination have just over 1200 rounds through them and they shoot better than I can. I cant say how well they will hold up with the big boomers that reach way out there, but for the pop-guns like mine it has done well.

Rick

[ 04-28-2002: Message edited by: RBrowning ]
 
Big thing to look for in Tascos is Made in Japan. There are only a few good lens and scope assemblers offshore and most are Japanese. The Japanese Tascos that I have had tracked well and for the money, very good optics. Are they as good as B&L, Zeiss, etc. NOPE but for 1/4 to 1/2 the price not bad. Leupolds have great adjustments but I have never been particularly impressed with their optics. Remember that we all see differently and I wear glasses.

I have just started using the Tasco SS 10X42 scope on my long range rigs. The scope optics are very good and adj. repeatable. Lots of elev./windage too (120 MOA!!!). Was designed for a Marine contract so apparently can take the abuse of 50cal etc. Good writeups on SWFA.

Don't bother with the 20X. Mine has horrid optics and I have talked to others that share the same dispair. Apparently the 16X is good.

The World class plus and EXP's are supposed to have very acceptable optics as well.

The best buy for my money has been my B&L Elite 4000 scopes in 2.5X10 and 6X24. I have looked through many different brands and for my eyes the Elites offer the highest degree of resolution and clarity. They are not blessed with lots of elevation adjustment but that can be solved with Burris Rings or tapered bases. Adjustments are accurate and repeatable.

Good luck...

Jerry
 
I have two of the SS10x40 and one SS16x40 and they all work great! I compared the Super Sniper side by side with a Leupold 6.5x20 and I liked the Tasco better.

The rest of the Tasco line is low end stuff that doesn't compare to Leupold etc. However the Super Sniper scopes are probably the best buy around.

Peter Cronhelm
 
The tasco snipers are one of the best buys for the money. They are made in Japan. The optics are as good as or better then any of the scopes until you get into the $800+ range. They do have a lifetime warranty. My only dislike is that the turrets are a little mushy from the factory. But it's easily fixed by replacing the 0-rings under the knobs with a smaller diameter ring. They do hold up very well. I'm talking about the rear focus model. The side focus model costs $100 more and isn't as reliable. I've found some good deals on www.auctionarms.com and www.gunbroker.com for tasco sniper scopes.
I've also used the custom shop 8-40x56 scope. It has a lot of features for the money. The optics are good, but get darker as you move up in power. For a high power variable I really like the Burris signature series, but these are $500 scopes.
 
I've owned two, both were on sporter weight 300 win mag and 7mm stw, both would not track. I have seen them on 22-250, 6.5 and smaller calibers but they dont hold up to magnum poundings. In fact the win mag broke the cross hairs loose, after that I went Leupold all the way, I did have a Swift and that was a good 22 caliber scope it also wouldnt hold up to magnum rounds.
Ive also competed in a few rifle events at Fort Benning. Two people used the super sniper scope, both look as if they were playing a video game with their turrets never knowing where their shot was going.
I dont have much faith in them at all. Take a look at what most long range shooters place on their rifles and that should give you a good example of what the market dictates as far as scope performance.

[ 05-01-2002: Message edited by: daveosok ]
 
yes the super snipers do, I had two world class on my 300 wim mag and 7 mmstw. But the guys who were shooting comps at Ft Benning had super snipers, they may have been the old model as I am aware that they made some minor changes to them because of click values not returning to zero. Most of the competetors their use Leupold a few Saworski, think one or two bushnells but the bushnells arent of magnum guns. One of the super snipers was on a ar15 style weapon with a match grade barrel set up for cross the course shooting, he had terrific problems with his, the other was on a savage sp10 I think and although the rifle wasnt the best it wouldnt square a grouping for test purposes. The ar15 rifle got a new leupold side focus hmmm 6.5x20 (i think) and his problems dissapeared.
There was a sniper their from Oplekia (sp?) Alabama and he has never seen the super sniper hold up under extreme conditions, but some may have had better luck with them in, my experience they havent held up like the Leupolds have.
 
Because of the nice price, I have owned 3 of the Tasco Workd Class Plus target scopes in 8-32 power and have finally came to the reality that they are junk. The first one got returned because the windage just quit working after about 6 months. The knob turned just fine but the crosshairs didn't move at all. The worst part was that it happened in the middle of a match so I had to drop out. The replacement scope they sent seemed to be nearly locked up on vertical adjustment. It only had 6 MOA total of vertical adjustment. Sent it back and the next one they sent worked just fine with about 40 MOA vertical and 33 MOA horizontal adjustment. So far it is holding up well but I am expecting it to quit working any time. On thh other hand, it might just work fine for many years. Since Midway was having a closeout on them a few months back I bought a spare and it sits in the closet in case the other one gives out. I do like the clarity of the optics on mine. Cranked all the way to 32X, I can use a bullet hole as an aiming dot at 300 yards and see the bullet holes just fine thru the scope. Too bad mine haven't been reliable.
 
I have tried a 20X S.S. on my 300 WSM and the quality of the optics was not good at all in my opinion. Two of the shooters in my area told me the 16X S.S. had good optics but the 20X didn't. They both keep the 16X S.S. in QRW rings as a back up to the 6.5 X 20 Leupold LRT scopes they use on there rifles. I had looked through both of the shooters 16X and it was good glass. I thought no way was the 20X much different but they knew what they were talking about. So I have traded mine on a 16X for a back up scope and have a 6.5 X 20 LRT Leupold on my WSM.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Staright....RiverRat
 
KEEP IN MIND...

... that Tasco has been out of business for about a month or 6 weeks... they didn't go chapter "anything". They just folded like a cheap umbrella. No one answers the phone, they are all gone.

There is no warrentee service or anything.

There is one outfit that is doing some service on them, but when parts (or money) runs out, then you have a paper weight.

CatShooter.
 
FWIW, I started out w/ a Tasco 6-24x TR scope way back in high school. For ~$140, it got the job done. That rifle and scope are long gone, but about 4-5 years ago, I picked up NIB SS10x42. That scope has seen some hard use, mainly from being tossed in the back seat, drug thru brush while scouting deer or hunting coyotes, etc. It's maybe not the clearest scoep in the world, like a S&B or the like, but for the price tag, it is pretty good. Never had any real problems w/ it. The turret clicks get a little mushy from time to time, but taking the turret caps off and cleaning them out and keeping the O-rings lubed usually cures that. About two weeks ago, I thought it had finally gone south on me, as it did the mystery adjustment (i.e. you count clicks, adjust the scope, and it's a mystery where in the heck the shots went) trick while at the range. Re-boresighted it, and tried adjusting again. No problems. Took it out the next weekend and exercised the turrets fairly well. Shot a box just fine. Went up 8 moa, down 8 moa, up, down, etc. It kept sticking the shots in the same little hole every time, right where they were supposed to go. Only thing that was 'different' about the time it went silly was I had adjusted both windage and elevation at the same time before shooting. I'll have to pound on it some more, and see what happens.

Other than that, I have a Tasco World Class 10-40x50mm (don't ask, bad impulse purchase) that I can't even hardly *give* away. I finally (almost) had it sold, picked it up to look at it for some reason, and noticed a slight rattle in the front ocular. I'm going to wait abit and see if Tasco recovers; if not I'll probably eat the $25 and send it to the place that is doing some repair work on Tasco scopes.

Monte
 
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