Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Surprised Results on a scope-comparison today!

Old_Crab,

Like you I retired this year. Also, like you I have a Tasco World Class 6-24X which surprises almost everyone who checks it out. In a similar test a few years ago it beat out my Sightron 3-15X when both were set on 15X. The ages of the guys who checked it were about 30, 40, and 60 years old.

But let's let the ignorant prejudice continue to be ignorantly prejudice. Afterall, I use it sometimes.

Amen! Like you, Ringman, I'm sure not going to sell mine after the test... It will continue in it's role of being my "load development" scope.

I'm retired since April of this year and have more time on my hands than what-is-good-for-me, and enjoying every minute...
I have always wanted to take my favorite scopes that I use frequently, and set them up side-by-side on a 100 yard target (or so) and see which ones allowed my old eyes to see the most detail quickly/easily, with the least eye-strain. So, I did that today, with very surprising results!
Here's the test:
-- Had a bright day today, and I have a great birch tree about 100 yards from my back deck with all sorts of "detail" on the bark... various colors, imperfections, moss of different types, sizes, scars on the bark, etc., so I used it for the "target".
-- The scopes I used for comparison, which I sand-bagged and pointed-to the same section of tree, all at 9 power (for fairness) were:
- 3x9 Zeiss Conquest MC (5 yrs old)
- 3.5 x 10 Leupold VX III CDS (6 months old)
- 6 x 18 Vortex Viper HS LR (1 year old)
- 6 x 24 Tasco World Class Plus (20 yrs old, use for load-work-up)

So, after setting them at approx 9 power, the test began, and I really switched back and forth looking at all the details each scope was seeing, and judging my view of "clarity", "detail", and "lack of eye-strain".

Here's the results:
#1: The Zeiss... just ahead of number 2
#2: The Leupold: AND The Tasco!!!
#4" The Vortex

note: All of the above scopes were very, very satisfactory on their results, and are all "keepers", so all are still "in the club"...

Yep, the surprise to me of the day, was how high the Tasco came in, and I checked my results by changing position of the most-detailed target I could get, which differentiated the most.

Wow, who would have thought!!

With all the abuse Tasco gets on the internet, I felt like buying it a Christmas present of some type... maybe a better set of lens covers....
Cheers!

Most scopes look good in bright daylight, and you can't readily differentiate quality under those conditions. Try the same test 20 minutes after sundown.

Most scopes look good in bright daylight, and you can't readily differentiate quality under those conditions. Try the same test 20 minutes after sundown.

Sure, Ringman. But your testing methodology also convinced you to claim -- in a classified ad, no less -- that your Z5 had "WAY better" glass than the Z3.

And we all know -- and Swarovski techs will confirm -- that both use the same glass and same coatings and that only the internals differ.

What separates the wheat from the chafe in low-light hunting scopes is the ability to resolve fine detail under poor lighting conditions. And just because a $50 scope can hang with a $500 scope at high noon doesn't mean it will hold true once the sun dips below the horizon.

wrong again...and after having spent more than a quarter century relying on good glass to make a living, I'll state I can critically compare from an unbiased standpoint, too.

I am extremely picky when it comes to optics, too -- moreso than necessary, I might add.

- 3.5 x 10 Leupold VX III CDS (6 months old)

Did you mean VX3? A VX III would be more than 6 months old.

Most scopes look good in bright daylight, and you can't readily differentiate quality under those conditions. Try the same test 20 minutes after sundown.

Ringman-I didn't go into the attack mode and don't stoop to those levels. I simply pointed out indisputable fact.

Have a good day...