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These are the $30 Tasco's Walmart sells in 3-9x40, or something like $35 for the 3-9x50. I've used these, and a couple of friends have. We have had mixed opinions, but most have been positive which surprised me for a $30 scope. Obviously not the glass quality of something nice, but I've found it to be surprisingly decent for the $30 it cost.

So it made me wonder how many of you all have tried them and how they held up? Instead of just saying "Tasco sucks" or something similar, I'd like to hear from only the people that have owned this particular scope and hear your experiences.

I was going to do a poll, but it doesn't appear that I can.

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No one on here has used these on backup rifles or secondary rifles for a cheap alternative?

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Most are smart enough not to take a bite of a schit sandwich, just to see what it tastes like.

YMMV...




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Originally Posted by VAnimrod
Most are smart enough not to take a bite of a schit sandwich, just to see what it tastes like.

YMMV...
Lol, probably true. That being said I bought one before I knew anything about scopes, and that's why I have it. I've not found it nearly as bad as people make out cheap scopes online for. Or for that matter, any cheap scope I've used.

I've just been surprised by the number of people I've run into using these scopes out in the field, or other very similar scopes.

I've always heard how horrible cheap scopes are online, and for some reason they have always intrigued me. I will be the first to admit I like quality optics, and I don't often buy cheap optics anymore unless it's just to test out, but on the ones I've tested the gap is surprisingly small. That coupled with talking to a few guys that have them locally, made me wonder what the opinion of others who had them were.

As I said though, I just can't believe the number of people I've run into hunting, or my friends that hunt that refuse to use decent optics, and they still hardly ever have any problems. They don't have great glass quality, but the scopes usually work. Other than myself, I only know of 3 guys other than myself in our group of about 20 that hunts with a scope that cost more than $120. Two of those are Simmons Aetec's, one old and one new, and the third is a Nikon Buckmasters.

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Good glass is an advantage I won't be without. Great glass is almost like cheating.

Schit glass is a handicap.

Just because some of the masses intentionally handicap themselves does not mean that it's a good idea for you to do the same. Knowing better, and gravitating back toward a poor decision is surely a sign that I'd rather not have attributed to me.

YMMV...




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Originally Posted by VAnimrod
Good glass is an advantage I won't be without. Great glass is almost like cheating.

Schit glass is a handicap.

Just because some of the masses intentionally handicap themselves does not mean that it's a good idea for you to do the same. Knowing better, and gravitating back toward a poor decision is surely a sign that I'd rather not have attributed to me.

YMMV...
While I agree I like good glass, and like great glass even better, I don't find the glass in this thing to be a handicap. It's clear enough that I can hunt throughout the whole legal hunting light. I can see up until the time to quit. That's my point about this. It's not like looking through a Coke bottle like many people say cheap scopes are, it's not blurry, it's not cloudy, foggy, or anything else. Is it as good as the Burris FFII I normally use? No, but it's slightly better in low light than the Leupold VX-I I've also got. That's not glass that's going to handicap most hunters. Would I take it on a Safari no, but for a gun that gets shot a couple of times per year, it's worked so far, and I've never felt I had a disadvantage because of the glass. I'd also probably not use it on my main hunting rifle.

I've used some other cheap scopes where the glass was crap and they would be a large disadvantage especially towards the end of the legal hunting hours, but neither this nor the cheaper Simmons I used in the past were like that at all.

That's why I was curious if I just got lucky, or if this is the norm, or what others experiences were.

Last edited by slowr1der; 02/16/11.
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The glass is probably not the most painful tradeoff to hit that pricepoint. If you look at better quality scopes from the 60's to the 80's, they were able to get very good results with single lens coatings using what is now run of the mill glass. In real terms it is apparently much cheaper to mfg lenses now than then.

Where the pricepoint will bite you I think is the scope body, seals and poi shifts. Ex: I got a particularly cheap chinese scope on a rifle some time ago in part payment. My buddy was using it when the poi went screwy. The rubber "armor" coating kept us from noticing that the entire front half of the scope had separated. The view was usable, the scope was not.
Another example is a cheaper Simmons 3x9 of mine that has a decent view but has a poi shift as power is increased.
Same buddy as above had a cheap gift scope spit the adjustment screw out at the range.
I was present when another buddy had the rear eyepiece fall off a cheap scope at the range while he was trying to focus the scope.
I've had and seen quite a few more cheaper scopes where the seals have gone and the scope stays fogged unless you take the time to hotbox them to dry them out.
Any scope can fail but the probability of failure can get pretty high as price goes way down.




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