Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting I'll never settle for a cheap scope again!

Thanks for your input, guys. I suppose any scope can break down, but I'm still going with a Leupie. I felt bad for my boy, as I just wanted him to have a good memory. The worst thing is, the gun was really shooting good with that piece of crap scope on it. Never again will a Tasco sit on one of my guns. I get precious little time in the field, and I don't want to spend it messing around with a junk scope.

Wellllll....Yes and no.The tasco,I'll give ya that one.Simmons and Bushnell both have low level junk and higher level scopes.I've heard several people say the Bushnell Elite 4200 will run neck and neck with the VX-III.

Good Point,

Have any of you guys ever had an Elite fail on you? If so was it 3200 or 4200?

I have never used anything but the Leupolds. I do have a Zeiss Conquest in the safe that I took off of a rifle that I purchased at a gunshow, it was replaced with the VXIII 4.5-10x40mm. I shot the rifle at the range with the Zeiss and just didnt see what all the hype was, to me it was no better than the VXIII when compared side by side. I personally like the way the Leupy looks vs. the Zeiss. To each is own, I have seen fellas come back to camp with fogged optics on their rifles. I would definately upgrade.

The only thing I can add is that my Bushnells have never failed.
And the Tasco World Class I put on my 375 H&H was put there just to see how long it would hold up, well the 1.5X4.5 is still on there, taken at least three moose with it and the damn thing has over 400 pretty stout loads under its belt and it is still going.
I never thought it would have lasted this long.
So for now it stays on it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I bought a used Bausch & Lomb Elite 3000 (forerunner of the 3200) that had the elevation adjustment stuck in place. I sent it to Bushnell and they fixed it under warranty. Its worked fine ever since.
HBB

my way of thinking is alittle difrent. dont ever put anything on your rimfires that you wouldnt want to put on centerfire hunting rig. this way when the out of the blue rifle drops out of knowhere you can yank the good scope off your rimfire and drop it on the centfire with no worries.
my 10/22 currently has weaver v-16 mounted on it. way more scope than the 22lr will ever need. but plenty for varmit rig. varmit rigs are kinda my thing and go through a few of them.

also be specific with your comments of your scopes going to hell and back. does this mean you leaned it on the truck and forgot about it and drove only to remember a few feet down the road turn around and the rifles laying in the mudd.

have you fell in a partiacialy ice coverd creek in the deepest spot imaginable while tryn to jump rock to rock. offcourse your packn your rifle at the time.

maybe your hunting rig has slid down the mtn on its own cause you lost your footing trying to go across a skiff od snow on hillside steep enough you didnt want to be there.

or your rifles ridn in the scaberd on the horse and your horse is laying on it.

id like to hear the specifics.

ive had all this happen and much more i cant think of right now to cheaper scopes ive tried. bsa, simmons, tasco, bushnell(lower end) these scopes all failed miseraply.

ive also put leos throug this same abuse and they pass with flying colors. heck i dont even shoot em on paper for a years on end it seams. and i keep hititng everything i shoot at. okay not everything the majority of the time i hit what im shooting at. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

i realy thin leos are some of the best glass out there for the money.

Evan

ohhhhhh and the weaver classic v-16 has not been through the ringer yet. it has been bumped around alittle but not near as much as id like to realy get to know scope. but it is clear and the targot dot is all it should be. though not quite as clear as leupold 6-18

Alass I'm one of the idle poor. I've just put a tasco on my deer rifle and can't afford to change it for at least 6 months. Now I shall be expecting it to go south every time I take it out. What does that do to confidence?

That's the problem with cheap scopes.You never know.I had a tasco on a 30-06 for 2 years and never had a problem.I took it off and put it on a .22.The reticle spun before it was zeroed.

Patford, I put an older Tasco on my son's rifle when the Nikon's elevation adjustment went south. He hammered a cow elk at 240 yds, his first. It is a 3x9 with the bullet drop compensating dial and stadia wire rangefinder.

When I told him I was going to upgrade the scope, he told me not to change a thing.

The new ones may not be as good as the older ones. I think if you get a good one, it's quite good, but the probability of a bad one may be higher. I would take this scope on an elk hunt without reservation.

I have a theory about cheap crappy scopes and the companies that make them.

I think they are subsidized by the major quality scope makers (Leupold, Swarovski, Burris, Zeiss, etc.) These companies know that the buyers of the el cheapo stuff will eventually come to them to buy what they should have bought in the first place.

I have a world class that is 10-15 years old and the older ones are not made in china or korea which has never been a problem. I have a bushnell banner Japanese made that is a great scope. I own two bushnell elites 3200 and think they are great, probably best for the money. one Nikon Buckmaster also which I feel is a quality product (not chinese made). I don't own a leupold, believe that they are excellent scopes but have just bought other stuff that I felt was as good as the wallet could produce at the time and all have worked well.

Something I don't quite understand. Why can't you take a scope off for storage and have it go back on and shoot the way it did before it came off?

get ruger and thats possible.

You can if you use a mounting system designed to do that. Standard mounts have too much play in them that screw tightness compensates for. As soon as you loosen and retighten the mount, you have changed how the play is taken up which changes the point of aim.

End statement of this thread should be as this. (I won't be the last poster) Buy the best you can afford. But it won't guarantee a dang thing. Backup is best(always have plan B along and plan C is not a bad idea either- I normally carry a 45 or 44 on my belt. Useable to 50-100 yards in the right hands)

And test your scopes side by side during early and late light IN THE FIELD. You can tell nothing at all by testing side by side on the range as to how field performance is going to be.

For the one poster about only affording Tasco. They are not my top choice, but let me just toss this out. I've had a tasco on a deer rilfe since 1975 and its been beat up pretty bad. Still on the gun and still works just fine.

Best, Jeff

Cheer up. Over a fireplace of a hunting lodge in North Carolina, there is a "hat of shame" with two stars next to my name for missing the same deer twice. I go up a tree with a Sako rifle and a 3X9 Leopold scope. A doe walks out 70 yards in front of me in knee high brush. I put the crosshairs on her shoulder and squeeze. Deer goes down. Twenty seconds later another walks out (4 Antlerless Tags) I think "Lucky Day" and squeeze off again. Deer goes down. I walk to the spot and right past a feeding doe oblivious to my presence. I get to the spot and nothing's there. The deer I shot at twice is looking at me fifty yards away. In Northampton, your feet have to be eight feet off the ground to discharge a deer rifle so I walk back to my stand, climb back up, chamber another round and look for the deer. Gone, but at 200 yards, a six pointer walked out feeding under the oaks. I put the crosshairs on his shoulder and hit him under the chin. I apologized as I don't like to shoot deer in the noggin, and put him on the living room wall. My first Buck!. Back on the farm range, my Sako was all over the place. You know on them Weaver rings, the little clip under the screw that tightens down on the dovetail. On my Leopold Sako style rings, the front one had cracked and fell out in two pieces when I checked the screw. Think the hat's bad, the stand is now officially called the pinball stand.

I'm in the industry. I've rep'd for Swarovski and Leica. Before I had those lines, I owned one Swarovski scope, 4 Luepies, a B&L 4000, a Redfield and a Burris.
None are on big recoiling calibers. The heaviest was/is on a 30-06. The only one that failed was the B&L.
I now have the Swarovski and 3 Leica rifle scopes as well as an OLD Weaver my dad found in one of his boxes. I still have the Burris and one of the Leupies.
I'm a firm believer that with optics, you get what you pay for. If you are like the one poster that can't afford the $1000 scopes, don't have a panic attack. There are decent enough scopes in all price ranges. Just look carefully and realize that the less you pay, the less quality you're getting.
I've worked major store openings and sales around the midwest and have actually had customers come in and buy a $1500 rifle and put a Tasco on it and brag that the best thing about them is the warranty. Ask your son how he felt about his warranty when his scope failed in the middle of the hunt? They don't do a lot of good.
I want a scope that will NOT fail, EVER. Not that I'll ever find one. But since moving to the Swarovski's and Leica's I've not had a problem. then again, I only had the one fail, so I've really not had a problem after all have I?
I agree that when you go out you should have a back-up rifle. In the event something fails on the first, you have something to save the hunt. Even if you're just going out for a morning hunt, keep a backup in the vehicle. No reason to ruin the ENTIRE day by having equipment fail on you.
Hopefully you'll purchase something new and it won't fail, but if it does, don't let it sour you on that brand (unless you only paid $15 or $29.99 for it)

Good points. I always have at least one, more likely two, backup rifles with me. I've not had a scope failure yet, but sure as there's fake boobs on Pamela Anderson I'll have a failure when I DO NOT have the backup...

I also make sure to note, and sight in for, the very first shot out of any hunting rifle. THAT's the one that's going to count, not the second, third etc... A very cold rifle will many times generate a first shot that's off just a bit from the next few. If you know exactly where that first one's gonna go, you're very likely to have a very dead deer on the first shot.

This has probably been covered already but keep in mind that used Leupolds can be easily had for less than $200 and with a little bargan hunting, for under $150. I'll take that over a new Simmons or Tasco anyday.