Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics scopes to stay away from

Back to the original point: scopes to stay away from.

Don't bother looking through scopes you can't afford. You might love the view so much that you'll be forever ruined. Happens all the time with binocs, too.

FC

Even though I'm sure companies can make decent scopes cheap, I think it's a good idea to stay far away from anything less than the 100-125$ price point.

I have three Bushnell Elite 3200's (all 3-9 X 40) which have so far performed well, a Redfield Evolution 3-7 and a Jap Tasco.
I would steer clear of the Tasco World Class that ARENT made in Japan.
A friend of mine put, on his first two new centrfires, the cheapie Chinese Tasco World Class scopes. He aint short of a $$ and I tried hard to even get him to look at a Bushnell Elite or eevn a Japanese Tasco.
"This is what the guy in the gun shop recommended" he said...

Probably more than likely what he wanted to spend. The last two scopes he bought have been two used Elite 3200's - maybe my preaching has finally got in......

7mm

I disagree. First of all, electronic drives are made by the millions, at a very rapid pace, primarily in cheap overhead countries. Time is money. If you manufacture something at an extremely rapid cycle time, cost goes down. Hard drives and the miniaturization of same are modern marvels, but they are not in any way more complex to make than a rifle scope. Not even close. The large drive manufacturers have tooled up with heavy capital investment to make them in enormous volume. Economies of scale at work.

Rifle scopes require far more steps and processes involved, require more machine time, more qc checks, have higher parts count, and are far more demanding to make. They are made in much lower volume by far. I am a manufacturing engineer in a very large machine shop and have spent my whole professional career in manufacturing, so I have a pretty good understanding of what goes into the production of various consumer goods.

I'm pretty picky about optics. I've no doubt been spoiled by the "good stuff," and I feel the good stuff start at around the $200 price point. I expect and demand better optical performance than the $100 scopes are able to provide. I therefore cannot recommend very inexpensive scopes for any firearm that gets serious use, because I believe they are poor investments. I've either owned and/or used most scope brands you can think of at one time or another. I don't necessarily think you always "get what you pay for" in optics until you get to the low end price brackets, where I think that old axiom applies.

Well, gentlemen, I think I read every post. Again I will go with the idea that it is in the genes.

Some folks can use Burris and have no problems. The glass is very good to me. But all I had broke.

No Simmons made it more than one day with me and yet some last years on other's rifles.

Etc, etc.....

I have no problems with Tascos. When I went to Alaska with a friend, He paid my way, we both had Tasco 4-16X on our rifles. He had a Mark V .340 and I took my Klienguenther K14 in .375-.416 Rem Mag. He is still using his Tasco. I replace mine with a 2 1/2-16X 6500 because someone got hit by it at the range. The Bushnell has much more eye brow clearance. I noticed the Bushnell has better glass.

No they don't.

BURRIS!!. I used to love there scopes. But the last two have had ongoing issues. To say there customer services sucks is a huge understatement. They replaced one scope which came back trashed, I think a five year old put it back together. It was a new scope never mounted I sent for a reticle change and to add posilock. Came back the first time with no posilock. Came back the second time looking like it got bounced down a mountainside. Took another three months to get a new scope. I promptly sold it as I did not want to deal with Burris ever again. The second scope has been back to Burris four times and was just sent off the fifth time this morning. The last time it took three months to get it back. It arrived with the lenses looking as if someone took 180 grit sandpaper to them. After another three months I got the scope back. After approximately twenty rounds on a 44 carbine the scope was dead. Would not hold zero debris floating in it and the whole eyepiece could be moved a good quarter inch back and forth.

I try to avoid the over used statement that you get what you pay for. That's not 100% true and there are some bargains to be had. But, one has to know what he's doing when dealing with lower priced goods. There are occasionally good buys on Ebay, but one can get rooked there, too. I've seen items on Ebay, bid above the on line retail price. Used items can be a bargain if one takes some time to study the product. As always, "Buyer beware."

Higher end scopes will generally be the most satisfying and the most serviceable. Go with the ones that have good manufacturers' service records. Check them out on line before you "pull the trigger" on a deal. Buyer's remorse can be painful. Trading lower end goods can be painful. The cheapest isn't always the least expensive...

DF

Agree totally. But, the really cheaply made stuff usually has a price tag to match. And, if you buy a cheap blister pack optic that doesn't fulfill expectations, causing you to end up buying something better shortly thereafter, it really wasn't cheap.

with all statments beeing said even my own in the last 20 years or so the "useabilty" in the gap of cheap scopes to top end scopes have closed up quit a bit for the $ spent

As I recall I've only had two scopes go south on me, both bushnell sportviews, one a 4x, one a 3-9. The 4x was on a 10-22, one day the rear lens just fell out. The 3-9 was on a ruger M77 mkII ultralight .308, my first centerfire rifle. Groups were more like patterns, and poi was always shifting. I thought there was a problem with the gun, until I replaced the scope.

I've had several other lower end scopes that while they would hold zero, the sight picture was cloudy and to me that made them unusable. As I recall those have been a combination of various low end tascos, a BSA 2.5-10, and recently a bushnell 3200 10X tactical. I'd figured for $175 the 10X bushy should be enough $ to get a 1/2 decent scope, but I just can't get the sight picture and recticle to be focused and the glass just isn't that clear.

Another disapointing scope has been the newer weaver K6, way too little eye relief for a centerfire scope.

For whatever reason it seems that I've unable to find a new scope under $200 that I'll be happy with. It also seems of the dozen leupold pistol and rifle scopes I've had, they've all served me well.

Many years ago, elk hunting in Idaho, my partner's Weaver K scope lost the ocular lenses. I saw these parts on the ground and it didn't take long to trace them back to the scope. I had an extra rifle, otherwise he would been hunting elk with a stick. And those old K Weavers were pretty good scopes. Guess a mess up could happen to any scope, just seems a lot more common at the low end...

DF

I try to stay away from any scope that is broken.

A wise policy!

I could be a salesman for the Leupold 2 1/2-8X handgun scope. My .454 broke a dozen before I put the second Leupold on it. Even when I took a fall the zero was still zeroed. Last time I fired that revolver at 200 yards the five shot group was 5". Now all I need is an elk standing broad side while I get a good rest.

The Bushnell Banner 1.5-4.5X32 can be had for about $63.00. It's a remarkable little scope for leverguns & .22s. I'm just saying....

swamp man i try to be nice to every one and i am a pretty hard core rem 7-700 fan but stop,posting under either name the more you post the dumber you seem

Tasco scopes out of the blister pack. Use like deposable contacts maybe? Use one hunt and discard?

There are a lot of what I call Optic Snobs.... same as there are Rifle Snobs, and even Rifle Stock Snobs and Rifle Barrel Snobs....

They act like if someone doesn't own the equivalent of a Mercedes or Rolls Royce.. then their stuff is crap...

Plenty of us get by just fine with all the stuff that they call crap...

In scopes I use what I think is clear for my needs..and since my eye sight isn't perfect...

I don't need a Nightforce or Swaroski on a 10/22... and my 10/22 doesn't have to be a Volquartson...

I'm not out to impress anyone....I am out to find stuff that fits my needs.....

and I don't look for hero status by posting pictures of all my rifles, with all the spendy trendy options and a decal of a pirate emblem.... like some 3rd grader would put on his lunch box or skate board....

not this kid, when it says Leupold on the side...

I've bought two Leupolds, that I knew were broken.. for $25.00..

The two Beavis & Buttheads I got them from evidently didn't have a clue about Leupold's warranty.... both scopes were older obsolete models..

Sent both up to Beaverton.... and both times Leupold called me, told me that they couldn't fix them.. so they would like to replace them with a new model close to it in magnification...

one I took with their replacement proposal..

the second one had been a 3 x .... and they offered me a 4 power...I asked for a 6x power, if I paid a little extra for it..they sent me a 6 power and didn't want to charge any extra..

if the company has a good warranty and no questions asked... I'll take a broken one..

I had a Tasco that did mess up once.. and I missed a good buck with it.. took it off the rifle... got mad at it, pounded the thing on a steel rail about 8 times, after throwing it against a brick wall at about 25 yds away...

then threw it in the trash can..

before I went to the dump with it, someone suggested I still send it in to Bushnell, as they had bought Tasco.. even tho it was built pre their ownership..

I figured I had nothing but the postage to lose on the deal, so took it out of the trash can, where it had sat for a month..

Low and behold, two weeks later, I got an upgraded Tasco from Bushnell, with NO bill attached...I even called them out of guilt and they told me don't worry about it..

the replacement has held up fine...it gets used on varmint rifles and rimfires...the previous one had given me 8 years of service for the original $59 price at Bi Mart.. so I had no real reason to complain..