Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics cheap scopes-no comment

My 270 Tupperware Special came with a Tasco World Class? 3x9x40. It was an excellent scope, tolerating snow, rain and all the abuse I could throw at it. Maybe the oppressed commie worker that made it was having a good day, the scope was great. Never had to touch it for nine years.

It did some time on my 45/70 Buffalo Classic with no ill effects despite some shoulder crunching loads.

After doing stand-in duty on the BC, it was transferred to my NEF Sportster 17HMR. It is a pretty good combo. Spent the afternoon shooting at thumbtacks at 100+ yards in the drizzle/fog/rain.

All in all it has been a great scope. Never lost zero, not once.

ZM

I like to give folks grief for any reason I can, just funnin though. But I'll say this, if a guy with the ugliest Savage, with the cheapest Tasco aboard, hunts hard in all kinds of weather and reliably brings home his quarry, he knows what he has works and is not overly concerned with anyones opinion of his gear.

If it works for you the way you work, good on ya, you've found your system. Mine just happen to be pushfeed Remingtons with Leupold scopes aboard, yeah I know they're not CRF and I hunt in bear country but I'm still here.



In the meantime I still feel vindicated in giving folks with less expensive gear grief over their poor choices and grief to the ones with more expensive gear grief for being so dumb with their money. Depending upon the equipment you have you're probably just the same although a few notes higher or lower on the scale. (grin)

Perhaps I should add, I would never BUY a Tasco or any of the cheap scopes for a centerfire rifle.
When I bought the Tupperware Special, the scope came as part of the package and performed great. Just lucky I guess.

My scope rule is simple, I buy the most expensive scope I can afford to replace if I bash it on a stump. That puts my scopes in the $200-300 range. If one is on the discontinued rack that is better. That is how I got a Nikon Buckmaster 4x40 for $119. You just gotta know where to look.

ZM

The Tasco comment are well deserved... the early one were great. I had a AUD$65 Tasco (Japan) that did its time on a .223, .22RF, 10.75x68, 45/70, 458WM and HW80 and it came through with flying colours ... stupid me sold it with the 458WM.
Currently have a cheap Nikko-Stirling 2-7x on the HW80. I wanted to test Nikkos warranty as the HW80 is a scope killer. Damn scope is still going after almost a year of magnum springer use!
Many years ago an Aussie gunwriter tested scope mounts to distruction on a 458WM, many failed and sheared, but the Tasco WorldClass 3-9X survived it all.
The cheap scopes dont offer the clarity of the better scopes, but when cash is tight, many do their job quite well.
Cheers...
Con

I think that the main problem with guys who buy cheap scopes is that they will spend thousands on a brand new quad, or hundreds of dollars on high tech laser range finders and clothing but wont shell out the dough for a good scope which can be had for about 300 bucks. Kind of the same mentality with useing cheap bullets, we have all heard it " regular bullets have been killing them for many years" yet that extra dollar for a good bullet can mean the difference between success and failure, go figure.

I buy a number of used sporters and almost all seem to come with inexpensive scopes, usually 3X9 variables. Some I mount on .22"s I'm not going to shoot alot, some get given away and some just get tossed. The Weaver K series is my default scope. I asked a local dealer what He woukd recomend for someone on a tight budget and He quickly replied " a Tasco World Class, I sell tons of them and the're verry trouble free". I don't know what the answer is, but I do know not everyone can squeeze that extra hundred dollars for an upgrade.........Essex

The real problem with cheaper scopes, and why I don't care for them, is not necessarily lousy construction or falling apart. I think the concensus is that any scope can fall apart. It's the piss poor optics.

I varmint hunt a lot, and when conditions get bad, and you have to shoot into the sunnyside etc etc you NEED the good glass to relocate your target after the bins, and you need the contrast to see the target and take the shot. Flare, etc are uncomfortable conditions that are avoided or mitigated by the best optics. Some of the cheaper scopes are OK in perfect conditions, but I'm not always there. In fact, it seems like I'm never there!

Why jeopardize a hunt with a cheap scope?

Wow! I surly wouldn't want to say somthing about open sites now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I would like to find out more about the new Simmons scopes before I would bash them.

264bore:
I don�t think that people who buy cheap scopes, (apparently, under 300 bucks) have a problem, any more than I can accept that they shell out hundreds of dollars on quads, high tech lazar range finders, etc. Why would anyone who is budget minded overspend in any area?

Perhaps they�ve discovered that some of the, Under 300 bucks, scopes are as good or better, than some more expensive ones, OR that they are reliable and adequate, at least, in their own experience. As to ones choice of bullet, obviously premium bullets are not always warranted.

That said, it IS logical to expect a more expensive scope to be of better quality, both in view and reliability. If someone is willing and able to pay for that perception, fine and dandy. Buy the best you can, or want, to afford, but why castigate someone who isn�t?

Shucks, next you�ll want to put a price level on the pickup trucks we drive to our huntin spots, and for all I know, you could be usin Cheap Boots. go figure.
Good optics, and good shootin
Smitty of the North

One good scope can be had for less than one months truck payment and you will have it fo 20 years. I agree with 264Bore on this one.
People will lay down $40k on a new truck, $8k on a quad, and $80 on a scope that could make or break a hunt.

Most people who buy expensive German optics just do so for status, because they think they can buy skill instead of practicing, and are unable to judge for themselves the quality of optics, much less the value for money spent. You see the same thing with duffers buying $3,000 sets of custom golf clubs, and beginning shotgunners buying $10,000 Berettas for their first gun.

Only the best shooters can utilize the advantages of a Perazzi, or a 1/2 MOA hunting rifle, or $1500 sights. Very few people get to the point that their equipment is holding them back.

Lee24,

I could not agree with you more. When I bought my binocs, I started at the most expensive comparing two side by side outside the store. Each time I asked the salesman to get me the next one while I kept the better one in my hand to compare next. I ended up buying Nikon.

When I purchased the last scope I did the same thing. Positively the LPS beat the Swaros and the Liecas. And to my surprise so did the Sightron II. I saved hundreds and installed the Sightron II.

Aaahh, nuts. It goes no further than this:

The more it costs, the better it is.
The more you spend, the better you are.

Done.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I don't have truck payments infact I drive a 1976 Ford F-250 new from head to toe.My quad is a 1988 Yamaha Big Bear and I wear clothes for hunting just like I did logging-From the Army/Navy store for the wool factor and they work in 5-feet of snow.

I envy those with money and there accomplishments but there are some of us that got struck down by the wrath of life and can't afford the nice things and have to settle for second best...I have done my time..30 years of packing into the Selway-Bitteroot of Idaho with 16 horses total and 40 years of logging before disaster hit..I may be down but I am not out!!!!!!!!!!

Take it easy on the fella's that don't have the life standard some of you do and understand they also want the high quality optics but they cannot afford them for a lot of reasons.Never say "It can't happen to me" because it can.

Jayco

Well said, Logcutter. You're still cuttin them logs down to size.
Smitty of the North

Dogcatcher:
And the worst part is, to you at least, is that they keep gettin away with it. They keep baggin those animals with those Cheap Scopes. The Shame of it all.
Smitty of the North

Hey, i am not in the rich crowd. I drive a 7 year old Toyota tacoma. Don't own a quad, and support my wife and i on one income. But i don't drink and party, don't use tobacco, and don't play golf. I don't seem to have much trouble scraping up $200 for a scope. Guess it depends how many scopes a year you are buying. Buy one a year and you are set. Buy more than one and get some Weaver V series. They are the best "cheap' scopes made. All my friends that bitch about being broke spend $4 a day on chew ($120 a month!) and go out drinking every Friday night. Guess that is why i own
leica Ultravids too. Of course my two jobs help.

Looks like we are barking up 2 different trees here.

IMHO cheap scopes used to have horrible optics, never tracked, and would break or fog quickly, while maybe holding a zero.

Those days are mostly over. What are we after in a scope?

I have all kinds. For testing ammo, I still have a Tasco 6x24 dot scope. Still going strong years later. Its not clear though. At least at dusk. But I only test ammo so who cares. It tracks well though. Well enough to swap from AR to AR to AR and be in the xring elevation wise at 600 almost every time.

On a few serious hunting rifles I have Zeiss. Because in the FIELD(not the friggin store-- how can you compare anything in a store.....you don't use them in the store do you??) they have some of the best light available for last minute shots or identification/shots(IE you are shooting the correct buck etc... not glassing) I pack Zeiss binocs for glassing also. Why? Because I stay out till its dark dark. Even if its after legal light I may find the buck I'm after and at least know I'm in the correct area.

One rifle I use for hogs sometimes. On 5X you can shoot hogs under 100 yards all nite long with only bright stars.

Some guns are simply varmint/farm guns. They get an intermediate scope and do just fine.

If I were to own only one hunting gun and was serious about hunting/ trophy hunting, I'd rather have a handi rifle and Zeiss or top line scope than a high buck rifle and leupy or less. You cannot shoot what you cannot see. On that same theory my 243s are not enough. I will also require(and have) a rifle capable of taking that last second shot on the south end of a north bound trophy and with the knowledge the bullet will penetrate totally and bury itself in the dirt past the animal.

So I'd say you need to, or can, correlate the use with the choice. FWIW on serious guns the leupys that everyone brags on are not good enough for me. And on lots of intermediate guns, are not required for the job at hand.

And nope I'm not in the rich crowd either. I have all both ends of the line of scopes. Have seen (and mentioned many times) failures of almost all scope brands. Particularly Simmons but I'm' up to try one again soon enough. I drive a used truck. I don't make much money(certainly can't support the wife on my salary alone and she doesn't require much), don't have the time for a second job(wished I did), drive a used jeep and 4 wheeler but both are so used that neither runs right now. I don't drink, or chew etc... I still find it hard to scrape up 200-300 every so often to drop a mid priced scope on every rifle.

Depends on what we are all after. Heck most hunting days I see folks leaving their stands so early or getting there so late in the morning one of the old Kmart 4x 3/4 inch 22 tubes could do all you need done.

Its a good thread though- but I'm remiss to demand that there is no other scope than Zeiss or Tasco on anything in between. Oh and theres still that Tasco on a buddy's Barret 50 bmg-- still going strong-- but supposedly built for the 50 also. Sure is easy to hit a 55 gal drum out to 1600-1800 yards with it. And it tracks super. (whats fun with that gun is time of flight calcs. If it says 4.5 seconds you can count in your head and see the impact when it says its coming- pretty neat)

FWIW next on the list is a pair of Leicas to replace the Zeiss binocs.... I have a specific use for them so they are worth it and have superior optics to any other binocs I've seen so far. And on the other hand, ordering a Simmons( I'm shuddering too) 6X to torture test on a 50 beowulf for grins(cause I don't have the extra smack for the leupy that I want-or better for that matter)

Jeff

Jeff

I just got back from a day at the range,trying to sight back in the back-up 30.06 for the 300 Savage practice load.I did a lot of muttering "Why the h*** can't 1/4 MOA click really mean 1/4" instead of one inch at 100?" At least if I didn't touch the knobs the holes touched,this time.Maybe there is something to that German glass.

I see it all the time,the big new quad,and a Parker-Hale and a Tasco.The kicker is,we have antler restrictions.

But having a highly recommended scope doesn't always work either,my perfect deer rifle sat at home this season because of a scope failure at the pre-season check.Thus the back-up 30.06 spent the season afield.