[jakk280rem]

Just bought a nef handi rifle in 280 rem. was thinking about a barska scope. tons of features at a great price. does anyone have any experience with them? how would they match up to a tasco? a luepold? burris?

[R.W.Dale]

Depending on the model Barska scopes can run the range between Junk to Crap think rebadged BSA

[kmca]

I bought one on a whim a few months ago. Mounted it on a .223 and shot it about 5 times then the reticle rotated 45 degrees. Great "lifetime" warranty though. I think it cost about $40 to send it back to them to have them fix it. I figured I'd just cut my losses and throw it away.

[RecoilRob]

I bought a Barska Swat Tactical 10-40 late last year. Knowing that it had a LOT of features for the $$$ and worried that it would be another Chinese made POC.

Out of the box, I was pleased. Nice finish, actually clear optical and the illuminated mildot reticule was neat. Slightly bothered by the lack of weight....I know, light should be good but compared to a similar cost Super Sniper, well, there was NO comparison. The SS seemed built to a MUCH higher level, and I think they are.

Anyhow, I started running the elevation turret through its' range counting clicks to verify the amount of adjustment available and ran into my first problem. When I got to the bottom of the adjustment the knob started spinning and would not turn the elevator any more..up or down.

Found that the screws holding the knob to the elevator were not tightened properly..no problem. Tightened them up and continued clicking and counting. Then found a serious problem...the elevation only had 47min of adjustment instead of the 100 that it was supposed to have.

Long story short, they had the 1/4min per click elevator installed instead of the 1/8min that it was supposed to have. Alerted the Barska factory reps and they checked and found that ALL the scopes to that date had the wrong elevators installed. I suppose someone was VERY unhappy over in China but the scope was of no use to me with it being the way it was.

One other problem was the side focus knob only had ONE of its' three locking screws installed and was loose and wobbly. Scope went back for a refund as there were NO scopes in the supply chain that had the right elevators in them and it was going to be several months before they could correct the problem.

The fellows I talked to at Barska seemed very interested in offering a quality product and were upset with the problem I uncovered. Apparantly, they had been wrong from the get-go and no one had caught it.

This presented an opportunity to see the Company in action as they resolved the problems with that particular scope line. I was expecting a recall and removal of all the scopes (that they KNEW were defective) from the supply chain..which is what a company truely interested in quality would have done...but they didn't do it.

I guess they figured that most people wouldn't check the elevation range and just zero and forget it. Strange that something promoted as "Swat Tactical" wouldn't stand someone actually checking it out. Yes, NO Swat team would ever use such a cheap scope in a professional setting. I was just going to play with it but it still galls me that it wasn't what they said it was and didn't pull the ones that they KNEW weren't what they said they were.

Long story short.....no more Barskas for me. Just another cheap Chinese scope.

[Sodbuster]

http://www.opticstalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1610&KW=chart&PN=0&TPN=3

Chris at SWFA has developed (or tbone did?) a rating system for scopes. Of course, it is subjective and YMMV. This is an old list, so Barska isn't even on it. But according to conventional and opticsforum wisdom, Barska ranks right there with BSA and Tasco. NcStar is another to be wary of.

[jakk280rem]

thanks for the info guys. sounds like a pos that i want to avoid. the nef i need a scope for isnt deserving of an expensive scope, so maybe ill just stick to a luepold vxii on sale. the corporate office is 20mi up the road, maybe ill see if they have a factory store.

[taliv]

while that's to be expected with a scope like that, a friend of mine purchased one of the highest-magnification tactical models and has several hundred rounds under it now from an AR15 with no issues whatsoever.

so, there are good ones out there.

[cheaptrick]

Barska sent me a Ridgeline 3-9 to review and comment on.

Glass was substandard.
Burris FFII or Nikon Buckmaster is better.

Tested waterproofing by submerging the scope in water for 6 hours.
Failed..... I have to send it back because theres water on the inside of the lenses.

The only really good quality about this scope was it's adjustments.
Great clicks!! Accurate and very repeatable.