Optics Hall of Shame

[natedog]

What are the absolute worse scopes that you've used?

[444]

BSA

[TechBrute]

Ditto to BSA

[C.R.Sam]

Tritto BSA

Sam

[TechBrute]

Can I jump back in for a forth vote for BSA? I get two votes because I made the mistake of trying their one of red dots after throwing away the 3-9x I had. I hope someone learns from my mistakes.

[WonderNine]

Ok BSA, got it. Any others? :D

[Daniel Flory]

BSA and Tasco. Some Tascos are servicable, many are not. All BSAs stink. Any of that NC Star Chinee crap is not worth money either.

[Detritus]

Worst scope i've ever owned????

this is gonna make some purists scream :D:evil:

A Weaver!!! a K4 to be exact

found it on sale at a "going out of business" sale in some shop near Wilson, NC.

think it must have been made by a disgruntled worker on a friday, during one of the periods where Weaver was getting passed around between Companies like an ugly baby witha soiled diaper!!!

thing seemed to lose it's zero if i fired more than 5 rounds in a row, bumped the rifle getting it in or out of tha case, or even left it alone for longer than 10 mins! fogged up a week after i got it, and was in alomost all ways a total and complete piece of "fecal material".

not exactly the best $40 bucks i've ever spent.....

(but then again it was a weaver and it was $40....)

[hksw]

Certainly BSA (Chinese) is very poor IMO, at least the non-Cat's Eye (have one sample) but BEC (also Chinese) beats it by a long shot for being the poorest (also have one sample). Not only in optics but also in overall quality, not that BSA is a quality scope. No more Chinese scopes for me.

[Dave Markowitz]

The RWS 4x28mm scope that came with my RWS Model 34BC. What a piece of ca-ca. Lousy light transmission and small exit pupil.

[OEF_VET]

I bought a Simmons Red Dot for mounting on my M-4 before deploying to Kosovo. It couldn't stand up to anything even closely resembling abuse. The power/brightness knob was so loosely threaded that it would turn itself on every time it brushed up against anything, which is unavoidable when you're an RTO on a patrol. Eventually, it worked itself so loose that it became impossible to turn it off. The battery ended up dying really quickly, but not before I took it off my weapon and remounted the carrying handle. The paint on it also came off really easily, exposing the shiny, bare metal underneath. Another no-no while on patrol.

I've got a BSA Red Dot which use to be on my Universal M-1 Carbine and is now on my SKS. I haven't zeroed it on the SKS yet, but it worked fine on the M-1. Once it was zeroed, it was pretty accurate and maintained its' zero. Of course, neither of these weapons are/were 'working' weapons, i.e. no patrols, combat missions, etc., so I don't expect to be abusing them too much. The SKS does serve as my back-up SHTF rifle, and if the BSA did begin to let me down, it would quickly be tossed aside.

Frank

[BigG]

I just buy Leupold and forget about trying to find sompin cheaper. To beat a Leupold, it's gonna have to be Euro, hard to pronounce, and cost minimum double or treble of a Vari X III.

[Hutch]

Looper POS AR-15 Colt-clone wannabe. Makes a BSA look like Schmidt & Bender. El Sucko Maximo.

[Dave P]

What do yall think about the BSA?

[zahc]

I just buy Leupold and forget about trying to find sompin cheaper. To beat a Leupold, it's gonna have to be Euro, hard to pronounce, and cost minimum double or treble of a Vari X III.


Wise words.

[Schuey2002]

Tasco. I've haven't had the misfortune of owning a BSA.. :uhoh:

[444]

Tasco is certainly not what I would call a quality scope or optic. But, I have used a few over the years and they never failed. I actually have two Tascos in use right now and both are working fine. One is a "Super Sniper" mounted on a 24" AR15 Varmiteer and the other is a red dot pistol optic mounted on a Ruger Mk.II. Years ago in a financial bind I purchased a 3-9 Tasco, mounted it on an '06 and used it to hunt with for two years. Took a deer and an elk with that set-up. Again, I certainly wouldn't buy one if I could afford better, and I am certainly not going to replace any of my Leupolds with a Tasco, but if it is all you can afford, my experience is that they will work (not fog, hold zero etc.)

[martin]

Tascos aren't the worst in the lot. My dad bought one in the 60s - when Japanese anything was comparable to Chinese anything nowadays - and I still use it on a beater .22.

I have also had good luck with American Optical/Bushnell. I prefer Leupold on my pricier pieces.

[DougCxx]

The BSA 2X pistol field scope has an eye relief of about eight inches, when it should be about twice that. With a pistol held at arm's length, the view pincusions badly. Other than that it would be okay. --Note: mine's on a .17HMR so it is hardly taking any pounding. I tried it because there was a Tasco at $150, and some others at $250-$300-$400, and I wouldn't be able to afford any of them for a while. The BSA works, but not real well.
.....
The cheap $30 30mm BSA red dot works just fine though, at least on rimfire arms. It has its own weaver mounts "built-in" too, so you don't need additional rings. If you ever wanted to try a red-dot but don't want to jump in the expen$ive end of the pool, the BSA is the way to go.
~

[444]

Be careful about what you put the BSA red dot on. Rimfires may work fine, I don't know, but that would be my limit.
I have a friend that believes in the free lunch. Dispite being burned countless times he falls for this low budget stuff all the time. Several years ago, he called me and asked me what I thought about buying a BSA red dot for something like $15 and putting it on a S&W .41 mag revolver. I advised him against it in rather strong terms. Of course he bought it anyway. I happened to be out at the range when he drove up with his wife and son to try out his new red dot. On the fourth shot the sight completely came apart with pieces flying off onto the ground. Since his wife and kid were there I had to do everything I could not to burst out laughing. He was really POed about it and was going to write letters and make phone calls. :rolleyes:
Riflescopes are precision optical instruments. In addition they have to be made to withstand the shock of dropping them, bangs, and bumps not to mention recoil while still providing repeatable adjustment, clear vision, and good light transmission. No matter how nice it would be, you simply can not get a precision optical instrument for $30, $50, or even $100. Furthermore, spending money on these throw away optics is just sucking up money that could have been saved to buy something worthwhile. I am not above any of this. Over the years I have purchased a half dozen or more cheap riflescopes. Every time I was severely disappointed and about half the time the scope failed completely. I thought I was saving money. I thought I was beating the system by getting something for nothing. In the end I could have bought one good scope for what I spent on all the POS that I wasted my money on.

[Smoke]

I'll jump on the BSA BAshing Bandwagon.

I bought one....loved it. Held zero, was clear, good controls. So I bought two more. I was happy.

Then the second one I had purchased broke. On a 22-250. Ok, one bad one, it can happen. Then the other two broke about 2 months later and within 2 weeks of each other.

Anybody want to buy some cheap used scopes. I still have one that seems to be working fine. It came on a used rifle I bought and I used it to replace a tasco on my 10/22. It works but I just know any day it will give up.

If your dead set on cheap scopes I've had better luck with Simmons than BSA or Tasco (Super Sniper excluded)

[Futo Inu]

The Simmons of the "Blazer" variety I have seems pretty damn crappy - Terrible exit pupil. The 2 BSAs I had both looked good and had nice features and decent enough optics, but one of them had the turret knob break apart within 4 month's use, such that it cannot be adjusted any longer (without repairing first). The other one I sold but had been happy with it - however I'd never shot it on a high-recoiling gun; only rimfire. The Cat's Eye version BSAs on a rimfire should be a decent value scope that should hold up. Leapers seem to be pretty marginal too, but hey look at the price...I've heard it reported elsewhere that certain Tascos can be quite nice, and now, since Bushnell has purchased Tasco, you get a quality Bushnell warranty and QC in all Tascos.

and Frodo, I'm glad you brought that up - I need to know - was that a model 300 or 350 RWS? I've heard decent things about the 300 and not good things about the 350.

[Mike Irwin]

Simmons.

Worst scopes I've ever had to deal with.

Even the BSAs I've used are a bit better.

[martin]

I forgot about those pieces of feces. I tried to give one away for the cost of shipping and had no takers. Threw it away.

[Okiecruffler]

I had a Blazer red dot that worked real well on my SKS, then for grins I put it on my Yugo mauser. Should have just hit it with a hammer, would have saved me a trip to the range. But what would you expect from a $30 red dot, and to be fair that mauser has also retired a nice TC 4X scope that I paid a bit more than $30 for. Funny, it didn't do any harm to the NcStar 2X I had on it for awhile. Now that scope is on my .357 Contender and still going strong. Just got one for my .44mag barrel So we'll see if that first one was just a fluke.

[larryw]

Tasco Optima. First one lasted about 100 rounds before it died. Second one didn't even make it through a box of ammo. Fortunately Natchez (great company!!) refunded my money. That gun has now worn a DoctorSight for over 30K rounds with nary a hiccup or battery change.

Had both good and bad experience with Simmons. Was leery of the rep, but the price was so good that I couldn't lose. So I put one of their Minimag rimfire scopes on my son's CZ Scout: small size fits the youth rifle perfectly and the scope works like a charm. Very clear and bright, and surprisingly repeatable tracking. Durable enough that a seven-year-old hasn't been able to kill it.

After that experience, I got brave and bought another one ($24.99) to help with load development for a lever gun. For the strangest reason, none of the loads would group worth a darn from the bench, but they sure shot nice offhand using open sights. Turns out the scope went stupid about the time the second round went down the pipe. My son sure enjoyed dissecting that one with a Dremel cutting wheel and learning what made them tick: worth every penny. :D

[Dr.Rob]

Never had to replace a Tasco. Still use one on my hunting rifle.

Have had two weavers and one redfield go south on me. Everytime it was that the scopes lost airtightness, fogged up.

Worst scope I ever tried to use was a really cheap simmons on my cousin's "package gun" a Win model 70 ranger, the clicks didn't seem to have much to do with adjusting point of impact. One click = nothing. 3 clicks = nothing 5 clicks = 3 inches of movement. Took forever to zero the scope.

[Jaywalker]

Regarding the Tascos, I think they started out very well (to gain a good reputation) then changed country of manufacturer to someplace much cheaper to save money. It sounds like BSA skipped Phase ! and went straight to Phase 2. :)

Jaywalker

[Black Snowman]

Leapers, BEC. Haven't owned either. Bad luck with Simions. Toasted 1 Tasco (I'll forgive it, it was on a .50 AE DE).

Bang for the buck I like Bushnell and . . . BSA. Yes they're cheap. But I have them on realtively light recoiling guns. Not rimfires but they seem to be holding up well. For the money I don't think you can beat the optics on the BSA as for durability, well. I haven't had one fail yet but that's not saying I trust em, just I know I'll have gotten my money's worth by the time they do ;)

[444]

I don't know the history of Tasco, but they had been around for a very long time. I know when I was a kid, a friend of mine's dad had a Tasco scope on his .250 Savage. He took it off and mounted it on my buddies 10/22. This was like 30 years ago. As far as I know, he is still using the scope today.

[4v50 Gary]

I've a couple of Tascos but I put them on 22 or .223 (AR) so they've held up to the "severe" use associated with those calibers.

The worse optic was a Swift spotting scope. It saw double and when I sent it back, they fixed it and then it went back to double. Leupold graces all my better or more serious guns. I've a couple of other, but most of my scopes are Leupolds. Made right here in the USA.

[SodaPop]

The ones that come with the $25 SKS mounts.:uhoh:


I've had good luck with scopes. Out of about 15 rifle scopes I've owned, I've only had one Simmons and 2 BEC scopes break. All of them were used.

I pretty much use Leupold and Sightron scopes these days.