BSA Sweet scopes good or bad

[lipadj46]

Lipad, the Team Primos looks like a great deal but the only problem is the power....... I would settle for 10 at the lowest but would really like to go even higher, stupid stigmatism.....

The problem with the cheap scopes are at high magnification they really can get terrible to look through. Having an eye problem does not help either but don't you wear corrective lenses? I have an astigmatism but my glasses correct for it.

Honestly if you want a cheap scope go for it but don't pay $135 for a BSA. Get something that has a disposable price so if it breaks it's not so terrible. One guy here swears by centerpoints but I don't know myself. Pretty much the Chinese scopes all come from a small handful of factories anyways so they might as well be sold under the same brand name.

 

[Ghost Tracker]

Hey, this is supposed to be The HIGH Road.

Be careful...The scope snobs who would never buy nor have ever owned one one will sure have plenty to say about them...

Help me undertand. Asking a question or two (re: rifle & budget) makes me a "scope snob"? Yep, it's absolutely true that I haven't ever (nor will ever) buy, own or use a BSA scope. That's only because I'm OLD. I've thrown-away considerable money trying to save a dollar or two. So I've earned the knowledge for which I've paid & now share. If the OP was glassing-up a cheap, inaccurate rifle then...who cares what he buys? But his Savage isn't just a good value, it's a great rifle. Great rifles deserve (at least-good) optics. Nobody is suggesting he go buy a Schmidt & Bender, but then again, Savage Arms isn't Dakota Arms. With all due repect to whatever you choose to buy & shoot -

"the bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten"
quote by Aldo Gucci

 

[bessemerbob]

OK, my 2 factors.....6*18*40 or up, and around the $200 mark..... If not Ill be waiting along time to get something in the 400-500 range...

 

[pat86323]

i will have to respectfully disagree with all of these people. I have a bsa 3-9x40 on my savage 270 which is a backup hunting rifle. While it isnt nearly as nice as the leupold that i have on my 7mag it is a fine scope for the money. I carried that 270 for 5 years over hill and over dale and the scope held zero and did its job. Ive had bushnells and tascos and i would gladly trade either of those brands for a bsa. The only other suggestion that i might make is if i remember correctly wal mart had a nikon line that wasnt too terribly pricey and nikon makes some good optics. So what im saying is if you need a scope now get the bsa if you think it will fit your needs. If you can afford to wait it out for a while step into a leupold.....you wont regret it.

 

[jon_in_wv]

Be careful...The scope snobs who would never buy nor have ever owned one one will sure have plenty to say about them...

Its funny how several guys have jumped on this statement. He didn't mention a name guys. Are you self-identifying yourselves as scope snobs????

I also think it was a fair statement. Anytime you bring up BSA, Simmons, Tasco, KelTec, Centerpoint, or anything else on the lower end of the price point there are always a bunch of keyboard professors who show up who never had one but they know everything about them. THE HIGH ROAD way of doing it is to give your opinion, hopefully an informed one, and leave the the personal issues alone. (and don't be so sensitive.)

That being said, I have no real experience with the BSAs but a friend of mine, who was a Marine Sniper, surprised me the other day when I asked him to recommend a scope for me and he recommended the BSA sweet scopes. HUH?!?!? I ended up buying a Millett TRS-1. I think you do get what you pay for and a 150 dollar BSA didn't seem like as good of a deal as a 300 dollar Millet. I did buy a Centerpoint Adventure Class for my Romanian M69 and it seems decent enough for that job. I wouldn't have paid 150 for it though.

 

[unlearned69]

While I don't have one any longer, I've used 4 BSA's. A buddy had a BSA Platinum 8-32x44 on a 10/22 that he couldn't get to zero. I'm trying to talk him out of it to send it in to get it fixed. He took it off and put a Sweet 22 on it that works great. I also had a Sweet 22 on a Ruger that worked well. He and I both have 17's with Sweet 17's. Both have excellent accuracy. That said, the optics are slightly yellow in mine with thick crosshairs. The clicks are not even or repeatable on mine, but once set it was fine. The bullet drop compensation worked well for both of us. I chose to take it off and replace it with a Leupold Rifleman. While not the best optic in it's price range, if you get a good one it will work well. You may have to send it back right out of the box, or you may have to a year down the line. They have a lifetime warranty. You may need it, but of course you may need the warranty for a Leupold too.

 

[JWarren]

Hey, this is supposed to be The HIGH Road.

FACT:


There is NOTHING "High Road" about holding back your opinion of a piece of EQUIPMENT.

If a person gets offended over criticism of a piece of freakin' equipment, they'd be better off trying to figure out why they have invested so much of their self-worth in an ITEM.

If you think not giving your honest assessment of a piece of equipment is "High Road," I'd rather talk to a few "Low Roaders" that will potentially save me several hundred in mistakes.

Among the cheaper brands, I've OWNED:

BSA
Tasco
Simmons
Leapers
BEC


I was the Poster Boy for trying to buy cheap.

If I were talking about owners of cheaper optics, I'd be talking about ME. I can't see how that would make it not "High Road."


I cring when I see someone defend a piece of EQUIPMENT by evoking "The High Road."


By the way... I finally realized that I could have bought another Leupold Mark IV with the money I literally threw in the trashcan in the form of excessively cheap scopes...


-- John

 

[deerhunter61]

BSA...any scopes starting with those letters....BAD!

 

[missouriman]

I have a bsa sweet 223 and i love it its the 6x one , I can get shot holes touching with it , i use it for coyote hunting , the only thing bad about it is the turret cap or what ever its called , I just took it off and its great. I have 2 more on their way

 

[Uncle Mike]

but then again, Savage Arms isn't Dakota Arms.

Thank you God!!!

hehehehe...as for the BSA line of fine optics....there is cheap, and then there is cheap!
BSA aint going to win any Bavarian optic competition but if the man wants a cheap scope, and the BSA has all the bells and whistles he needs for the money he is willing to spend, well...

Read carefully the following, it is the best advice one could give....

I finally realized that I could have bought another Leupold Mark IV with the money I literally threw in the trashcan in the form of excessively cheap scopes...

Thank you JWARREN.

 

[P.B.Walsh]

I have a BSA 4-16 on my Rem. 700 and it's *ok*, not great, but for $100 it is good. Now I'm am buying a Falcon Menace or another similar scope.

Buy quality, buy once, buy not-so-good quality, buy twice.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Since I have sworn off of scope threads,this will be my only post. "BSA = Better Stay Away. All their stuff sucks" I guess that will be a lot of "stuff" since the company has been making "stuff" since 1861 and built the Lewis gun of WW1 fame. Generalizations usually are not wise.

 

[Txhillbilly]

I have two BSA-Sweet 22 scopes,a 6x18x40AO on a Ruger 10/22T and a 3x9x40AO on a Savage 93 22wmr. I also have a Sweet 223-6x18x40AO scope on one of my RRA AR15's with a 20" Bull barrel. I have several Nikon Monarch,Leupold,Pentax,and Mueller scopes on other rifles.

Now I will say the BSA's are a cheaper grade scope than the others,but I have never had any problems with them and can shoot just as small groups with them as I can with a $500+ dollar scope.

I personally like BSA scopes,as well as the other mfg's listed above. If you compare several different brands with the same magnification you will find some cheaper scopes will hang right in with the higher priced scopes,with the only difference being at the highest magnifications because the quality of the glass used in each scope.

It's funny that I had a $700 Leupold on my Savage 110FLP and then put a $220 Mueller on it and like/shoot it better now with a cheaper/lower quality scope.

Just buy the best scope you can afford,and enjoy shooting your gun!

 

[rangerruck]

" If it says BSA, then run away!" ... me

 

[Runningman]

You guys are going to have a real hard time convincing me BSA makes a good scope. I bought two new BSA scopes in one day for 22s. Let me say this, BSA cured me from ever buying a Chinese made scope again. Adjustments were beyond terrible and so were the groups on both scops. Replaced them both with made in Japan scopes 50 yard groups magically shrank to less than 1/2 of what I was getting with the BSA scopes.

 

[bpl]

I have a BSA Sweet 22 on a 22mag, and its not that great of a scope. I'll be replacing it eventually. I'd go with a different scope if I were to do it over again, but I'd have to spend more money. Maybe I can sell it to some sucker on gunbroker or something!

 

[cmanhome]

BSA = Better Stay Away. All their stuff sucks and has horrible quality control. Sometimes you may get a good one, but most of the time you just wind up with an expensive paperweight. Get yourself a GOOD scope.

And just how many of these terrible BSA scopes have you actually bought, owned and used, before you start judging them so badly.
cmanhome

 

[rocpyro]

Another vote for the Nikon Team Primos as the BEST scope for the money. There are not better deals elsewhere. It is a rebadged monarch(closeout since they went to 10 power scopes) and since it was popular and they already had the manufacturing set up, kept making it, calling it the team primos. SWFA has the best price on them, that's where I got mine. I have a sweet 17 BSA as well, and there is no comparison.

 

[longdayjake]

For those of you who own BSA scopes and like them, good for you. I wish that I could go back to cheap scopes on all my guns. I am the type of person that thinks like this: "If I am going to spend $150 on something I want it to be amazing. If it isn't amazing I just wasted a whole $150. If I spend $150 more I can get something much nicer." MY brain then says, $150 is too much to spend on something that is not very good. For that reason I started with a VXII after I took off the bushnell piece of junk of that came with my rifle. I have since gone up to a vxIII. I will go higher someday. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a serious varmint hunting fool. I shoot targets that are the size of a soft ball at 200-300 yards away. Sometimes I take a newcomer along to show them how fun it is. Many times they bring their deer gun topped with a "cheap" BSA or bushnell. The fun begins for me as I can spot and shoot 10 times more rockchucks in the time it takes for them to spot one. After they become amazed at how awesome a shooter I am, I trade them rifles. The very SECOND that they start looking through my scope the world suddenly becomes so much clearer!!!!! I try to look through their scope but just end up getting a headache. They are WAY too dark at those distances to see small targets. There really is a night and day difference between cheap scopes and expensive ones and I don't even buy the most expensive. That said, these same guys with those same scopes get a deer most every deer season so obviously they work for that application. For me, cheaper scopes are worthless because I can't see what I like to hunt through them. Its a simple fact.

 

[JonB]

Only BSA I have is the Sweet 22 on my Marlin 60. Hold zero and I have no complaints so far. It's a 3-9x and for small critters I found 4.5x or so to be perfect.

 

[Walkalong]

The fun begins for me as I can spot and shoot 10 times more rockchucks in the time it takes for them to spot one. After they become amazed at how awesome a shooter I am, I trade them rifles. The very SECOND that they start looking through my scope the world suddenly becomes so much clearer!!!!!

Yep, under tough conditions is where quailty/price shine. I am a cheap b******, but I won't buy a cheap scope. That inclcudes BSA, Tasco, Leapers, etc.

I have a couple of Tasco scopes, and they work fine for non demanding conditions. One is on a .22. I bought it used for $2 over 20 years ago. The other came on a 30-30, and it will be replaced soon, before I send my son hunting with it this year.

It is hard to spend the bucks on a scope, but it is worth every penny to buy at the bottom layer of good quality vs the cheap stuff.

Where that is, is another debate.

I just bought a Nikon Buckmaster 6-18 X 40 to go on a .22 Hornet. It's nice, but can not compare to my better scopes, and I kind of wish I had saved and spent more money for a better one. Once you get used to good glass, it is hard to go backwards.

 

[jordan1948]

I put a sweet .223 on my Mini-14 but haven't really been able to try it out yet. btw I got mine at midawayusa.com for like $40 when they were on sale.

 

[Bwana John]

Ive got a 4-12X40 AO BSA scope on my 77/22 stainless target model. I got it for about $100.

It does hold its zero, and the adjustments are repeatable.

BUT the optics are crap

 

[dubbleA]

I have a 6-18X BSA mounted on a 17HMR NEF Sportster, and it's just awesome. Target turrets, adjustable objective and clear optics make this $120 scope a bargin. I havent had any problems with making long shots on crows.

 

[dagger dog]

The Savage you bought will definitley out shoot most BSA scopes , you buy what you can afford at the time. Stay away from the 32 and 24 power variables in the BSA, the exit pupil is very small and cranked up to that power they get very dark.

Simmons Pro Hunter in 4X12X42 with side focus parralax < $175. is a bit clearer, and if you can save the extra 115$ you can upgrade to a Burris 4.5X14X42 AO and it comes with a spotter or binocular, check out Natchez they have both.

Bushnell has several scopes in the 200$ range that are as good as any BSA.