Fella's;
This thread is prompted by another here that asks about scope failures. Rather than get side-tracked there, I thought I'd put out my opinion on glass that costs at or under $200.00.
I've had surprisingly good glass that wasn't too expensive and I've also experienced absolute trash at virtually the same price point from another source. Couple that with many negative stories related here & on other forums about the first example & I can only conclude that it's somewhat of a lottery. Your odds of getting a good one increase as you near the top end of my arbitrary cap it seems. In other words, there are extremely few true bargains in shooting optics, you do get what you pay for. There are, of course, exceptions.
When I had my Ruger 77/22, I bought it with the idea that it was going to be my long-term high class rimfire gun. After spending the money on it, I then bought what had been touted to me as excellent glass to put on it, a Burris 3-9X rimfire A/O in silver, to match the stainless gun. That scope got sent back to Burris, then an American company, in very short order. The complaints being that it took two men and a boy to turn the A/O on the objective bell, and the eye placement in the ocular bell was ridiculously critical. It was returned with a note that all was within specification & there were no problems with it.
I then bought a Simmons Whitetail 4-12X & put on the gun. As far as I'm concerned, I got twice the glass for half the money. I then gave the Burris away to another family member. He also mounted it on a .22 rimfire, and the reticle flopped over. I'm very impressed with Burris. Understand though that it's a negative impression.
On another .22 rimfire, some few years later, I wanted to try the mil-dot system & put a Tasco rimfire mil-dot on the gun. I think I paid something like $70.00 for the scope. I lived with the combination for about a year & never did become satisfied with either the gun or scope. And I put a fair amount of work into the gun trying to get decent accuracy out of it. The glue globs residing in the objective bell on the edge of the lens kinda put me off the scope to begin with, and then the return to zero on the turret adjustments was not good. Separated them & sold both. Both the guy who bought the gun and the guy who bought the scope told me years later that they were both happy with the items. I do note that both of them relayed the items on to their respective sons.
My latest cheap scope effort is a Nikon 3-9X so-called rimfire target scope. Huh! As far as I'm concerned target scopes do not have .5" adjustment increments at 100 yards. Target scopes frequently have 1/8th inch adjustments at 100 yards. Just because it's a "rimfire" scope shouldn't mean that coarse adjustments are acceptable. My fault, didn't do the research. In my defense though I stopped in an LGS in a different town that was running a pretty good special price on the thing. Typical Nikon optics, the glass is outstanding for the money, but it's been relegated to a grouse gun where 25 yard shots are about at the extreme far range. The Nikon replaced a Sightron 3-9X rimfire that I gave to my son-in-law. Far better glass, but that adjustment thing still gravels me.
My primary small varmint .22 rimfire wears Nikon Monarch glass, I learnt my lesson.
900F
This thread is prompted by another here that asks about scope failures. Rather than get side-tracked there, I thought I'd put out my opinion on glass that costs at or under $200.00.
I've had surprisingly good glass that wasn't too expensive and I've also experienced absolute trash at virtually the same price point from another source. Couple that with many negative stories related here & on other forums about the first example & I can only conclude that it's somewhat of a lottery. Your odds of getting a good one increase as you near the top end of my arbitrary cap it seems. In other words, there are extremely few true bargains in shooting optics, you do get what you pay for. There are, of course, exceptions.
When I had my Ruger 77/22, I bought it with the idea that it was going to be my long-term high class rimfire gun. After spending the money on it, I then bought what had been touted to me as excellent glass to put on it, a Burris 3-9X rimfire A/O in silver, to match the stainless gun. That scope got sent back to Burris, then an American company, in very short order. The complaints being that it took two men and a boy to turn the A/O on the objective bell, and the eye placement in the ocular bell was ridiculously critical. It was returned with a note that all was within specification & there were no problems with it.
I then bought a Simmons Whitetail 4-12X & put on the gun. As far as I'm concerned, I got twice the glass for half the money. I then gave the Burris away to another family member. He also mounted it on a .22 rimfire, and the reticle flopped over. I'm very impressed with Burris. Understand though that it's a negative impression.
On another .22 rimfire, some few years later, I wanted to try the mil-dot system & put a Tasco rimfire mil-dot on the gun. I think I paid something like $70.00 for the scope. I lived with the combination for about a year & never did become satisfied with either the gun or scope. And I put a fair amount of work into the gun trying to get decent accuracy out of it. The glue globs residing in the objective bell on the edge of the lens kinda put me off the scope to begin with, and then the return to zero on the turret adjustments was not good. Separated them & sold both. Both the guy who bought the gun and the guy who bought the scope told me years later that they were both happy with the items. I do note that both of them relayed the items on to their respective sons.
My latest cheap scope effort is a Nikon 3-9X so-called rimfire target scope. Huh! As far as I'm concerned target scopes do not have .5" adjustment increments at 100 yards. Target scopes frequently have 1/8th inch adjustments at 100 yards. Just because it's a "rimfire" scope shouldn't mean that coarse adjustments are acceptable. My fault, didn't do the research. In my defense though I stopped in an LGS in a different town that was running a pretty good special price on the thing. Typical Nikon optics, the glass is outstanding for the money, but it's been relegated to a grouse gun where 25 yard shots are about at the extreme far range. The Nikon replaced a Sightron 3-9X rimfire that I gave to my son-in-law. Far better glass, but that adjustment thing still gravels me.
My primary small varmint .22 rimfire wears Nikon Monarch glass, I learnt my lesson.
900F
