Grey poupon scopes

[WTM]

cheap scopes do ok on not so hard recoiling rifles. cheap i mean the 50-100 dollar range. i dont like chinese scopes. IMHO, right now the best scope that wont break the bank is the sightron s2 series(200 bucks), even better the big sky series(but then again you can get a zeiss conquest for 50 bucks more.)

to my eyes the s2 is as good as a varixIII, the big sky is not too far from a conquest. (in my opinion, the s2 will track a whole lot better than the vxIII, but the glass is about the same.)a lot of folks are buying the s2's up, they are almost always back ordered. which is bad, cause the price will go up. i bought one from optics planet, and a month later they had already raised the price 45 bucks.

there target scopes are catching on too, read the reviews from 6mmbr:
http://www.6mmbr.com/optics.html

 

[4onaside]

It occurs to me a possible reason on why economy optics are OK with me, and unsatisfactory to many of you. I am farsighted and can see like an eagle at distance without glasses, even as an old man. How many of you wear glasses for distance? Maybe that's a difference?

 

[Tiny]

It occurs to me a possible reason on why economy optics are OK with me, and unsatisfactory to many of you. I am farsighted and can see like an eagle at distance without glasses, even as an old man. How many of you wear glasses for distance? Maybe that's a difference?

You may be on to something there but it doesn't fit for me.

One thing has proved right over the years as you go up in $ in a companys product line the optics get sharper an clearer.

 

[Cull Buck Hunter]

I usually stay with a Nikon Prostaff or Buckmaster or the Bushnell 3200 series, all good mid level scopes. The difference for me is the clarity of glass and light transmission, the cheaper scopes that I have hunted with tend too fail at the worst time and in the worst conditions. I have went home more than once with a scope that was fogged up on the inside and I decided to put a stop to that even if it means having less guns/scopes ,but the ones that I kept were of better a quality.

 

[JimFromTN]

I have to agree with WTM, sightron scopes are a great scope for the money. Its a sleeper brand that not everyone has heard much about. I have 2 sightron scopes which I got great deals on because they were on clearance. I got an SII for $175 that normally sells for $300 and I got an SIII for $300 that usually sells for $550. I also have a nikon monarch gold that I have on a 300 win mag and a B&L 4000 on a 7mm mag. If you want to sink thousands on a hunt and gamble on a simmons or a tasco, thats your business. I might buy a lottery ticket now and then but I don't gamble with that kind of money.

 

[JimFromTN]

It occurs to me a possible reason on why economy optics are OK with me, and unsatisfactory to many of you. I am farsighted and can see like an eagle at distance without glasses, even as an old man. How many of you wear glasses for distance? Maybe that's a difference?

If you want to compare it to glasses, put a tasco or a simmons up along side a monarch, vxII, or ziess. Its like comparing an old scatched up pair of glasses with an out of date perscription to a brand new pair of glasses with a new perscription. You can get by with those old glasses but things sure are allot clearer with the new ones.

 

[LCU]

Hunt 1 week with a 100 scope.
Then hunt one week with a VX-III.

The diff is huge. You just have to try it yourself.

I bought an Omega ML with a Nikon Omega scope.
After rifle hunting with a VX-III, to my eyes, the Nikon Omega glass is so poor. It's coming off after ML season opens,and I am buying a better scope.
Luepold, or a Sightron.

 

[BGobbler]

those big bucks come out right at dark if you want to see the difference take a cheap scope and a vari x III or Nikon Monarch look at the difference in light transmission right about dark heck with a very high end scope you could hunt off the moon light.

 

[4onaside]

I have to agree with WTM, sightron scopes are a great scope for the money. Its a sleeper brand that not everyone has heard much about. I have 2 sightron scopes which I got great deals on because they were on clearance. I got an SII for $175 that normally sells for $300 and I got an SIII for $300 that usually sells for $550. I also have a nikon monarch gold that I have on a 300 win mag and a B&L 4000 on a 7mm mag. If you want to sink thousands on a hunt and gamble on a simmons or a tasco, thats your business. I might buy a lottery ticket now and then but I don't gamble with that kind of money.

Well, I don't spend "that kind of money" whatever "that kind of money" is. You can do just as well with DIY hunts in the west, that is if you are a "serious hunter", a term that you used previously, and I am, if you call doing your homework and your legwork a "serious hunter". Ain't any bigger "gamble" with practical glass than that which costs, IMO, obscene prices, that is, if you are a hunter, and not just a shooter, or a would be hunter/shooter in some cases. I have "graduated" up to a Nikon pro-staff at $116 on Ebay(the first time in my life that I have exceeded a Benny for a scope) and I have purchased a Bushnell Banner at $80 from Richard's, which also included a pair of 10 X 25 binocs. They are both very bright, good looking optics, by my standards. I just killed an antelope at considerable range with a .243 topped with a Simmons 8 point, which even by my standards is on the extreme low end, lol, because that's what was on the rifle. It is bright, the hairs are centered, the rifle hits where the hairs are indicating it should. So, I can't come up with any legitimate reason how it could have performed any better regardless of price. Logically, that is the standard by which any scope is held, and this one passed the test! Now, would I go out this afternoon and buy a Simmons 8 point. No way. Hey, I've graduated to $100 scopes! Not Grey Poupon, but I'm gettin' there! lol

 

[LCU]

Quality is subjective.

 

[JimFromTN]

I have to agree with WTM, sightron scopes are a great scope for the money. Its a sleeper brand that not everyone has heard much about. I have 2 sightron scopes which I got great deals on because they were on clearance. I got an SII for $175 that normally sells for $300 and I got an SIII for $300 that usually sells for $550. I also have a nikon monarch gold that I have on a 300 win mag and a B&L 4000 on a 7mm mag. If you want to sink thousands on a hunt and gamble on a simmons or a tasco, thats your business. I might buy a lottery ticket now and then but I don't gamble with that kind of money.

Well, I don't spend "that kind of money" whatever "that kind of money" is. You can do just as well with DIY hunts in the west, that is if you are a "serious hunter", a term that you used previously, and I am, if you call doing your homework and your legwork a "serious hunter". Ain't any bigger "gamble" with practical glass than that which costs, IMO, obscene prices, that is, if you are a hunter, and not just a shooter, or a would be hunter/shooter in some cases. I have "graduated" up to a Nikon pro-staff at $116 on Ebay(the first time in my life that I have exceeded a Benny for a scope) and I have purchased a Bushnell Banner at $80 from Richard's, which also included a pair of 10 X 25 binocs. They are both very bright, good looking optics, by my standards. I just killed an antelope at considerable range with a .243 topped with a Simmons 8 point, which even by my standards is on the extreme low end, lol, because that's what was on the rifle. It is bright, the hairs are centered, the rifle hits where the hairs are indicating it should. So, I can't come up with any legitimate reason how it could have performed any better regardless of price. Logically, that is the standard by which any scope is held, and this one passed the test! Now, would I go out this afternoon and buy a Simmons 8 point. No way. Hey, I've graduated to $100 scopes! Not Grey Poupon, but I'm gettin' there! lol

I'm not trying to get in a pi$$ing contest. If you want to risk spending your hard earned cash for a hunt and take a simmons 8 point, go for it. A nikon prostaff is a good scope for the money. It can take a beating but the glass isn't going to be the quality and clarity of glass of the more expensive scopes which is what you are sacrificing along with a little more durability. Thats totally up to you.

As for your hunt, you could have done the same thing with a $30 BSA. As a matter of fact, you could have bought a beat up rifle at a pawn shop for $100 and accomplished the same thing. I never said that its guaranteed that its going to fail. I said you were gambling and you increased your odds of failure with a cheap scope and cheap equipment. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Its just a question as to whether you want to risk, in your case, taking 10 days off of work, driving for 4 days, spending hundreds of dollars in gas, spending hundreds of dollars for licenses, and spending hundreds of dollars in other expenses to risk it all on a $80 simmons 8 point scope. I did a DIY hunt in Alaska. I still had to pay $600 for a plane ticket and $400 on a hunting license and probably another $500 in expenses. Thats what "that kind of money" is to me. In my humble opinion, if your going to spend $1500 on a hunt, its not unreasonable to spend a few hundred or more on a scope especially if you are going to spend "that kind of money" on more than one hunt in your lifetime.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

the advantage they give me is light transmission. That is very important to me.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

If you have never had one, then it is simple. You haven't experienced what you have been missing, and you have been missing out.

 

[LCU]

the advantage they give me is light transmission. That is very important to me.

agree.

 

[JimFromTN]

the advantage they give me is light transmission. That is very important to me.

agree.

absolutely

 

[4onaside]

Jim,
No p...... contest intended. Its just that apparently you and I have differing opinions on the value of a dollar, or at least on how we spend the ones that we have. I have been deer hunting since I was 26 years old, a long time ago, and I have added the western deals in recent years. You might be able to acknowledge that I don't consider using the equipment that I use any "gamble" whatsoever, because in the long years that I have been afield I have never had a scope failure that has cost me the first head of game. And, after all, isn't that the bottom line? Sure my next time out, my equipment might let me down, but it hasn't thus far, ever. There is nothing better to rely on in this life than experience. And, the more that you have the more confidence that you develop that something will work. It has for me. And, you are being overly generous on the cost of a Simmons 8 pt. You said $80. I believe the one I have cost $40. Incidentally, I am not a Simmons fan. My son also had an 8 point which fell apart on him. And the scope that I mentioned that I killed an elk with, and I discarded when I got home was also a Simmons. But I already own the one that I just used, it was on the rifle and there ain't nothin' wrong with it. That from an old man, who understands that he does not have a lot of dollars to be throwin' around. And besides, how am I gonna buy these licenses and pay for these trips for 2009 if I blow it on expensive glass? lol

 

[JimFromTN]

Its no big deal. everyone is aloud their own opinion. I have lost game due to poor optics so I have a different opinion. I have not been hunting as long as you have but I have deer hunted for over 20 years now and when I first started, there weren't nearly as many deer in the state and the limits were not nearly as liberal and every oportunity was far to precious to waste because of cheap optics so I have formed my own opinions based on my own experiences.

A quality scope is a one time investment that will last you until the end of your hunting days. You can get a Nikon Monarch 2.5-10x42 for $300 off of ebay. If you put $1 a day aside for 300 days, you could have one by late july, early August.

 

[LCU]

I dropped over 500 on the VX-III, but I don't think it should be tagged as a grey poupon scope.
You get what you pay for.

 

[JimFromTN]

I'm the same way. I have 600 in my nikon. Its about what I spent on my rifle. I consider swaro's, Doctors Optics, Zeiss Divaris, and Schmidt and Benders as grey poupon.

 

[LCU]

My Swarovski binos are hard core optics also.
No grey poupon.