NC star red-dot: Dont waste your money

[M4sherman]

So I picked up a NC star red-dot yesterday to put on my ruger to find out if the brand is any good and amazingly the thing is already busted!

Now to start off this seemed like a nice little optic for a pistol being nice and compact and very bright. it felt very sturdy and wasn't to bad on the eyes either. So I got it installed and tried to sight it in and very quickly I found I could not get the dot to go low enough for the pistol but that is the least of the problems. after about the fifth magazine the dot disappeared .so I broke it down to change the battery and one of the wires where split in half. so Now I have an expensively cheap paper weight and a lesson learned, buy the best and cry once

[Reservoir Dog]

NCStar is good for airsoft shooters..............and not much else.

[M4sherman]

yea I have found them at most gunshows so I figured it was worth a shot. who makes a good SMALL red dot scope?

[dou44]

ilike my mueller reflex red dot that i got from opticsplanet, it is holding up good on my vz58.

[M4sherman]

ahh I need something small enough for a ruger MK3

[Rightwinger]

Burris Fast Fire systems. Had one on an Remy 870 with no issues. Small enough to run on pistols but enough viewing area to run on a shotgun or rifle.

SWFA Burris Rifle Scopes Burris FastFire Red-Dot Reflex Sights

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I've had one of those $40 40mm BSA red dots for a decade and it always worked fine and held zero good. Had it on a ruger mark II for years (though it looks a little big on a mark II). But it doesn't weigh much and worked OK.

Lots of companies apparently sell exactly the same unit. Even the relatively expensive Nikon Monarch looks very similar.

This box'o'truth article shows exactly the same model I have.

Educational Zone #80 - Inexpensive Red Dot Scopes - Page 1

Cabelas has the 30mm model on sale for $19 right now--

Cabela's: BSA® .22 Red-Dot Riflescope

The last couple of years I've had that BSA on a Beretta Storm 9mm rifle and it works OK there too. It seems plenty rugged for the price.

As I get older my shooting has seemingly got worse with .22 pistol but seems about as good or slightly better with centerfire pistol.

A couple years ago I thought maybe it was the parallax error in the half-mirrored type of red dots. They are quite accurate if you can keep the red dot in the middle of the view circle. The parallax isn't bad at right-angles to the LED (vertical movement with the BSA that has the LED on the side), but the parallax is pretty bad if the dot gets near the edge in the same plane as the LED.

So I tried a smaller half-mirrored design red dot, a Konus Sight Pro Atomic Red Dot (great cheezy name).

Figgered that with a smaller 20mm red dot it would be easier to center the dot in the view. The Konus turned out to have the same parallax issue (insignificant at right angles to the LED but significant on-axis with the LED). But the LED is on the bottom rather than the side as with that BSA, so it is relatively insensitive if you let the dot drift to the right or left of the center of view, but has noticeable parallax errors if you let the dot drift toward the top or bottom of the view.

I suspect it is just a consequence of that kind of design. No problem if you can keep the dot in the middle of the display anyway. Easier to do on a rifle rather than pistol, because cheek on stock keeps the eye in a more uniform position with a rifle.

The Konus has not broken and seems to work OK, but the Mark II shooting showed no improvement. So I eventually took off the red dot and can shoot the Mark II just as poorly with the iron sights as with the red dots. I used to be able to make real tight groups with the Mark II, but no more. Thought maybe there was something wrong with the barrel crown, but magnifying glass inspections shows nothing. Maybe there is something wrong with the pistol, but probably I just can't shoot as accurate any more. Not that I was ever especially accurate, but at one time it was better.

[StPatrick]

For reflex style, the Burris FastFire is top of the line, but also runs ~200 bucks without a mount. If you'd rather try the "cry once" method, Burris or C-More are the way to go.

I've used a Sightmark MiniShot on my MkIII, and had good results; it only lost zero once, and that was during a complete detail strip, which required the use of a deadblow hammer, so...you know. If you still have the Weaver base that comes with the MkIII, you might want to check it out.

[Links2k]

I just ordered a Vortex Sparc for my 15-22. I will give you a report after I put some rounds down range. You can get them for $199 on SWFA or Midway USA. I was looking for cheap scopes and I ran across a video of the Sparc on Youtube. Impressive for a budget red dot.

[Guest BEARMAN]

My Nc star red dot scope won't hold zero. Come to think of it...the POS scope is a big freakin' ZERO! ...

[Guest Oaklands]

I guess the only way to run them out of business is for everyone to turn their's back in for a refund at the same time. You never hear anything good about them. I had 1 in the past and it was a POS just like the rest.

[DRM]

So what did NcSTAR say when you contacted them for warranty replacement?

[Jonnin]

ahh I need something small enough for a ruger MK3

My old MK II has a tru-glo (spelling?) brand. Its been on for almost a year now and still holding zero. I put about 100 rounds thru this gun a week, so its not sitting in a safe either. This model is an open (not tube) red dot sight (not a tube sight) with green and red, 10 brightness settings, and 4 reticles (crosshair, dot, circle, and something else). This was our "lets try out a red dot" project so we got the extra reticles and colors to see what we like best.

My wife put a sig brand on her buckmark: it has been an excellent tube sight so far -- good enough that we ordered her another one already.

Either of these would fit on your gun but the open one is smaller and lighter with a larger viewing area. As I recall, the tru-glo was fairly cheap and the sig was modestly priced.

[BimmerFreak]

Call NcStar or take it back to where you got it.

They are very good about honoring their warranty.