barska spotting scope

[Guest Mugster]

I've had this cheap chinese glass for awhile now, long enough to form an opinion. Here's what I got (I paid a little over a 100 I think sometime back). I wanted something to see .22 holes out to 300 yards or so while shooting an iron sight and the lower powered scopes I prefer. It takes a bit of practice to learn how to focus this thing:

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=765856

Well, I can see .22 holes at 200 in white or black, almost 100% of the time. At 250, this scope starts to peter out a little and I can pick them up most of the time. At 300 yards, its a no-go on .22 holes except in the white, and even that is dicey some days. Choice of paper actually counts. I usually shoot into a dark brown earth berm on the 2 ranges I normally shoot at, so that hurts quite a bit seeing hits in the black, but helps for hits in the white.

I can pick up .30 holes at 300 yards pretty good. Some .30 in the black I can't see. There's a real good chance I can pick it up.

In terms of optic quality, from 20 to about 50x its clear and pretty bright and dials in great. If you go on up to 60x, the scope dims down a bit and it gets hard to focus. Definitely a loss of optical clarity. You need a really

fine touch on the focus knob.

Generally the scope seems well made. All the knobs work, and the case it comes might cost more than the scope does if you bought it separately. It seems to fit my needs pretty well. I could wish for better results at 300 yards on .22 holes, but it was well worth it.

Compared to other spotters, my experience is limited. But, nearly all of the scopes I've looked through (bushnell, simmons, redfield), can't compete with this scope. Most cheapo spotters have a hard time with .22 holes at 200 yards. I know, I've looked through alot of cheap scopes, lol. And some expensive ones that were not worth the money.

If I had to do it over again, I'd still get a barska or a BSA, but I'd get an even bigger one. I bet the increased light from the 70mm objective would be just the ticket. Of course, they cost more. Something like this maybe:

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=411975

For shooting groups at 100 yards, this is all you need. You can even see groups of .17 at 100 without trying too hard.

Edited August 12, 2008 by Mugster