# BSA Scopes.....Worth Looking At?????



## Remington06 (Mar 7, 2005)

I'm interested in a BSA scope that is the 4-16 power without the lighted crosshairs. Are they even worth looking at? The gun it would be going on is a NEF Handi Rifle in a .243. I normally buy Bushnell but the Legend almost cost as much as the gun did. Can Bushnell and BSA even compare?


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## neb_bo (Feb 3, 2007)

dont waste your time, and $. bsa are junk. i would rather put a $400 scope on a $200 rifle, than the other way around. i had a 4-24 contender on a 22 hornet. the gun went from sub .5" groups to over an inch, everything else stayed the same. the zero didnt wander, it didnt send a flyer, everything was tight, but the groups opened up that much. the optics on it were the worst ive seen also. you couldnt go higher than about 12-14x or you couldnt focus it.


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## darkgael (Feb 10, 2006)

" i would rather put a $400 scope on a $200 rifle"
Yep. That's the way that It works out. Frequently a good scope costs as much as or more than the firearm.
I have a BSA target scope. I can't say that I'm happy with it. The adjustments are stiff; consequently, I rarely want to change them....not what you want in a scope. On the other hand, I own one of their spotting scopes and it works just fine and was much more affordable than other brands. Obviously, the use there is much different than a rifle scope.
Buy the best you can afford, especially if it's a gun that you hunt with.
Pete


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I agree, get the best scope you can afford. Afford being the key word here. I have many rifles, but I can not afford two dozen Leupold Mark 4's. At $1000 a shot I need a new pickup before I drop $24,000 on scopes. So what do I do. I have a Leupold Mark 4 on my 308 Remington 700P and that's the only Mark 4 that I own. I have two other older Leupold tactical. The Leupold wasn't performing on my 300 mag and I replaced it with a 4X16 Sightron that is just as strong or stronger, just as accurate on that rifle, but isn't as good at dusk and dawn. However the Leupold is a 30mm tube with 50 mm objective. That's hard to compare to a one inch scope with a 40mm objective.

I have some Nikon Buckmasters, some Bushnells, and the 4X16 BSA with lighted mil dot reticle. I was not sure if it would take recoil, but my nephews have them on 223, 243, 30-06 so I thought heck they will stand up on a heavy barrel Ruger 10/22. That rifle scope combination will keep under ½ at 50 yards all day long.

You do get what you pay for, but it normally isn't accuracy that is the big problem. It is visibility at dawn and dusk, clarity of target, and repeatability of adjustments. When my Leupold and 300 Win mag started shooting poorly I messed with loads etc and could find nothing. After all that work I put an old Bushnell Sportview, that I purchased in 1977, on the rifle and it grouped 1/3 inch. The Leupold was grouping about the same, but it had two groups with one about 1.5 inches above the other. Evidently something came loose with the recoil, and that's why it wears a Sightron now. I think Sightron has a very strong adjustment system. The point is that old $29 Bushnell shot a 1/3 inch group.

Purchase the best you can afford, but don't let dreaming about a $500 scope keep you out of the field. If price hangs you up buy the BSA and go hunting.

Check out refurbished scopes at http://www.natchezss.com/ They should have a good scope at a good price for you. I have a new 6X24 Bushnell Dusk to Dawn series on a single shot 22-250 that shoots very good.

I hope this helps.


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## varmit b gone (Jan 31, 2008)

There may be a few good BSA scopes out there but most are pure junk. I got a 6-24X50 Deerhunter modle for Christmas one year and put it on my 243. While sighting it in one of the lenses came out of allingment and the whole thing got fuzzier than it already was. And it wasn't cheap, either. I've also had alot on 22s and they were really fuzzy. Bushnells aren't bad for the $$$ if you are worried about the price.


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## whitehorse (Jan 28, 2008)

lol, I usually keep my scopes under 200 if i can, my 90$ can keep inside a golfball all day long at 200.... where I noticed it failed was early and late at night... it's not terrible, but wished it was better. At the same time, saved me 300 bucks to buy a pistol.. way worth it... I might have gotten lucky on mine, i've used scopes for a long time, even mounted one on my red rider bb gun.. just love em to death.... I can see the importance if your going to start shooting over 300 at small targets.... or wayy long shots.... I never need to do either, so i'll just buy an el cheapo, and a pistol instead...

I have owned one bsa, and stuck it on my .22 (3-9x) nothing fancy, does the job fine, but my buddy's gun has a 6-24 I believe, and it's pretty damn good. clear enough for the 2-300 range we shoot, as far as darkness, i couldn't tell ya how it performs, but i'd guess it's comparable to all scopes around the 150$ range

I would also lookin into a refurbished... I had one, but it ended up breakin on me, so sent it back, I can't remember what brand that one was, but i think it was just a cheap simmons...

oh yea, I tried out those lighted crosshairs... lol deffinatly not worth the money or weight, so good call...

hope I could provide some info (a little biased, havn't tried spendy scopes, but an unbiased review of scopes I have used), I have been shooting cheapo's all my life and always will... just can't justify spending 6-7 times as much money, when i'm able to perform surgery already... if my hunting conditions change, i'll be lookin into to it... I started yote hunting, light conditions are often low, so i'm going to have to splurge this summer, but won't go over 250$


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## irish (Jan 18, 2004)

I would say NO to B S A not very good take a look at Muller .
I have a few and love them . Also Nikon have great scopes, 
depends what your putting them on i also have a Nightforce .

Spend as much as you can

Irish


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## cwoparson (Aug 23, 2007)

Once upon a time the "you get what your pay for" and "spend more for a scope than you paid for the rifle" was for the most part true and good advice. With todays technology in scope building and lens production I don't believe that holds water anymore, especially for hunting scopes. For bench rest shooters looking for that 1,000 yard moa target it can become a factor but for the rest of us, there are $200 and $300 scopes out there that will perform just as well if not better than a top Leupold. The dusk and dawn factor is another over rated area that I don't concern myself with. In most cases the difference is so minute the average hunter can't tell the difference and it certainly is not worth the extra couple hundred dollars. I'm not slamming those that want or think they need to have a $1,000 and up scope. Just saying that in 99% of the situations they are over priced for the application needs and service for the average hunter.

Having said all this, there are scopes that fall into the junk category as far as quality and I view BSA as one of those. I don't know why but even their supposedly better scopes seem to be fuzzy to look through, especially at higher magnification. I've owned a couple in the past and quickly disposed of them. Still, there are those that seem to like them. I've got some Weaver, Bushnell and even a couple high end Simmons scopes I'll put up along side a Leupold any day of the week. I would say on average I spend $250 to $350 for a scope and I don't own a one that I need to get rid of.


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