It arrived today, Sportsmans Guide has always shipped my orders very quickly, and in oversize boxes with tons of packing. The ad for the scope is kind of vague concerning the manufacturer of the scope. The scope is in fact made by Barska, in China. I could tell right away it was made in China due to the smell once I opened the box, smells just like tools from Harbor Freight! Anyway, I was initially pretty skeptical about this one. China is not known for producing quality optics for the most part. I think that might be changing, however. This is a BEEFY scope, the 30mm tube is single piece, and feels stout enough to be used as a hammer should the need ever arise. The optics are very clear, as clear as any high dollar scope I've seen. The turrets have very smooth and audible clicks, feels like a ball detent maybe. The illuminated crosshair is pretty cool, only the center portion of the mil dot reticle lights up, the outer posts stay dark. The brightness settings go to 11 (Spinal Tap, anyone?) but I've found that 4 or 5 is about as bright as I'll ever need it. 11 feels like staring at the sun. The side parallax adjustment feels very smooth, with just enough resistance to let you know that it is a well sealed assembly. The power adjustment ring feels a little gritty, in contrast to the excellent feel of the other adjustments. I'll probably leave it on 10X or so for the most part. I havent mounted it on a rifle yet, so the eye relief is a little hard to judge. The scope looks very clear at about 3-3.5" from the eye though. Should be OK for 308 recoil, but might "kiss" a little with anything producing large amounts of recoil. The scope comes with e set of 30mm high rings, which I'm going to keep as spares. I don't consider them high enough quality for mounting on a tactical rifle, and they seem to be of much lower quality than the scope itself. The scope also comes with a 5" sun shade, as well as flip up scope covers. The sun shade makes the already large scope look slightly ridiculous in my opinion. I'm leaving it off in favor of an Anti Reflection Device. The flip up scope caps are decent quality. They fit snugly enough to not worry about brushing them off on a tree branch. They do however, appear to be the source of the "Made in China scent" noticed when I opened up the box. I washed them in the sink under hot water, which helped a little, but they still stink. Eventually I will get around to doing a range report on this one. This will either end up on my Savage 110FP LE 308, or on my PSG-1 clone when I finally get around to finishing it. In summary, I would highly recommend this scope for anyone looking for a decently priced tactical/target scope. The quality on this is MUCH higher than the cheesy NcStar, BSA, and BEC scopes that it is competing against.

Mike

[ February 23, 2005: Message edited by: FMJBTHP ]

[ February 23, 2005: Message edited by: FMJBTHP ]

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"Helping others to find the products they need, from sources other than Joeken since 2005"

Mike

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"Helping others to find the products they need, from sources other than Joeken since 2005"

Mike

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"Helping others to find the products they need, from sources other than Joeken since 2005"

[ March 27, 2005: Message edited by: shadow1 ]

Farrell also makes another mount, just like these except with an extra lug on the bottom that engages the receiver for extra recoil resistanceG Force scope mounts They are about $20 more than the regular mounts. I ended up using cheap ass aluminum B-Square 30mm Low rings on mine, but made up for it by using 3 of them. Overall a very stout setup.

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"Helping others to find the products they need, from sources other than Joeken since 2005"

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"Helping others to find the products they need, from sources other than Joeken since 2005"

Where on the adjustable magnification are the mil dots accurate to one miliradian?
Guess: 24x
How do you remove the target turrets once zero'd to place them at (0)?

quote:

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Originally posted by bcamp:
Just a quick one on this barska scope:

Where on the adjustable magnification are the mil dots accurate to one miliradian?
Guess: 24x
How do you remove the target turrets once zero'd to place them at (0)?

Thanks for your help
BC

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On scopes that have the reticle mounted in the first focal plane, the reticle changes size as you change magnification. If you have a scope like this....you can take range estimations under any magnification power, and they will be correct.

If the reticle is in the second focal plane, it will not change size as you decrease/increase magnification. On scopes like this, the range estimations are always done with the magnifaction at FULL POWER.

Hope this info helps. (I may have 'first' and 'second' focal plane backwards, but basically, if the reticle changes size as you increase power, take your reading from any power. If it doesn't, take your reading at full power.)

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" It's better to be hated for who you are....than liked for who you are not. " Van Zant

Semper Vigilo et Paratus

Raven

Comparing against my 10X Bushnell mil dot scope, the Barska scope appears to have the same value between mils when set at approximately 9X on the power ring. Evidently they do things a little differently over in China....

The turret knobs on the Barska scope have standard slotted head screws holding them in place, made of bras it looks like. I tried to take one out so I could pull the turret off, but they seem to be in there really tight. I'm going to try to clamp the turret knob before trying again to back the screw out. I'll post results for the next attempt to get the turrets off later tonight probably.

Mike

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"Helping others to find the products they need, from sources other than Joeken since 2005"

Mike

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"Helping others to find the products they need, from sources other than Joeken since 2005"