SmallCaliberCentral

tenring wrote:I have a BSA contender 3.5-12x40 on my .204 now. I have one major concern with it. I can zero it in at 100 yards to where it will shoot 5 shots within the diameter of a pop can. Not shoot it for a week. Take it out try to shoot and it will be off by at least 4-5 inches in either direction. It has a serious case of "wondering cross-hairs"...any thoughts?

I'd sure be sending that one back to BSA. Even though these are not expensive scopes money is money and they do have a warrentee of some sort. I'd want it fixed or replaced.

I've sent several inexpensive scopes back to the maker and I've found that more often than not the mfg will simply replace them. In the end I've mostly had pretty good luck.

house wrote:While looking at the BSA website I saw where there was 15 minutes of angle on their target models. How many minutes of angle did you have left after setting your zero?

Gosh I don't know. I just zero'd it and went to shooting. I never even thought about that question and it is a good question.

I personally think the best bang for your buck right now is a Burris Fullfield II 3-9x 40. I say that with one caveat, it's not enough power to shoot prarie dogs but should be plenty ofr almost any other vermin. You can get one for around $100 +/- $15, new right now on ebay. Thos scopes were seeling for over $200 as recently as a year ago. They have one piece tubes, their coatings allow for 95% light transmission both of these features would put you in a VXIII from Leupold.

If I was shooting small to medium game and wanted a good "hunting" scope I have no doubts that scope would be my first pick. I know some will balk at "only" 9X for a max but consider this. If the guys on Best of the West can shoot a coyote at 1000 yards with a top magnification of 14.5X then 9X should be plenty for a coyote at 500.

faucettb wrote:

tenring wrote:I have a BSA contender 3.5-12x40 on my .204 now. I have one major concern with it. I can zero it in at 100 yards to where it will shoot 5 shots within the diameter of a pop can. Not shoot it for a week. Take it out try to shoot and it will be off by at least 4-5 inches in either direction. It has a serious case of "wondering cross-hairs"...any thoughts?

I'd sure be sending that one back to BSA. Even though these are not expensive scopes money is money and they do have a warrentee of some sort. I'd want it fixed or replaced.

I've sent several inexpensive scopes back to the maker and I've found that more often than not the mfg will simply replace them. In the end I've mostly had pretty good luck.

i wouldnt do that yet..... i have a 24x fixed platinum and my problem was the 10$ base and ring combo but i put 50 bucks in a single piece and dual dual dovetails and now it busts 20 oz.'s every shot at 300 yds.