While I am constantly on the hunt for less expensive things, Marv is positively cheap by comparison.
It took a lot of research and reading to get me OK with the idea that Primary Arms was worth risking some money on and "just" paying $350 for their scope and I paid the big bucks way back for an Aimpoint M4s ($740 at the time).
Marv has yet to spend more than $150 on any optic, and most of the time far less.
His most expensive one is a SIG CP1 prismatic three power.
Compared to the Primary Arms 3x I put on Harvey's rifle it's like looking through a soda straw and the eye relief? There's ONE spot where you can see down the thing. I've never seen a scope with such narrowly constrained focus.
His $50 Centerpoint Quick-Aim is also suffering from small-tube-syndrome.
I get used to being able to see with the larger tubes in my more expensive glass and I get so I can't stand shooting Marv's guns. I also get to be snobby and claim it's his "thriftiness" that makes him a worse shot than me (rather than it being lack of practice).
I've also noticed it on FuzzyGeff's guns. The new Vortex on his Weatherby has a MUCH better field of view and is easier to get your eye where you can see than the Nichols it used to wear.
The Vortex Crossfire II 4-12x44 was about $200. In 1994 that Nichols Bullet 3-9x40 was $150; which is just over $240 in today's dollars.
The advice I've always received regarding optics was "If it's less than $150, you may as well just throw the money straight into the garbage"
ReplyDeleteThat said, the $40 Bushnell 4x scope I picked up when I was a wee lad and that was all the money I could save has served astonishingly well on every pellet rifle and .22lr it's been mounted to. My gramps has one of those $15 scopes that makes the view through a straw seem positively luxurious on HIS .22lr, though.
I suppose the best cure for parts-miserliness is feeling the difference between being cheap and paying enough.