Do you ever just stop and bang your head against the wall?

I have a tasco 2.5 x bantam black powder scope on my 50 cal. cva for 13 yrs. and its held zero just fine and ive fired a lot of rounds through that old BP rifle. having said that. to the OP I have a close uh relative who knows the price of every thing and the value of nothing and you cant tell him nothing :rolleyes: so when he starts his roll just change the subject . cause they never will. :)
 
Life is just too short to tolerate crappy optics.
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Hear hear and Amen. But the hard part is drawing the line between crappy and non-crappy.

Are there exception-to-the-general-rule (that you get what you pay for) bargains to be found sub-$150 new / sub-$100 used? I think the answer is yes, but I'd always limit them to rimfires, and stay with low-powered configs. I've used Millets, Bushnell Banners, Bushnell Legend, Muellers, and some others, and in the end, they're just not worthy for any centerfire that might be relied upon for either self-defense or a trophy animal. Now don't get me wrong, this is due *primarily* due to low-light clarity/resolution, not fear of failure to hold zero, but still - resolution is very important for hunting, since game move most in low light.

In fact, I don't even go that low any more - divested of all those. Now the lowest I go - even on rimfires - is Nikon Omega (which is a very good scope), or Bushnell Elite 3200, or Burris Fullfield II, or Leupold Rifleman.

Obviously the number 1 priority (key feature) of a scope, by far, is holding zero (i.e. not breaking), which is worth noting that this has zero to do with glass & coatings quality. But glass quality and general quality & durability pretty much go hand in hand. And the other aspects are important too - turret features, glass quality & coatings quality, magnif. options, on and on. The problem with many cheap scopes is, they may break on the LAST shot at the range before you leave when sighting in, or the ONE/LAST shot you took last season - then you don't realize this until you miss the B&C buck the next season due to the scope, and it's too late.

And yeah though, due to glass quality, you've GOT to stick to no more magnif than 3-9s on real cheap scopes (sub-$100), and no more than 4-12 on sub-$200ers. Even though I eventually divested of them, I had good results with 1-4s and 1.5-4.5s and such from Bushnell Banner back when.
 
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Enough competitive shooters have told me, even the expensive scopes become unreliable. At some round count in the future the darn things stop tracking reliably and you can’t trust what is going on down range on the paper target. This includes those “Red Dot” handgun sights. A Bullseye Pistol bud of mine was describing all the problems he had with a $300.00 version till he sent it back to the factory and they sent him back a new one. The first sight worked well for a while, then groups went wonky, new sight attached, nice tight groups in the middle.

My lament, why can’t sight makers build a scope that if you put a click on it, it moves a click, and does so, forever?
 
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Slamfire, that's very interesting, and I think the right question. What if you buy SOLELY US Optics, Schmidt & Bender, Premier, Hensoldt, March, IOR/Valdada, & Nightforce.... same rule still applies or not? I'd like to know the answer. What about the mid-highs, like Swaro, Zeiss, Leica, Trijicon, & high-end Loopys? What about Aimpoint?
 
Slamfire, that's very interesting, and I think the right question. What if you buy SOLELY US Optics, Schmidt & Bender, Premier, Hensoldt, March, IOR/Valdada, & Nightforce.... same rule still applies or not? I'd like to know the answer. What about the mid-highs, like Swaro, Zeiss, Leica, Trijicon, & high-end Loopys? What about Aimpoint?
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I am aware of F Class competitors whose March scopes stopped tracking on elevation. Those scopes are $4,000 apiece!
 
Nothing wrong with buying cheap when its all you can afford, but buying something that promises the world that's very cheap should be a no brainer. However, money isn't everything. Let your friend learn a valuable life lesson, not everything is what it appears.
 
I can see putting a $100 scope on a $300 rifle. I can not see putting a $100 scope on a$1000 rifle. If you have $1100 to spend, put $600 in the rifle and $500 in the scope. Having said that, my current favorite hunting rifle cost $325 and is wearing $825 glass. If I have to choose where I am going to skimp, it will not be on the glass. My cheap, ugly, TC Venture shoots as good as some of my customs. Look at a $75 scope in low light and look through a $800 scope in low light; there is a HUGE difference.
To those who mentioned Tasco, Tasco is not what it used to be. I used to like Tasco. When Tasco first came out, they were as good as Burris and Redfield. They were a Japanese optic that rivaled the high end U.S. hunting optics. Their custom shop scopes were as good a B.R. scope as you could buy. Now, they are Chinese junk. The Tasco of today is not the Tasco of a generation ago.
 
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I actually thought for many years that I did not like scopes. It wasn't until I got a leupold that I decided than optics are a good thing. All of my previous scopes where cheep $50-$75 scopes.
 
tahunua001 - for the record... I have a leapers red/green dot from amazon... it's a great little dot which has been passed to a number of different guns... always easy to zero, hold zero and is relatively nice, even in low light... not all amazon purchases are all bad
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I have one of those as well on an AR platform and it has proven to be a great product.

I also have a Leapers 4x16x44 on an AR platform and has been mounted now 3 years and never lost “0”.

Can’t judge a book by its cover or a scope by its price.

With that said if these rifles were is a severe duty applications then I would be looking to a more substantial and time tested product but for basic range use and light field duty they have served well.
 
Never had anything bad happen with old Weaver K-4s. They don't seem to care about bouncing around in a Jeep a bunch. :) Not the brightest, but plenty good for coyotes and deer.

I'm still using three old Leupold Vari-X IIs that are 30 to 40 years old. Still holding zero just fine. They, too, do okay in rough back-country travels.
 
If your friend insists on replacing a Monarch with a $69 scope, you have done what you can by advising against it. You can always offer him the $69 for his used Monarch and sell it back to him for the same amount if he realizes it was a mistake. Otherwise, you would have a great scope for $69.
 
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