Crap Scopes...

My whole shooting life, i've had good riflescopes. Not expensive ones, but they all worked fine.
It was a shock when i started airgunning with a springer. It was an RWS 350 mag and it ate every scope i put on it. On the 6th, a leapers with locking turrets, it held. I had a pile of snapped and bent BSA's.... bushnells...RWS and tasco. Leapers became my scope of cheap scopes. Now... i think i'm getting ready to be let down. I put a new leapers 3x9x32 bugbuster on my little tech force 58. A 700fps, .177 caliber gun. It does indeed have a sharp and fast "kick" to it, but i wouldn't have thought it would have been enough to throw off my supertough new leapers. Tell me what ya'll think,.... I've finally gotten this gun to group well with gamo pointed pellets. They actually group better than any of the other 6 varieties of pellets i've tried. The problem is this. After 3 to 5 shots, everything shifts to several inches away. I then might get 2 or 3 more accurate shots, then it shifts again. I've done this over and over and get the same hole chasin trouble time after time.

The bore is sparkling clean. Every screw is loc tited on the stock and scope mounts. The mounts themselves are weaver style and don't move from their original spot. There is a scope stop. I hold the same way everytime. The gun is pretty well broken in and the fact that i can get several accurate shots before poi changes leads me to think it can only be the scope... any thoughts?

Anyone tried the Hawke brand? I've seen varying results on other forums but have no idea if the folks having trouble knew anything about airgunning or not. I know ya'll do so i was just wondering.....? Thanks J

If possiable try iron sights if it stays on it's your scope it's the only way to see if it's the scope just take the scope out of the picture , or the other possible is to try the scope on a other rifle if it is fine it's the rifle , tighten everting again then go to recrowning the barrel , you can also check the pellet seal, to see if it is leaking, howie

Thanks Howie.
Unfortunately i don't have iron sights on this gun and the breech/spring cylinder is so short that i don't have any other scope that doesn't cover the loading port. I just ordered a leapers 3x9x40 with locking turrets so as soon as it comes in i'll be able to see if it indeed is the scope. I have 2 of the leapers scopes with the lock ring feature and they have stood up to every abuse. IMO, they are good scopes. So far. Hope this next one turns out to work just as well. J

As i'm impatient, i mounted 1st a leapers 6x24x50 turret locking scope, then a leapers 30mm sidewheel 3x9x44 while waiting for my 3x9x40 to show up. These were both mounted on a weaver base that converts from 11mm to weaver, AND add 1/2 inch plus to the height of the scope. Both of these scope had to go to the max of their elevation to get close to the POA. After going so high with the adjustments, i found the scopes did crazy things with their windage. Or more accurately, they did almost nothing. Guess getting these scopes close to poa while at optical center would insure more accurate adjustments. Could have been my trouble all along... Will know soon..J

I have a Crosman 3-9X40 on my 350 every since new, several years now, it has held up. That would be a Center Point brand now. Frank

I have a Crosman 3-9X40 on my 350 every since new, several years now, it has held up. That would be a Center Point brand now. Frank

Mine have all done good too Frank. They are made in the same factory as the leapers and are top notch in the toughness dept. I put my 30mm leapers back on the TF-97 and once it was sighted back in... seems to be holding perfectly. I also pulled my 350 out with its centerpoint 4x16x40 and shot a fantastic 30 yard group, its been holding dead on for many months. I love those guns and scopes. They are perfect.

I think my trouble has been the result of me having a tall mount, requiring the scopes to be maxed out in elevation. It seems it screws them up. I'm leaving the 58 alone till its new centerpoint 3x9x40 shows up. Then i'm gonna use the lowest possible mount and i bet i find that this gun will work much better. Like most spring guns i've had, this one(TF-58) has required a lot of trial and error to get right. I still am considering that my barrel may be drooping slightly, and i may need a compensating mount to fix the issure. I could have used the 3x9x32 bugbuster to figure this out but as it's not the scope i'm wanting to use long term, i'm not going to bother. My new scope should be here this week and my ole lady's off to the beach for a few days so i'll be working little and shooting much:cheers: I'll have this little issue figured out in no time i hope. Bet i find that of all my 6 leapers/centerpoints, none of them are crap... i was just wanting a cigarette(15 days quit!!:thumb:) and bitching. i'll bet... JR

i have read that if the scope is bottomed out it is more likley to crap out.
might be time for an adjustable mount.

I always center the scope . I have never had a scope go out on me ! (Knock on wood) . I use Center point and Leapers mainly.

I always center the scope . I have never had a scope go out on me ! (Knock on wood) . I use Center point and Leapers mainly.



I always dialed the crap out of them and thats probably the reason i killed so many on the 350. Live and learn. Now i need adjustable mounts. too...this is how airgunning helps the economy..:D

I'll be darned if i didn't get my e-bay 3x9x40 leapers today and instead of the new scope advertised... i got a new looking unpackaged scope that had the internal adjustments already non functional. They saved me the trouble of screwing up my new scope by having done it for me!! Luckily it was paypal'ed so a refund shouldn't be to hard to get.

I guess hawke, weaver, and leupold would be the best scopes for me to check out in terms of quality, if not in price. Sure would like to finally hit something with this gun...:(

So i gripe to the e-bay seller, and he offers me a full refund, including initial shipping, or 1/2 my money back and i keep the scope. Since i didn't feel like spending $10.00 on shipping to get it back to him, i kept it and got $20.00 back. Kind of typical i guess... so i read the instructions on how to get warrenty service and voila! there was my problem. It seems these are the old style turret locks and have to be "set" at a certain height, to engage the adjustment mechanism, Duh.. Ok, so the scope is actually good i think, once again... operator error is the trouble. Or part of it. The gun (TF-58) is a drooper, hitting target at about a foot low when the scope is optically centered and distance is 25 yards. So as C.P. suggested, i had to get a droop compensating mount.

After studying all the different bases and adapters available online, i realized that they don't make the version i would need. Every single adjustable mount or droop compensating mount was too long for the 3.5" rail available on this short breeched gun. All the 2 piece adj. rings were made with single screws on the ring and dovetail clamp and looked to flimsy. I ended up going with the inexpensive UTG brand droop compensating mount made for the Diana 54. If it doesnt work out for the tf58, it'll go on the 54. I'll have to cut an inch off it's length and cut the machined forward scope stop off it as well but should still have a weaver type mounting adapter with enough space left to mount the 3x9x40. I'm hoping that the amount of droop compensation built in(non adj.)(17"@30yds.) will get me close to centered and the windage should be close. This same mount worked great on my 350mag so i'm hoping it does the trick here. I wouldn't mind a bit buying one of the $70.00 beeman or BSA mounts that are adjustable with the scope mounted, but none will fit my rails so i'd just assume practice with the least expensive option. Always incredible to me how irritating it is to get a springer scoped right. Looks like i'm off on another scoping misadventure... J

So, i pick up a new crosman springer and need a scope. The circumspect 3x9 fits the leapers mounts well so i mount it up. I had centered the scope optically and was happy to see the pellets hitting 4 or 5 inches off to the left of center at 25 yards. A few adjustments and the scope is holding rock solid and dead on. The adjustments that were not working so well at a high elevation(clicked up!), worked perfectly at normal adjustment ranges.

Once again pointing out that none of these scopes were crap, rather a ill aligned rifle demanded more from them than they could put out. Actually, my $30.00 ebay'ed centerpoint is working perfectly. Very clear, consistent adjustments. Nice scope.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z252/xxjonnyrebxx/Picture105.jpg

So after all this, i finally receive my droop correcting mount for a Diana 54, i use a bandsaw to cut off both ends of the mount, as my TF-58 has only 3 1/2"cap rails and the UTG mount is 4 5/8" long. I paint them black and assemble them on the 58. Then i mount a brand new 3x9x32 el cheapo centerpoint that came with my G1. The "droop" correcting mount did the trick and with a factory centered scope i was only a few inches to the left at 30 yards. Bunch of clicks and i was dead on. Finally i was hitting dead on with this gun. In the beginning i blamed the scopes for everything but soon found that it was my ignorance, having the scopes too far off center, that was causing the problem. Heres a shot of the 58 with its new compensating mount and cheap(but decent!)new scope..

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z252/xxjonnyrebxx/Picture125.jpg

Nice airgun! You're one hell of a tinkerer too. Hehehe. I love those 3-9X32 AO scope by Centerpoint. I decided to replace it with a Leapers 3-9X50 AO since the leapers can focus well down to 5 yards and sometimes I really needed that if I can't shoot at 10 yards indoors.

Good luck on your shooting!

Speedturtle

Your right ST, that scope just won't focus down near as close as the other centerpoint and leapers scopes i've used. Its obviously an inexpensive scope with a different turret from the other leapers out there. In spite of that, it seems to be holding fine so far and actually has decent optics.(for a free scope). It also if the PERFECT size for the 58. It is only 12" long and quite light, rather than the average 13+ inches that seems to be the norm for inexpensive scopes. Those long scopes work great on a breakbarrel but are impossible on the scaled down sidelever. Thanks for the comment..J

Truthfully ebay is the LAST place I look for anything. If I were you I would comment on ebay about your purchase and give that guy a bad mark... Frank