BSA red dot scope

[Whiskey Tango]

Im looking at getting a red dot scope to see how I like them and am looking at the BSA 30m one thats only about $30 since I have never used the red dot scopes before and am not sure if I will even like them. I have mostly found good coments on it but one thing Im conserned about and have not seen hardly info on is battery life. I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience with these and could tell me about how long the batteries last for constant use like leaveing them on while out hunting and so on. Any info on them would be much appreciated, thanks.

[brownknees]

Life depends on the brightness setting in use somewhat. But I think, based on the Tasco I had that you'll get 11~15 hours before the battery dies.
(carrying a spare is allways a good idea with batteries, specially now the batteries are so small).
I use a piece cut from the plastic 35mm slide pages that any decent camera store keeps, & then tape the opening shut & tape it to the stock somewhere.
you should get about 10 good "pockets" from each sheet, & they are waterproof that way. Rotate the batteries as the old one dies & you'll always have a fresh spare. Shelf life of the newer batteries is about 7 years, so no worries with that.
Cold (zero & below) will kill batteries, but its only till they warm up. keep a spare in an inside pocket & swap them out as they chill down if this is a concern where you are.

[WiFAL]

I've got a red dot on my Super Redhawk and love it now that I've learned to quit using it like a scope.

I was in the habit of closing an eye and looking through the tube like you would a conventional scope. They don't work well that way. Once you learn to keep both eyes open, look at your target and bring the dot into your field of view it feels like having a laser dot on your target. You don't see the tube, just the dot.

I don't leave the dot on all the time while hunting but I do carry an extra battery. I periodically test to see what brightness setting I should use depending upon time of day. When game approaches I just turn the dial to the right setting as I bring up the pistol.

I've got a Millet with 1 inch tube. I use to think I needed a big tube for a larger field of view when I was trying to use it like a scope. Now the tube diameter doesn't matter. All I see is the dot.

I tried a Tru Glo once at the range and was impressed with it. I thought the dot was rounder at all light intensity settings.

Dot size is function of use. If you're going to be shooting 100 yds. I'd stick with the 3 mil dot.

[Whiskey Tango]

Thanks for the info. I went ahead and picked one up while I was in town today. I want to put it on my AK but am waiting on the scope mount for it to get here and looked through it on the way home and was wierded out that the dot seemed to move in the tube and figured it was screwed up so tossed it on SKS to make sure it would lay reasonable groups and at dusk with no real good point to aim at (just the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket with no mark) and even though the bore on that SKS isnt great and didnt have a good set aiming point put the 5 shots in about a 2 1/2 inch group. I went ahead and picked up 3 extra batteries for it and figured I will just leave it on with the battery that came with it and see how long before it dies so I at least know if I go hunting how many I need to take along. I figure I would leave it on when in the field since this set up would mostly be for when I was trying to jump up deer and wouldnt have time to turn it on before shooting at them or they would be gone, I generaly use a .270 bolt gun when Im in the stand or blind unless its in an area with lots of cover since from at least a couple of my stands I might have 300-400 yard shots and the 7.62x39 cartridge just dosnt really work that well (at least for me) out much past 100-150 yards.

[Attilla]

Red Dot = Good.
Millet Red Dot (and others) = Good

BSA Red Dot = Junk.
I bought one and ended up giving it away. Check the parallax error. It is so bad that you might as well have no red dot at all, and just try to keep your eye absolutely centered on the tube, as if it were a huuuuuge ghost-ring. :)

At least, like you, I only wasted about $30.

You will find that there is a reason some red dots are $30 and some are over $300. It is pretty easy to check in the store before you buy.

I did the same check on a "True-Glo" red dot ($60) and it was horrible also.

Then, compare to a Burris, aimpoint, Eotech, or any other reputable scope.

[Whiskey Tango]

Well, checking it out at the store wasnt an option since they were sealed up in the package and couldnt even look through it.
It seemed to do reasonable groups at around 50 yards or so but only popped off about 10 rounds with it so far.
So now I prove I know nothing about these things... A lot of folks have mentioned 'parallax' and problems that go with it. So what IS parallax, what causes it, how dose it work or whatever? I had never even looked through one untill I opened this one so have NO experience with them, and for most of my rifles wouldnt want one since the dot covers like 4" of the target at 100 yards and with my more accurate riffles I dont normaly let my groups go much over 1" at that range so that kind of scope wouldnt work for that. Just decided to try this for a brush gun and figured for $30 if I didnt like it could try it on a shotgun or handgun and if didnt like it on any of them toss it in the trash and not be hurt to bad. So with that being the plan wanted to go cheap to at least try out the basic system and figure if it dose well for me may try and upgrade and at that point more info on the parallax and such will most likely be very useful. Thanks.

[Attilla]

In this context "parallax" is the error in point of aim introduced by the position of your eye in relation to the scope.

Test:
Set the scope on a solid surface or clamp your rifle and note precisely the point of aim, at least 50 yards away.
Then move your head around, side to sidfe, up and down, while still looking through the scope at the dot and point of aim.
If the apparent point of aim moves as your head moves, that is an error. In a rapid-shot situation, you may not have time to precisely center your head.
High-quality red dots have the dot optically aligned with the axis of the scope no matter where you view it from. In other words, the dot appears to remain on the point of aim even if your head (and eye) move behind the scope.

If you always shoot from a precisely repeatable position, you may never notice the parallax error, because the dot will always be centered in the tube, and presumably your eye is also always centered on the axis of the tube.

At Cabela's, they were willing to remove scopes from their packaging to make this test. With a BSA or True-Glo, the apparent point of aim (projected position of the dot) moves as your head moves, just as if the red dot were fixed on the surface of the glass. With a Bushnell, Burris or Nikon, the dot alway remains on the apparent point of aim no matter how you look through the tube.

With my current, inexpensive, Millet SP1, the dot remains "nearly" on POA, but moves slightly when viewed at the edges of the scope tube diameter. It is as if Millet at least understood the problem and the optics/physics for the solution, but just didn't get it quite perfect. I am convinced that BSA and True-Glo have no clue how it should be designed and just put red-dots inside tubes.

[Whiskey Tango]

Ok, thanks for explaining it. I figure I may upgrade later but I went ahead and sited this one in today and even had the DW come out and shoot a group and she laid the best group have ever seen her shoot (about 1 1/2" at 50 yards which isnt bad for that gun and is great for her). This one dosent seem to have major problems with it atleast. I have no doubt that the higher dollar ones are probably better but with 40 rounds through the rifle with this scope on it and haveing left it on for about 27 hours so far and still going strong, I have to say I figure so far that its at least WELL worth the price that I paid of $30. Most likely I will pick up another so can put one on the AK as I planned for now and keep one on the SKS so the DW can hit something with it, and when funds allow will most likely upgrade the one on my AK.
Again thaks for the info, I think it will be helpful when I do get ready to upgrade.
Oh and you mentioned your reasonably inexpensive Millet, about what do the ones like it go for? Im not big on spending hundreds of dollars for optics so some of the realy nice ones are probably gonna be out, but figure may go up a some in price later as long as can find something equaly worth the cost. Basicly if its gonna run me $75-$100 it would need to be a whole lot better than this one, especialy since I will only be useing them inside 150 yards or so.

[Attilla]

As long as you are happy and it works, I certainly don't want to rain on your parade. I buy and use a lot of inexpensive stuff too !
My Millet only cost about $60, but that was about 7 years ago, and they have gone up to about $100. At that time, I didn't know the difference between a good one or a bad one, so I was just lucky. That is why I went ahead and bought a BSA later. I was shocked at how much more accurate the Millet was than the BSA, so that is what lead me to investigate.
I am in the market for another right now. That is why I look at all the red-dot related posts. I am probably going to go with the Burris Speeddot for about $200.

Good luck !

[Nemesis_318]

There is a guy on ebay that sells Aimpoint clones for around $80. I have had one of these for a while on my AR and have had zero problems with it. The red dot on the brightest setting can easily be seen against a white background of snow in bright daylight. This price includes the cantilever mount and flip up caps.

Make sure you buy from the guy that's in Canada. There are a couple of other people that sell Aimpoint clones I heard are real junk.

[Pete_in_WA]

I use a BSA 30 mm Red Dot on my AR. It is mounted on the quad rail handguard and coindexed with the iron sights (A2 configuration upper. This gives me a boost in speed at picking up the iron sights. So far I am happy with it. It is meant for close in work mainly, no furtehr then 100 yards, since for long range I got my FAL. :D

[lowprofile]

I put one on my .44 Mag. I like the "red dot" idea over trying to line up the iron sights on my S&W model 629. Even with shooting reduced loads (more like a .44 Special load with an attitude) the BSA red dot failed after about 30 rounds. Some internal parts came loose. I sent it back to their service center and they sent me a new one. Perhaps I'll mount this one on something with less recoil.

If I was going to do it all over again I would just buy a good one to start with.