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Posted: 10/16/2007 5:35:57 PM EDT
| I'm trying to stay down around $200 for a varmint-type scope & found a couple Center Point scopes ("Power Class" @ 4-16x56 & 8-32x56) in that price range. Anyone used either of these? One will go on a .223 varmint AR I intend to build soon. I know most of you would recommend something a little more high-dollar, but I can't justify it. Thanks. |
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I have a scope that is made by UTG. Today at walmart I was looking for ammo and I saw a scope in the case that looked JUST LIKE my scope that I have. In fact, it is exactly the same scope that I have, just sold under the name CenterPoint. Certainly there are better scopes out there than this, but for what I paid it seems to work good. It has a nice clear image and it holds zero just fine. I have it for my AR and I'm able to get quarter sized groups with it at 100 yards every time I use it. It hasn't shifted zero one bit. One thing to note, it appears on newer models they went away from having to use an allen wrench to unlock the knobs so you can adjust them, and now they are using a dial that you twist to tighten or loosen the knobs. I would prefer that much more since you don't need tools. All in all, it does what I need it to do. Is it a combat optic? Nope, and I don't need it for combat. I honestly wouldn't have a problem having one for a varmint gun. I just showed it to someone who is an avid hunter the other day when I was showing him my AR. He was surprised at how clear the image was through it. A few hundred rounds using the scope and it's still as good as new. I have no hesitations about it. Hope that helps. |
| I just bought one of these at Walmart after some research. I bought the 4-16X40 Adventure Class model. This model has the green and red illuminated reticle and a pair of very beefy removable flip up lense covers. The mounting rings were also included. My closest Walmart had a display model in a case. The rest were sold out. They had plenty of Tascos and Bushnells left. The salesman told me he was expecting to get more in because the display model was the last one. I checked 3 other Walmarts and all were sold out (still plenty of Tascos and Bushnells). I went back to the first Walmart and got the display model for 10% off the original $69.97 price. They were still nice enought to throw in the original packaging with the allen wrenches, extra screws, cloth, batteries and instructions. I am in the process of mounting it on my RRA carbine to see what it can do. So far it looks solid and well built for the price. According to the the Center Point website, they have a limited lifetime warranty and are made by Crosman for firearms. They are said to be fog, water and shock proof. Has anyone else had any experiences with this scope? |
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hi Santino, I just got mine mounted. The red/green reticle illumination is nothing to write home about. However, so far everything works OK. I am still in the scope learning mode, so wanted something cheap (ie. expendable). I also wanted to work with the mil-dot system a bit and learn about it. I set the front flip up lens cap at the100 yds mark, because the open cap will not let you go full span on the objective lens focus from 5 yd to infinity. Using the illum reticle in low light really does not do anything for me. A dark shadow in reduced light is even a darker shadow when I turn the reticle on either red or green. By the time I lose the black reticle in a dark environment all together it is time to stop shooting. The large cross-bolts in the rings fit the picatinny rails slots rather tight. I had to jog one of the clamps to get both cross-bolts seated in the slots properly. So far it looks like a fun scope for the money. Let me know your experiences. Mikey, over in another thread just got one also. |
| Hey CCW. Thanks for the input. I plan on trying mine tomorrow. I agree about the red and green reticles. I will probably never use them and probably would prefer that this scope not have that feature. I also own 3 of the SS scopes and the $300 I spent on each of them is the most I am willing to spend on glass since I am more of hobbiest and target shooter when it comes to long guns. This scope looks like it will hold up to 50 to 100 yard target shooting. Even tho I'm going to try it out on my AR carbine, it may eventually make it's way on to a different rifle especially if it does well. My AR carbine usually just sports a carry handle rear sight. I will let you know how it does. |
I test fired this scope on my RRA carbine today at 100 yards. I fired 5 round groups of about 100 rounds of Black Hills 55 grain FMJ. I fired from a bench using a rifle rest. My carbine has a stock duty trigger and not the RRA 2 stage target trigger. It has a 16" M4 barrel and nothing special about it. Hell, I didnt even clean it from the last time I shot it. The following target pics are typical of how it shot with the Center Point scope. I had the scope set at 16X and found it clear enough with a generous eye relief. Which is not bad considering there were black powder rifles being sighted in all around me that made for a pretty smokey range. The zero locking rings worked well. Everything stayed put under recoil. However, it seems that the Parallax adjustment ring moved a little under recoil. I had it set at 100 and after about 80 rounds it had drifted a little toward 50. Over all I like the scope so far. I like how my carbine worked with it even better. This experience has me thinking about installing a better trigger. If and when this scope dies on me, I'll replace it with something better and much more expensive. So I guess buying this scope may end up costing me more money after all. Your results may vary.      |
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Finally made it to the range. Date: 12-4-07 Firrearm: Bushmaster 5.56 NATO 20" HBAR Brass: Headstamp '02 LC Cartridge: XM193 Lot 25 Temperature: 45F Wind: < 5 mph Altitude: 600 ft ASL Number of shots total: 60 Target Distance - 50 Yards Sights: Center Point Scope, CPA416AORG, 4-16X, Set at Max Mag. Est. Velocity 3200 FPS Best Group: 5 shots under 1" (lower right) Note: I forgot how hot the XM193 runs. Shooting off a harris bi-pod and a sand bag under the trigger grip, the Bushy would bounce around about every shot. The scope zeroed and performed as well as expected. I started out with POI about 5 inches up and 5 inches to the right of POA. At 45 F the turret wheels still feel a little sluggish. It would be helpful if the felt "clicks" were more pronounced. It was getting colder and darker down in the hollow, and the rifle was shooting alot better than me, so I called it a day. Next time, going to sandbag alot more, move out to 100 yds, and play with the 10X mil-dot. |
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Due to a last-minute discovery that a different brand of cheap scope had a canted reticle, I shot the ASC Fall (Allegheny Sniper Challenge) match with one of these scopes I borrowed from a friend (he had ordered it but had not put it on his hunting rifle yet.) It was a Power Class 4-16x56. I have to say that my impression was favorable. The glass in the scope was nowhere near the best, but the reticle lined up exactly with the turrets (that is seldom the case with lower-end scopes) and the tracking was dead-on and repeatable - between sighting in for the match and the match itself I shot 300+ rounds of .308, resetting the turrets to zero each time and then cranking it up for the shots - and this match had shots to 1100 yards, with the vast majority of shots being 500+ yards away. The gun was humped up and down the mountains in West Virginia for both days, and the scope did its job! Good points of the scope: 1. Reticle is aligned with the turrets! (I have returned many other low-end scopes for this problem.) 2. Mil-dot estimation worked on the power they said it would! (With most low-end scopes, if they say the mil-dot estimation works on 10x power it could be anywhere from 8 to 12 - you have to place two lines 3.6" apart, get 100 yards away and then mark the spot on the magnification dial where they are 1 mil apart in the reticle.) 3. The tracking was dead-on and repeatable. (Actually, my experience with low-end scopes has been good on this. I have a Barska scope that has shot thousands of long-range rounds of .308, resetting to zero between each one, and it tracks perfectly.) 4. Price. Its cheap. Lets face it - a guy can walk into wal-mart, buy a Stevens 200 rifle for $285, buy the cheap Center Point scope for $70, bases for $8 and the Harris rip-off bipod for $50 and have a 1 MOA rig. We really have it good on affordable, accurate stuff these days. Downsides: 1. The optics are marginal. This is to be expected - but at the match the guys with the Schmidt and Benders could see the bullet impact marks on the targets at 1000 yards - I couldn't see them past 450-550 or so. Same magnification, but the clarity wasn't there. If we had been shooting at dusk I would have been at more of a disadvantage. 2. Mushy clicks. In fact, many times it didn't make any audible clicks at all, which was really disturbing - I thought I had lost the zero. It never did lose the zero, and the hash mark indicators on the dial were always 100% dead on. If I had to dial in 80 clicks for a shot, I might get only 50 or so "clicks" - but the dial would turn the right amount and would be dead-on once I was done. For 100 or 200 yard range shooting I would use these scopes again. I would even recommend them to someone on a budget or who had marginal interest in shooting but needed something on their gun. I might even buy one for a .22 or a gun that I knew wasn't going to get a lot of really long-range use. But the rifle that had the Center Point scope on it is getting a Schmidt and Bender PM II put on it within the next 2 weeks. For those that don't know Center Point is a division of the Crosman Airgun company and they have them made for them in China. In my mind they are similar in performance to the other inexpensive Chinese scopes - and probably made in the same factories - but there seems to be a higher level of quality control. |
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