The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Hunting American Big Game Hunting Simmons aetec or Nikon buckmaster?Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
| Simmons aetec or Nikon buckmaster? | Login/Join |
| one of us |
quote: Sell them to someone and buy yourself a LEUPOLD!! Have Fun!! | |||
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| one of us |
I have 2 Simmons aetec's One on a 378 Weatherby the other a 35 Whelen. I personally have had no trouble with them. The clarity is not as good as the higher end scopes but they hold zero well. | |||
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| <Reloader66> |
I can give you the facts you be the judge. The Simmons scope has the highest failure rate of any scope now produced. They fail at of a rate of 50%. that translates to every 100 sold 50 will need service within the first year of use. They have substandard material in their construction being the reason. Simmons thrives on volume sales because their scopes are less costly. They will replace or repair, but I would get tired of spending the cost to mail the scope back and forth time after time. Not to mention the time involved waiting to start all over agin. Any scope can fail no matter how well made. Quality scopes failures is rare and in most cases the fault of the owner not the scope. Improper instalation of being damaged by droping or any other number of reasons, but they will replace or repair even when they know it was the owners fault and not theirs. I own one Nikon and have used it on several different rifles with no problem. Their are a handful of scopes that are made extremely well with top quality material. You just can't get a rifle scope of top quality for $39.95 or $139.95. those are best used on a 22 rimfire rifle. I own a 3X9 Leupold vintage 1968 and it has never failed in all those years. I mailed it to Leupold about ten years ago to have it gone over to be sure it was sound. It was returned no cost to me and the card sent with scope stated the scope was in perfect working condition and no repair was needed. It is still in use and I will keep using until whenever. Yes I own a few Simmons scopes and yes they have been returned because of faulty erectors when used on rifles with recoil. I would not have one on my favorite hunting rifle. | ||
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| <Mike Anderson> |
Nikon maybe, most likely a 3-9-40 var-x-ii if i was looking to go inexpensive. As for Simmons, if i owned one i'd give it to my 4 yr old son to play with! | ||
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| one of us |
I saw the entire objective bell fall off of a Simmons when a hunter in a bear camp 300 miles from the nearest store fired a sighting shot. He hunted the entire week with a bow. The Nikon may be okay, I just don't know, because for the same price I can get a Leupold VariX II. So why should any other scope in that price range even be a consideration? | |||
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| one of us |
I have both of these scopes and have never had a problem with either one. I can see where the Nikon is brighter and clearer, but the Simmon's isn't too far behind. As it gets darker the difference is easier to see. I don't have the Aetec, one 44mag on my 22-250 and a whitetail classic on my 30-06. The 4.5 to 14 Buckmaster is on my 338. All 3 shoot great. For the price, I'm pleased with the Simmons. ------------------ | |||
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| one of us |
Can't say that I like Simmons either. I mounted up a pro 50 on a friends new .300 Rem Ultra ( against my warning about 50mm objectives and simmons quality ) and low and behold the thing lasted almost a whole box of ammo! Get a Burris or Leupold. ------------------ | |||
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| one of us |
Well as stated Simmons are junk, I have owned a Nikon Buckmaster, for a day. I saw No difference between it and the Tasco world class scopes as far as the optics went. I sent it back the next day and got a Leapold Vari-x II. The Leapold Vari-x II, 3-9x40 is the best deal out there. check them out at http://www.bearbasin.com hope this helps, Mark | |||
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| one of us |
I have gotten a few Simmons scopes at times when finances were low. So far, they have worked out just fine. I've only had one Simmons scope go south, and that was my fault. I was adjusting the focus and the rear of the scope came off, releasing whatever gases may have been inside. I put it back on, sighted the rifle in, and it shoots justs fine. I won't use it on a cold weather hunt, but for range work, it'll do. I own only one Nikon, a 4X that I put on a .375 H&H. Seems to have held up well, so far. Cabela's has a sale on Leupold 3x9 Vari-X II's for $188.95 and free shipping. I just bought three of them. You even get a free gift with each scope you buy. You might want to check that deal out. Paul B. | |||
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one of us |
I have an Aetec on my 6PPC, and it is fine. Very, very nice for the $109 I paid for it. Significantly better than my (Japan) World Class. About 600 rounds so far. One of the guys on the farm has a Simmons Pro hunter on his Mark X, and it is on his truck gun. It's abut 6 years old, and been bouncing around in the back of his truck the whole time. The thing has dents, dings, and a couple of thousands rounds of 22-250 and 25-06 past it, was dropped on it's head once, and has never lost zero. Still shoots groups well below moa, too. I have a pro-hunter on my wife's 270, and it has been good for 300 range rounds and 5 years of chasing cow elk so far. There are some introductory Simmons' I'd stay away from (like the ones on the Savage packages), but the higher end stuff is reasonably tough. As a matter of fact, I just bought a Weaver V3 to replace the no-name Simmons on my 35 Whelen. A matter of confidence -- but that's a $39.99 promo scope! I don't know where the 50% failure rate comes from, but I'd like to know. Given the warranty on the higher end Simmons, they would not be in business very long. The warranty business isn't too profitable. It always surprises me when people go out and spend $49.99 on a coke-bottle Chinese scope, trash it, and then worship Leupold, cause their $200 scope is better. Dang well better be better! JMO, Dutch. | |||
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| one of us |
I have to agree with Dutch. Yes the $39 scopes are crap, what a surprise. I haven't yet had any problems with the ones I've got. Mind you I don't have them on stopping rifles either, so at that recoil level I couldn't say. As a matter of fact the only scopes I've had to repair so far have been Weavers (probably because I have quite a few of them, some quite old) and Bushnell. The Bushnell came off one of those Savage package deals, my brother gave it to me, and it really was a poor quality scope. - Dan | |||
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| <Sparkman375> |
I think a few of the comments regarding Simmons are unwarranted. This topic is specifically asking about the Aetec vs. the Nikon Buckmaster. I personally have been trying to kill a 2.5-10x44 Aetec for 3 years. I have had it on my .375HH, a 7mmRM and finally on a Striker handgun in .243 I've got over 300 rounds of heavy gun work on this scope and it still continues to hold zero. The eye relief is over 4 inches and its light gathering ability surpasses my VX2 Leupold (set at same powers). Its a damn good scope, in my opinion. The only Nikon I own is a Monarch UCC series 3x9. THAT Nikon is better than the Aetec. For the $150 money, an Aetec is good value. Sparkman375 | ||
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| One of Us |
Mark in all honesty what do you think of simmons higher end "whitetail expedition" scope. I have one in 4-12 x 42 admittedly it is only on a .22 magnum so recoil is not an issue, but I think that this scope is a better scope than there cheaper stuff. I have another simmons a cheaper whitetail classic 3.5-10 on my .22 Brno model and I can see a significant difference bewteen the whitetail classic and the higher end whitetail expedition. Would you agree with this or others that are using simmons scopes. But as far as centerfires go I prefer leupolds. Regards PC ------------------ | |||
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| one of us |
PC. I have two Whitetail Expedition scopes, both 1.5x6X mounted on my Ruger RSI and my wife's Ruger RSI, both rifles in .308 Win.. I just got them mounted and sighted in, so I have not used them in the field. They seem to be a fairly well made scope for the price. I might one on one of my big boomers (.375 Taylor) and see how well they hold up on a 7.5 pound magnum.  Somehow, I'm not worried.Paul B. | |||
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| One of Us |
Paul, I would be real interested to see how that experiment pans out, my e-mail is availible just click on the profile and when you see how that scope performs drop me a line i'd love to hear. Regards PC. ------------------ | |||
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one of us |
In my opinion there isn't much difference betwen the two. However, if it were me, and there were no Leupolds available, I would opt for the Nikon. They make great photographic optics. | |||
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| <karl hoehne> |
In response to the inquiry about Simmons scopes, I have a Simmons 4-10x w/ adjustible objective that is about 13 years old on a custom 8mm magnum, several hundred rounds through--no problems. Having said that, I am reluctant to purchse another Simmons, even though A Whitetail Expediton 1.5-6x is interesting, due to the great amount of negative comments on this and other websites. Did I maybe get a lucky fluke? | ||
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| one of us |
I'm a die hard Leupold fan--they're on all my varmint rigs. However, I've had a Nikon 3-9x40 on my deer rifle for 8 years--picked up for a song at SAMS back when they carried a few scopes in the camera area. It's been a great scope. One day at the range, the sun was going down and side by side with a Leupold III, the Nikon was clearly not coated as well. I like the Nikon Monarch series over the Vari-X II line because of the positive click adjustments for windage and elevation. I am leery of the Buckmaster line because the price point seems too good to be true for a real quality scope. I am not a big Simmons fan, but I have no real experience upon which to base my opinion. SO, as you can see, I own neither of the scopes you asked about in this post. But hey, it's already typed, so.... byeforenow! | |||
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| <Ken in VA> |
quote: Hey Reloader, Ken in VA | ||
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