Tasco, I Apologize

[Semisane]

You guys may recall that my 30 April outing with the Remington 700ML was disappointing. Although it started off OK at 50 and 75 yards, it ended with six-inch groups at 100 yards on the last couple of targets. I was pretty much convinced that my WalMart special 3x9 Tasco scope had developed loose bowels.

Saturday morning I set out to prove or disprove my assumption. So I brought along an extra Simmons 4X ProDiamond to switch with the Tasco.

The plan was to shoot my last five 300 grain XTPs at 100 yards to establish a base line, then change the scope and try a few different loads with other bullets I had on hand. The XTPs are what gave me inch and a half groups last January.

So I set out a target a 100 yards and shot those five XTPs. This is what I got.



Now that's not too bad a group, but an inch bigger than my January groups.

Then I pulled the Tasco off of the gun to put on the Simmons, only to find the little ProDiamond was about a half inch too short to fit the scope mounts. DANG!

As I was preparing to remount the Tasco I double checked the screws in the two-piece scope bases. Both screws in the rear base were as tight as could be. But I was able to tighten both screws in the front base a full half turn each.

After remounting the Tasco I loaded up with 300 grain Deep Curls and 95 grains T7 FFG and took five shots at 100 yards. Here's that target.



Now you can see why I had to apologize to Tasco. Never was anything wrong with that scope.

In my disappointing outing in April I was shooting GOEX. So I decided to give it a try again. Five more shots at 100 yards produced this target.



Not great, but acceptable hunting accuracy. A whole lot better than the six-inch groups in April with the same load. Who knows, increasing or decreasing the charge by ten grains might really tighten it up.

Let's give some 270 grain Gold Dot Soft Points a try. Five shots at 100 yards look like this.



I'll take full credit for shot #1 - tickled the trigger before I was quite set. But I'll take credit for the other four shots too.

I was running out of daylight, but wanted to shoot one more group. So I loaded up with 300 grain Hornady SSTs and shot these five.



I don't know why shot #3 went where it did. Everything felt real good for that shot. Probably Sabotloader's fault, or maybe Bronko's or Devil's. All in all, none of those groups are bad considering I just picked a variety of bullets and powder charges and shot them with no real load development.

Anywho, I'm about done with the Rescued Remington. It was a play around project that worked out well. But I just can't take a shine to black stocked bolt action muzzleloaders so I think I'll put it up for sale.

I did succeed in proving a rescued pitted bore muzzle loader can turn out to be a pretty good shooter.

By the way, this is what the bore looks like now after the steel wool and JB Bore Paste treatments I gave it.

[Omega45]

That's some good shooting. I sent you a message.

[nchawkeye]

Looks like going from FF Goex to FFF Goex helped those last groups as well...
One of my brothers has a Remington, shoots good with 100grs of Pyrodex RS
and 300gr Barnes MZ...

[cayugad]

Why is it, there is always that one flier in every group? I would hat to guess how many perfect groups have been ruined by that one lone shot. Happens to me all the time. Nice to know I have company.

Nice shooting there. Any of them groups are hunting quality and some are exceptional other then the lone ranger there. A pitted bore is not a death sentence on a rifle. I have a few pits that are exceptional shooters. They just drive me crazy though when you look down the bore of them.

I never tried them Tasco 8 point scopes I see at Wal Mart. Some times they are under $20 bucks so maybe I need to get one and see if I can break it. Nice shooting there Semisane.

[BCRules]

Don't worry, about the appology, might have been ok today, but I know tasco will owe you an appology in the future. They never fail to disappoint

[slowr1der]

What do you want for this gun? PM me if you'd like. I really like these things. Also, is this the one that has the 209 conversion or does it take #11 caps.

That being said, I own what I assume to be the same Tasco and mine is also on my muzzle loader. It cost me $30 at Walmart and it's the Bucksight model. I bought it about 3.5 years ago as I had never shot a muzzle loader before and I wanted to shot it to see if I liked it before spending a ton on a gun and scope. I also got the gun pretty cheap. To my surprise it had better glass than the Leupold VX-I I put on my main hunting rifle earlier that year. In the daylight I couldn't tell a difference but two friends checked it out and they both said it looked clearer to them. In low light, it was slightly better than the Leupold. I was impressed to say the least.

I've also been shooting it for the last 3.5 years and it stays zeroed and has never given me any issues at all or a reason to replace it. I sometimes worry about it just because people talk so horribly about Tasco's and since this is my only muzzle loader it makes me worry about it some as I don't want it to fail me in the field, but like I said, I hate to replace it when it's working perfectly. I've also go several buddies that have also used these scopes and the majority of them have had good luck. 2 of them have had questionable luck. The first one put it on the gun and never could get it sighted in as the gun shot horribly and all over the place. He is normally a great shot. He told me the scope was bad. So I went with him and when he replaced it with a Bushnell and he tried to sight it in. The gun was still shooting all over the place, but he said it was shooting slightly smaller groups than the Tasco, and it shot decently enough for us to get it sighted in enough to hunt with. He was getting about 3" groups at 100 yards this day.

So I question if his really was bad or if it was the gun. I suspect the gun, but I never saw him shoot it with the Tasco, I just know he had a heck of a time getting it sighted in with the Bushnell.

His brother also put one on his gun and it shot great. Same model gun, and scope but for some reason shot a lot better with the same bullets and pellets. He used it for a year and killed some deer. The next year, he shot it and killed a deer. Then he missed a deer, then got another one. Or that's what he told me. He then missed another one. I know this guy, and it's rare that he misses a deer. He never shot it at a target to see what it was doing, but put another scope on as he said he doesn't have faith in Tasco's either. He said after putting the new scope on he never missed a deer, which I've not seen him miss much anyway. So I'm not sure if his is really bad or not since he didn't shoot it at a target, or if it was him shooting.

Those are the only two people I've personally known that have had issues, and the rest of them have had pretty good luck with them.

I'd really like to hear more experiences from people online that have used this particular scope. It seems like I've only read about these a couple of times and they reviews I've seen have been positive. I know more people use them than that as our Walmart sells the heck out of them. Everyone that I've heard bash them just seems to say Tasco sucks in general and hasn't used them. I'm sure they aren't the quality of a $500 scope, but for the price like I said, the one I own and the ones most of my friends own are more than enough for a hunting scope. I just always have that thought in the back of my mind of it failing because of all the complaints online about "Tasco's" in general.

[pluckit]

I had a Tasco on a .22 cal for THIRTY YEARS before it went bad. It got too cloudy to see through. Tasco's bite so bad I replaced it with another Tasco. $10.00 for the first one and $15.00 for the one I replaced it with this year. I have Tasco's on most of my rifles and that's the only one I ever had a problem with. I think I'll take them all off and replace them with TASCO'S. They stink.

[gregrn43]

I have a ole Tasco world class that I bought when I was 16 for my 30-06 and its still on there. Its the only Tasco that I own, but its been a real dandy of a scope. It has the rubber coating with the built in rings for it, I think they called it armour guard. Its as clear and any of my Nikon's or Leupold's. I have bought a couple Tasco's since then and had no luck with them.

[bronko22000]

I too have enjoyed he use of Tasco scopes without any problems. True they are not Nikon or Burris or some other more expensive optics but the ones I have seem to remain clear and zeroed.
Semi, I am glad you found your problem. And as it is with most instances - operator error!
And BTW, you will always get a flyer in your groups. It's just my way of saying "I'm watching you and I know you're going to screw this up again!"