MArooned Product Review: Barska 12-60X Spotting Scope

(Quite) a while back, I received a Barska Benchmark 12-60X78 WP spotting scope from CSN Stores for testing. My initial review was quite favorable - there's a lot of goodies for not a lot of money - but I admitted that I needed to try it out at range.

Well, try it out I did:

JayG: Shot spotting

That's me using the scope at the 200 yard mark. It was a little difficult to make out the holes at that range, but a good deal of that had to do with the waning sunlight. Earlier in the day we had set up at 200 yards and got the scope set up, and it was very easy to resolve the "X" at the center of the target.

At the close range (~ 35 yards), the minimum setting of 12X was more than sufficient to check shots. At 100 yards, we had it dialed about halfway and it was still picking things up fine. At 200 it started getting harder to resolve .308" holes, but certainly not impossible, and had we not burned daylight playing with the wonderful full auto / suppressed toys, we'd have been perfectly fine at the 48X setting.

The only drawback I saw was that at the highest setting, the slightest movement made the scope very jumpy. This wouldn't be a problem at my range, where the rifle range has a dedicated, covered range house with a solid concrete floor and a bench at each position, but out in the field it took some minor adjustments to get a steady picture. Not a huge deal, especially for me as my distance work will mostly be done from a bench anyways.

Besides, it has a pistol grip:

Uber Tactical!

The pistol grip fits onto a standard tripod screw, so it's for stabilization of the scope as well as rough sighting. I thought it was a hoot. Should have a rail for a bayonet, though...

Conclusion:

Barska Benchmark Spotting Scope

For the occasional long range shooter - like myself - this is a great spotting scope for the money. Serious competition shooters might search for something with greater magnification and a more clear picture at extreme distance, but for the rest of us looking to sight in our scoped rifles and shotguns at reasonable distances, it's a handy addition to any rifleman's range bag.

I only hope to need it a lot more in the near future.

That is all.