Super Sniper questions

I will introduce myself first. Current LEO for 11 years and 8 of them on SWAT entry team. Also prior US Army(infantry and armor). I used to hunt alot before I got married and the extent of my optics was exclusive to iron sights only. I have always been facinated by the Marksman in my current group and concidered trying for Marksman. I recently purchased a FN PBR .308. It came with a scope which I know very little about. The owner said it was a Super Sniper. I can't find it on the SWFA site. It is a variable power 3.5X10 by I think 42 or 40 and no other markings. My question is did SS make a variable power scope? BTW, I had to send it to Bushnell because it would not focus and the reticle stayed blurry. Hopefully they can repair it. I can't afford a new one, to many kids.

I don't think SS has a variable power out yet. But we are waiting on them 

Welcome to the OT by the way!


Edited by Monster - May/04/2009 at 19:54

Thanks for the welcome. I hope to learn a little from here.

Unfortunately, no one has an answer for this we are all waiting impatiently!   SORRY! 

The genuine article does not exist except as a prototype. What you have is not the same thing.  The Super Sniper was originally made  by Tasco to Mil Specs and they worked so good that SWFA purchased the exclusive rights to have these scopes custom manufactured and they are for sale only through SWFA.  The chinese often copy other manufacturer's scopes and that may be what you have, or you may have a scope made by the same plant which makes the SS but is not the same thing eaven though knobs etc may appear similar.

SS10x42m for m1a.

Pictures?

I sent it to Bushnell for repairs based on what the owner said to me about it being a SS. Sorry but I didn't take pictures, now I wish I would have. I guess they will let me know Thursday what it is. The weird thing is, it has no markings anywhere on it other than the 3.5X10.

I finally got the scope back from Bushnell. It indeed was not a SS scope. Although after many hours of surfing the web for a scope  that looked like the one I had, it appeared it was a Vector. I took it back to the place where I purchased it, local gun/pawn shop. I was telling the owner what I had sent it to bushnell and asked if the person who sold it to him was a friend of his or if he remembered who it was. It just happened the original owner was standing next to him. He had a shocked look on his face and said he paid $200 after a law enforcement discount at a gun show. I quickly informed him it was junk and I had seen one on ebay for the buy now price of $75, which I have. The owner of the shop was nice enough to give me $200 back which made the price of the FN PBR an OK deal.

Your best options are top save up for awhile, or try to find a used scope.


That's a tough deal, sorry to hear.

Man that sucks about your trans, and junk scope! The good news you are only about $ 120 from a real S.S. 10 x 42. Probably not what you wanted to hear but...

Edited by billyburl2 - June/22/2009 at 21:37

Rancid...I think thats what I will do so I do not rush out and buy another piece of $hit. I'd love to have one of the SS variable scopes. After reading miles of these threads it seems that the SS or Leupold is the way to go.

Billy...your right...that sucks!!! But you can bet I'm going out tomorrow with a mission of "random act of kindness" and try to get back on karma's good side.

Waiting until you can get the right thing is the best plan. The Super Sniper variable is an excellent choice.  By the way SWFA does take things in trade and there is a trade in form on the Samplelist link.

I am new to this forum - though a lurker using it to review scope purchases for several years at least.  I bought a Super Sniper 10 x 42 in Jan 2008, after reading many favorable reviews of the scope here.  Mounted it on a heavy barrel (Broughton) Rem 700 with some custom work on action, bolt, trigger, and bedded in a Bell and Carlson medalist varmint tactical scope.  Had great expectatioins!  Very hard to get any group, and zero changed - usually low and way right - with every new shooting session.  My smith ( same guy who built the gun)  says gun and mounts are fine.  Yesterday, my group was 13" right! at 100 yards after being good last fall - rig did nothing but sit in a cradle all winter and spring!  FED UP! I called SWFA and they referred me to Bushnell warranty service to evaluate the scope. 

You have been lucky with scopes.  I have had at least 50% of the scope I have ever bought break on me.  I almost expect it at this point.  Sad, but for me it is the truth.  

supertool73 wrote: You have been lucky with scopes.  I have had at least 50% of the scope I have ever bought break on me.  I almost expect it at this point.  Sad, but for me it is the truth.

Harmless wrote: I am new to this forum - though a lurker using it to review scope purchases for several years at least.  I bought a Super Sniper 10 x 42 in Jan 2008, after reading many favorable reviews of the scope here.  Mounted it on a heavy barrel (Broughton) Rem 700 with some custom work on action, bolt, trigger, and bedded in a Bell and Carlson medalist varmint tactical scope.  Had great expectatioins!  Very hard to get any group, and zero changed - usually low and way right - with every new shooting session.  My smith ( same guy who built the gun)  says gun and mounts are fine.  Yesterday, my group was 13" right! at 100 yards after being good last fall - rig did nothing but sit in a cradle all winter and spring!  FED UP! I called SWFA and they referred me to Bushnell warranty service to evaluate the scope.    Cost me $12 to mail it in, and $10 to cover return postage and about 100 rounds at over $2.00 each to get to where I am finally taking action - new gun, average shooter, I just kept trying...   We will see what the story is when I hear from them.  One thing that is now clear, Bushnell calls the Super Sniper a  TASCO scope - and they own TASCO, so they do the warranty work.   I know 100 % quality is not in the cards with mass-produced stuff, but when I buy, I do expect it to work as advertized.  Over 25 years, I have had only 2 of about 27 scopes fail and both were made by TASCO - if I knew the brand name was a cover, I would not have bought the scope, but I own it now.   So I am not a happy SS owner at this time.  Sorry to open up with rain on the parade, but I did want to share this experience.  I will add more when Bushnell gets back to me. Thank you.   Harmless

My personal expierence is just the opposite! My S.S. 10x42 is mounted on 7 pound rifle chambered in 300 wsm running pretty hot hand loads and it holds zero and dials in elevation and windage corrections as well as my ability allows. While I have only had it since March, I have yet to have it not perform to my expectations. What kind of rings and base was your scope mounted in?

Harmless wrote: I am new to this forum      You do seem to be starting off on the wrong foot ...    So I am not a happy SS owner at this time.   ..... I will add more when Bushnell gets back to me. Thank you.   Harmless

Urimaginaryfrnd

Thanks...................I really wanted to say that.

Thank you folks for quick replies and suggestions -  I will respond to initial comments and then wait till I have some facts from Bushnell.

Mister "Harmless,"

Tagged for interest.

The scope is not made by tasco any more.  They were I think the second owners of the design of the SS.  The thing you got to understand is a lot of scope could be made in the same factory by the same people.  Tasco, Bushnell, Nikon, etc is just a name of the company, most of the scopes are made in factories all over the world based on the specs that the brand name requests.   Some can be great scopes some can be cheap POS scopes it all depends on how good the brand wants to make them.  A lot of it depends upon the specifications for quality of that particular scope.  The level of quality of the materials it is made out of.  The original tasco models were very good, then if my info is correct they started to cut corners on them and they went down hill.  Then SWFA bought the rights and uped the anty if you will so they were once again a quality scope built to a specific standard.  It sounds like to me you probably got a lemon, I feel for you as I have had a lot of those and it is frustrating as hell.  But what can a person do other than send it back.

The reason they still have a Tasco warrenty card is because if SWFA had to have all new booklets made they would have to raise the price a little.  They had a bunch of them when they bought the rights so they just kept sending the ones that were already made.