Range test of 3 'similar' scopes, one a 'new' one

OK, this test was done today on 'spare' scopes #13, #14 and #15. I have another 20 or so mounted. The ONLY reason I mention this is I just wanted to clarify this ain't my first rodeo......

Objective: I'm not an Optical Engineer, just an old EE. Rather than subject these scopes to just my eyes, I also enlisted the help of a couple of co-workers who are experienced hunters and shooters. I have done this several times, and it's a lot of fun.

Conditions: Beautiful, warm, cloudless Florida day. I set up multiple, new, colored targets at the 50 yard spot on our private range. I have a very sturdy shooting table with a fixture to hold each scope. NO shooting. In addition, the targets were in the shade....

Scopes:

#1 Primary Arms 4-16X44 IR with 30 mm tube. Side focus
#2 Weaver Kaspa 4-16X44 with 1" tube. Side focus
#3 BSA Gold Star 3-18X44 with 1" tube. Side focus

I just received the BSA yesterday. Try as I did, I could NOT find a single review for this new scope, so I bought one to check it out.
Before I go into the details, I have the following caveats:
1. This is my 2nd Kaspa. I gave this thing a very bad review before. I must have been comparing it to a Millet LRS-1 or something.
2. I used my buddies eyes to avoid just my single opinion
3. The scopes' names were covered with blue painters tape. I did this because one of my buddies will look for a scope's name before he looks through it. He is a Redfield fan and I could compare a S&B to the cheapest Redfield and he'll pick the Redfield every time!!!
4. I made sure that all viewers had a crisp view of the cross hairs and instructed them on the side focus and zoom. They would go from min power to max as often as they wanted to and tweak the focus knob if the felt necessary.
5. All of the scopes were very close to each other optically, and yes, we have done these kind of tests with Barska and NcStar, which are NOT in this class. ha ha
6. None of these Chinese scopes had any flare or distortion that we could observe. All the guys tried to 'read' the printing on the Shoot-n-C and other targets, which was pretty small.

- Primary Arms - this is a nice scope and fit/finish is excellent. It is the largest and quite heavy. It was ranked last only because at max magnification, it did not appear to have the same magnification as the Weaver, even though the specs are identical.....This made the text appear smaller and more difficult to read.
- Weaver Kaspa - this was a huge surprise. The other guys liked the clarity of this one best, as well as I did! Can't explain why I was so down on the last Kaspa. Yes, I did look through both and they are the same. Very light weight. The side focus knob looked like it was made in grade school art class. Cheaper by around $100 over the other 2......
- BSA - Even though it had 18X magnification, the picture was very clear. Eye box was the most critical. It came in second. Construction was very nice and weight was between the PA and the Weaver.

There are no real losers here. Especially for the $. I have a lot of higher $ scopes and one thing I have done is to fit all the scopes with their own rings and all the rifles have one piece rails, so I can swap to my heart's content.

Worth exactly what you paid for it....

ron