BSA Essencial Scopes

[AirArmsDavid]

I started off with the BSA Essencial (note spelling!) 6-24x50AO http://www.bsaguns.co.uk/?ID=53&ProductID=638 and it has bright clear optics, accurate PX, and closer 'mil' dots which are ideal, both for accurate POI calculation and for bracketing targets for rangefinding in HFT.

Just divide the kill zone diameter by the number of dots across and multiply by two and you have the yardage. This only works on 11x mag but that's ideal for HFT. (or 12x exactly if you measure distance in metres).
For instance, if you're aiming at a 40mm kill zone and, say, three dots cover its diameter, divide 40 by 3 then multiply by 2, and it's 27 yards away or if a 25mm kill zone is 2 dots across, divide by 2, multiply by 2, and it's 25 yards away.

Rather than the 6-24x50, the 4-12x44AO would be ideal for HFT as it's lighter, has better depth of field so things far and near stay more in focus as you can't adjust that in HFT, and max mag is often 12x in HFT anyway.
I tend not to adjust my 6-24 over 11x mag anyway as all my POI's would shift!

At 11x mag you can easily see where you've put a pellet in a paper target up to 40yards.

My Hawke SR6 is good too but it's unusual reticle means you either love it or hate it - I love mine but it retails at £140.

The BSA 6-24 was £80+post from BAR as part of my Pro Sport kit and two weeks ago I bought the 4-12x44AO again from BAR and LLoyd did it for £60+£5 post. Used it for the first time last Saturday and did a 58/60 with the Pro Sport!

Don't underrate them and think "that's too cheap" - they're a really excellent bit of kit!

[hwtyger]

Does it white out at the high mags?

[the bish]

Very informative post David.
Just one question, what diameter is the tube?

[rapidpaulus]

they are 25mm tubes..
a friend of mine has one these on his rapid,and they are a fine optic,very clear and paralax well,good scope for the money..

[laity]

Tried one last night and could not believe how good it was for the money..I use a Hawke SR and love it ..BUT the BSA scope was amazing , clear bright optics and for the money..out of this world. I am so surprised that more people dont use these.

Outsanding

LAity

[Darren Petts]

I agree that for the money the optics are better than you should expect and the close dots very useful but the ret is easily lost in dark places as the dots are physically small. Dashes may have been better. Still a scope worth considering though.

[NeilB]

I have just bought the 4-12 by 44 essential scope, £80. I have some expensive Bushnell 4200 scopes and some Leupold scopes but for £80 I think the BSA is outstanding value for money.

Nice and clear, and a good depth of field.

You really need to adjust the ocular lens (nearest the eye) to get the reticule right for personal preferece as the mil dots are a little small. They may be difficult to see in a dark conditions.

If you are comfortable to shoot on 8 mag then this is a cracking budget HFT scope.

NeilB

[Whitester]

I have the 3-9 X32 AO duplex version on my rapid. It’s a cracking scope for hunting, very good optics for the money. I have used it on HFT courses and just racked up a 71 out of 80 with it. If you have a heavy rifle and you want to lighten the load you won’t go far wrong for £50.

[leons]

I have the 4-12x44AO, and agree about the quality of the optics.

However I find the mildots too small to be of much use.

With the ocular lens adjusted to suit my vision the dots are barely visible, in anything but good light I cannot see them.

A clear case of look before you buy, as I now have to sell mine.:mad:

[Xverminate]

I use the 6-24-50 on my CZ452 in .17HMR. A very clear optic when compared to other brands. When i was shoping around i found that scopes twice the BSA's value to be very poor.

I was that impressed i even bought "My Old Man" (xverminate2)one for a christmas present from Blackpool A.R, they had a cracking deal on there Fleabay Site at almost half the price of other retailers.

See Pics, We Have fitted Hawk Sun Tubes.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii311/xverminate/MixedDECJAN002.jpg

Many Thanks

Justin.:D

[Xverminate]

Pics Added!!:D

[blankster]

I agree on the 3-9 X32 AO duplex. Nice li'l hunter.

[seanyboy]

The BSA Essencial 6-24x50 scope sounds really interesting, I am thinking of getting a scope of this type but does anyone know how it compares to the JSR equivelant model ?


I too would really like to know how they compare.
Please.

[snipperuk]

just fitted the jaguar model 1.5-6x44ir 30mm body ........ very nice optics

[Br0dy]

Well i have just got the MD 4x12x44 AO. Optics seem nice and clear but thats as good as it gets. Everything else screams "budget". There are nasty sharp edges to the metalwork. When i used the eyepiece to focus on the reticle it showed up little "jaggies" between the mildots.. very poor imo. I took the eyepeice out about 2 turns during the focusing exercise and found it moved laterally noticeably. I touched it while looking through the scope and found considerable reticle movement occuring. This would probably be more of a problem on a springer?
Would i recommend it or buy another? Unfortunately No.

[AirArmsDavid]

Chap at my club had a similar 'duffer'. It happens with all product lines occasionally. Take it back for a replacement.

[blueboy2]

ive just bought a 3-9 x 40 essencial scope and im having trouble with the focus at anything less than 45ft the instructions that came with the scope seem to be for different scopes.

[Antagonistix]

ive just bought a 3-9 x 40 essencial scope and im having trouble with the focus at anything less than 45ft the instructions that came with the scope seem to be for different scopes.

Hi,

I have the 3-9x50 Essencial, and at 9x mag, objects at close range like sub 15 yards are not very well focussed. And I dont mean blurry - you need to draw a fine line on a piece of paper to notice it big time. Some objects (say an apple) appear focussed until only 15 ft away.
Have you tried at lower magnification levels for the close range objects ?

I only began to notice this a couple of days ago when going through yet another zeroing excercise. Its all clear at 25 yards and beyond though which is my intended hunting range. In lower light conditions (like 9PM UK summertime) - fine objects can appear blurry even at 20 yards, dont know if thats my eyesight though.

Overall I would recommend the Essencial scope but alas I have not owned any other to compare it with !

BTW - My instructions are generic also - not Essencial specific !

Dan :)

[Hinksy]

I started off with the BSA Essencial (note spelling!) 6-24x50AO http://www.bsaguns.co.uk/?ID=53&ProductID=638 and it has bright clear optics, accurate PX, and closer 'mil' dots which are ideal, both for accurate POI calculation and for bracketing targets for rangefinding in HFT.

Just divide the kill zone diameter by the number of dots across and multiply by two and you have the yardage. This only works on 11x mag but that's ideal for HFT. (or 12x exactly if you measure distance in metres).
For instance, if you're aiming at a 40mm kill zone and, say, three dots cover its diameter, divide 40 by 3 then multiply by 2, and it's 27 yards away or if a 25mm kill zone is 2 dots across, divide by 2, multiply by 2, and it's 25 yards away.

Rather than the 6-24x50, the 4-12x44AO would be ideal for HFT as it's lighter, has better depth of field so things far and near stay more in focus as you can't adjust that in HFT, and max mag is often 12x in HFT anyway.
I tend not to adjust my 6-24 over 11x mag anyway as all my POI's would shift!

At 11x mag you can easily see where you've put a pellet in a paper target up to 40yards.

My Hawke SR6 is good too but it's unusual reticle means you either love it or hate it - I love mine but it retails at £140.

The BSA 6-24 was £80+post from BAR as part of my Pro Sport kit and two weeks ago I bought the 4-12x44AO again from BAR and LLoyd did it for £60+£5 post. Used it for the first time last Saturday and did a 58/60 with the Pro Sport!

Don't underrate them and think "that's too cheap" - they're a really excellent bit of kit!

As you can see in my sig I have an Essencial on my S200, it's the 3-9x40version, PA, 30/30 ret, bloody good scope for the £25 I paid for it second hand off my good mate Paul (Hellequin) on here! :cool:

Ben :)

[blueboy2]

just fitted the jaguar model 1.5-6x44ir 30mm body ........ very nice optics

fitted the very same yesterday, quality.

[stephen280480]

Hi,

I have the 3-9x50 Essencial, and at 9x mag, objects at close range like sub 15 yards are not very well focussed. And I dont mean blurry - you need to draw a fine line on a piece of paper to notice it big time. Some objects (say an apple) appear focussed until only 15 ft away.
Have you tried at lower magnification levels for the close range objects ?

I only began to notice this a couple of days ago when going through yet another zeroing excercise. Its all clear at 25 yards and beyond though which is my intended hunting range. In lower light conditions (like 9PM UK summertime) - fine objects can appear blurry even at 20 yards, dont know if thats my eyesight though.

Overall I would recommend the Essencial scope but alas I have not owned any other to compare it with !

BTW - My instructions are generic also - not Essencial specific !

Dan :)

have the same scope and agree! as for the eyesight its prob a dit of both ! i did not find it so bad! better than my old bushnell and my ags 3-9x40 which i think is a good scope for dif reasons! my scope im sure has a 30mm tube! the other scopes in the range do thay have 25mm as was posted in a prev post???

[redrooster]

I've had three Bsa scopes, one essential.
Not my cup of tea:eek:
Prefer a Hawke or Ags for the money;)

[tezzyclayt]

Hi, I have just reluctantly sold one to Ericb on here to fund another scope to use with NV. I could not believe how crisp and clear the optics were and how easy the mil-dot ret is to get on with. I also have a mamba and as far as Im concerned the bsa is as good if you can live with the px on the objective. I stated all these facts in my advertisment but people are still afraid of commiting themselves. What really makes me laugh is that they may even be made in the same factory as some of the so called top names, such is life, Enjoy Ericb you have a quality cheap scope. Cheers Terry:D

[Hawkstone]

Totally agree with Tezzyclayt on the above post, the BSA Essencial scopes are excellent value for money, I have the 6-24x50 and a friend has the 4-12x44 both are very good to use being bright, clear and with very useful mildot markings. Buy one with confidence.

[maxtich]

Hi I have had the obove new scope mounted on a new sako hmr 17 a couple of months and i am having a major problem the point of impact changing considerably if i change the parallax correction and change the power setting to maximum power(zoom).The mounts are new and are on solid and gun/mod are also fine has been checked by GMK.
The scope is currently set at about 60 metres and the gun groups within one inch i am happy with that.
The moment i adjust it to 100 meters the pont of impact changes considerably almost 4 inches totally missing the target.
I have sent the scope back to Debens who at first said they could find nothing wrong with it until i insisted they test fire it with a live rounds at which point they e-mailed me back a little later admiting yes the point of impact did change and posted me another scope.
I am not sure if they have sent me my old scope back as i am having the same problem again.Any one else had a similar problem.

[Hinksy]

I started off with the BSA Essencial (note spelling!) 6-24x50AO http://www.bsaguns.co.uk/?ID=53&ProductID=638 and it has bright clear optics, accurate PX, and closer 'mil' dots which are ideal, both for accurate POI calculation and for bracketing targets for rangefinding in HFT.

Just divide the kill zone diameter by the number of dots across and multiply by two and you have the yardage. This only works on 11x mag but that's ideal for HFT. (or 12x exactly if you measure distance in metres).
For instance, if you're aiming at a 40mm kill zone and, say, three dots cover its diameter, divide 40 by 3 then multiply by 2, and it's 27 yards away or if a 25mm kill zone is 2 dots across, divide by 2, multiply by 2, and it's 25 yards away.

Rather than the 6-24x50, the 4-12x44AO would be ideal for HFT as it's lighter, has better depth of field so things far and near stay more in focus as you can't adjust that in HFT, and max mag is often 12x in HFT anyway.
I tend not to adjust my 6-24 over 11x mag anyway as all my POI's would shift!

At 11x mag you can easily see where you've put a pellet in a paper target up to 40yards.

My Hawke SR6 is good too but it's unusual reticle means you either love it or hate it - I love mine but it retails at £140.

The BSA 6-24 was £80+post from BAR as part of my Pro Sport kit and two weeks ago I bought the 4-12x44AO again from BAR and LLoyd did it for £60+£5 post. Used it for the first time last Saturday and did a 58/60 with the Pro Sport!

Don't underrate them and think "that's too cheap" - they're a really excellent bit of kit!

Totally agree David,

Great little review David!

On my main rifle I've got a Nighteater but on my S200 I've got a 3-9x40 mini mil-dot BSA Essencial and what a great bit of kit it is all round :cool:

When I first bought the S200 it came with a BSA Essencial 3-9x40 but that had a standard 30/30 reticle, I liked it so much I decided that I'd like another Essencial but it would need to be a mil-dot to aid with targeting. I've still got the original one, it's in the gun cupboard (The mil-dot one is EXACTLY the same as the one my S200 came with-the only difference is the ret), and what value at a tad under £50 c/w medium mounts!!!

Great scopes and I highly recommend them.

ATVB

Ben :)

[bigglesworth]

I`ve got a BSA Essential 4x32,A.O. ,30/30 ret and it`s crystal clear .I got it second hand and although I`ve tried to get another,I`ve never seen one,I can`t find it in BSA`s brochures either.

It`s living on my Theoben,just now and I love it!!

[Milligan100]

Hi,

Has anyone had any experience of the BSA Platinums?

[magicniner]

Thanks Guys,
I picked up a second hand 9 - 24 X 50 Essencial based on the feedback here, I'm very pleased with it, it does seems good with clear optics even at 24X, a lot of scope for the money, more so second hand :)
Cheers,
Nick

[Kyoto]

My personal preference from the BSA range is the wee Jaguar 1.5-6x44mm AO price is now around £85 new.....great for HFT

For a basic 3-9x42 AO, the MTC Cobra..... unbelievable for around £50, optics better than many 'scopes at twice the price. Nothing basic about this wee beauty!

ATB

PS Both are mil-dot

[Ericb]

Hi, I have just reluctantly sold one to Ericb on here to fund another scope to use with NV. I could not believe how crisp and clear the optics were and how easy the mil-dot ret is to get on with. I also have a mamba and as far as Im concerned the bsa is as good if you can live with the px on the objective. I stated all these facts in my advertisment but people are still afraid of commiting themselves. What really makes me laugh is that they may even be made in the same factory as some of the so called top names, such is life, Enjoy Ericb you have a quality cheap scope. Cheers Terry:D

Have to say the scope is perfect and it now sits atop my Tench regged Ultra.

Ericb :D

[MatthewS]

I have the 3-9x40 mini-mildot. It came as part of a kit-deal with a TX200 I added to the collection last year. My intention was to upgrade the scope a few months later to a Leupold VX-II I'd fallen for, with the essencial being a stop-gap to at least get me out enjoying the TX without the faff of swapping scopes over. 10 months later, the cheeky little upstart still has pride of place on my TX, and I will keep it there, by choice, until it breaks. It simply performs exactly as I require for the hunting I do, leaving me no technical reason to justify an "upgrade". I have occasional battles with the bling demons within me, but thankfully, reason keeps winning out :cool: Bravo BSA.

[frank pole]

Really clear optics for the money- But the mil dots are far to close together and you have trouble seeing them in lower light conditions!:confused:

[frank pole]

I had the 3-9x40 - It lasted for about 10 tins on a hw springer, They have clear glass for the money! Also the dots are a bit to close together:(

[Al1983]

Just picked up a cheap combo with the 4x32 on.

It's really good! I expected a shocker, I was even logging on to buy a replacement before I shot the thing.

Mil dots are nice and close. They seem to work well at 5yd intervals for my.22 HW. The optics are lovely and clear and the small scope doesnt upset the lines or the balance of the rifle.

As someone who's been using high mag scopes for years I'm really impressed with these little things. You can't go wrong for the money.

[Si.243]

Got one on my .177 lightning.... can't fault it :)

[GarryP]

I used my 3-9x40 as a telescope the other week, and the optics really are clear and bright, as good as my £200 binos.
I didn't know anything about scopes when I bought mine, so I went for a familiar name, and I'm glad I did.

[jumbuck]

I have used a couple of BSA scopes in the past Cats eye on .222 and Sweet17 3-12x40 on .17HMR and never rated either much :o But sounds like they have maybe got better :)