Side by Side Comparison of: Ultimate Arms Gear vs Barska

The scope far surpasses any expectations that I had for the price point. I thought that the reviews were too good to be true, and figured I'd give it a shot. The optics are clear, and easy to fine tune at max magnification - and that was hand held! The tripod looks cheap and flimsy, but is quite competent. Have not taken it to the range yet, but was able to see the detail on houses at 800+ yards away; definitely will be able to see .308 holes in targets at 500 yards, if not further. I am a hard grader on equipment, especially when it comes to weapons and optics, as I am a retired Marine. If you purchase this, you will not be disappointed!

Received this as a gift. The strap on the bag is cheap, Broke within 5 min. The scope hit the ground and broke the cover for the lens. The scope works great after the fall, The scope is not damaged. Its sturdy and easy to use. Now for the Best Part, I called the company to let them know about the strap and the cover, No questions asked they are sending me a new scope. I cannot believe how good the customer service is, Final conclusion, Product is great except for the strap on the bag. Just change it out to a better one.Service is excellent. I would buy from the company again and I would purchase this scope again.

the scope is great now I can see 400yards when I shoot.

Fast shipping. Quality of product is high. The product is too powerful for the distance I intended (30 yards) in no part due to the manufacturer or seller. The product works great at 60-300 yards. Great seller. Thanks.

the 125x magnification on this is incredible! Excellent when using on the shooting range. Eliminates all doubt on where the bullets are hitting the target. At 100yards you can read the fine print on the target. Plus, it comes with a hard case to keep it safe and tri-pod for easy set up. Very impressed.

For the price, I am extremely satisfied. It exceeds expectations. The attached photo shows a railroad crossing sign that is 1300 yards away. The other shows a target at 75 yards...each square is 1" across. the fishbowl effect in the first is because I didn't have the camera lined up right and the sun was to my back. I put a little piece of tape as a sunshade between my camera and the eye piece and it's better now in the second photo. This is absolutely a great value given the serviceable quality.The tripod and it's adjustments are metal. Which was a surprise. I had a plastic tripod with a spotting scope previously and it was very shaky. This thing is very solid.

Wow, the quality was far better than we expected. We watch the whales with it after we received it I wished we had bought the one with the cell phone adapter. It is light weight easy to use.

Mainly bought this for when i go to the range. I havent got a chance to yet, but i did test it out at the park and you can see pretty clear zoomed in and zoomed out. So far i have no complaints.

Everything is excellent quality. The cases are tough and well built. The front 88mm lens cap has a hard time staying on I use a rubber band to keep it from fallung off in the cases. As explained in product description the further the object is the narrower your view is. Picture provided is of a house 1000+ yards from me I had to lower the magnification inorder to get a picture.

I have owned at least 3 spotting scopes over the years, but this is the first one I've ever had that is not only very powerful, but that also focuses with PERFECT sharpness and clarity at any magnification. I am very happy that I can magnify so much and still see things with absolutely no loss of brightness or focus.

Perfect magnification for the 50-yard range. Tripod feels flimsy at first but performs perfectly. Great clarity of lenses. Great adjustment capacity. A great Deal. Wish the mag was better for the 100 yd range is only wish.

Certainly not the greatest spotting scope I have ever used, but the most cost effective. It works, yes it is not as clear as scopes that cost several hundred dollars more, but you get what you pay for. If you want Nikon or Leupold quality, spend the extra money. this gets the job done for much less, if you can tolerate the slightly less quality.

So all the users that say it won't get clear...aren't understanding something. The focus dial at the end appears to only have a small amount of range. You have to go against your fears and crank it past the "seeming endpoint" to reveal several more threads of focus. By doing that you can easily focus at all zoom depths. My product arrived well packaged. It does however have a single small spot on lense that appears to be inside lense; so i can't wipe it off and gets a star deduction. For the price, you get a lot of scope for the money and i do highly recommend it. Just don't get sucked into the reviews "it won't focus" because it does a fine job doing that. I will say when on higher zoom setting its difficult to see through reticle without putting your eye close; to the point where you likely will have to remove safety glasses which may be a deal breaker.

I had to get a new spotter because those little holes are getting harder to see at 100 yds, in anything less than high-noon. This does the trick. Barska products are better than they used to be. The certainly give you more junk than just a plain scope. The only cheesy part is the general purpose table stand. Many vendors package this with their offerings. get a good floor-stand. Use sandbags because this thing is heavy.

The Benchmark is a good value for the money, Some may see the 125X and expect a 1000m scope, but it's not.I took it to Atlantic City and was able to read street signs from about a mile out. looking at the beach was not as clear because of the mirage effects.It's almost too heavy for the tripod, you have to move the feet around otherwise it will fall forwards. Use this tripod to take selfies while your boss thinks you're working, but for wildlife spotting or shooting you should spend 20-30 bucks on a tripod and then you get your money out of this optic.

THIS REVIEW IS AT 100 YARDS with .223At first,I was a bit skeptical about this item,especially at 99 bucks(you get what you pay for,right?).I dialed the scope at 25X magnification. The image took up the whole eye piece asnd could see my target,clearly.At 50X, I could read my writing along with the entire grid of my target.75X magnificatin the image in the eye piece shrank to half the size and had to tweak the focus til the image was clear(took some time but it looked clear.100 and 125X, the image from the piece was tiny and when zoomed in I was still able to see the bullseye rings and holes from the rounds that hit.It took alot of tweaking to get a clear picture, but it is possible.Now, the only thing that I can compare this to is my Nikon Prostaff 3-9X40 scope and it is a step down or two from image quality.OVERALL, I'm happy with it.It came with softshell case, hardshell case, strap, tabletop tripod(which I am going to replace with a better quality one) and cleaning cloth.

I have used this spotting scope for both sighting in a 22 rifle and for looking at eagles. I could see the the bullet holes in the white fine. Some of the holes in the black I could not see. This was at about 100 yds on a bright sunny day. At 100 yds I could get a decent image up to 75 power. Focusing on a fence pole at about 250 yds I could get a decent image all the way to 125 power.With the included hand grip on the scope I was pleasantly surprised by how well I could see and follow flying eagles.This scope is well worth the money.

I thought bigger would mean better but quality, not quantity is best. Antiquate best describes this product. You get what you pay for....

Tripod broke on first try. From 25 to 50 is crystal clear, at 75 is good but after that colors will shift a little and if you don't have a super solid tripod it will be very shaky.

You get what you pay for but I knew that when I bought it. What other reviewers are saying is pretty much what I've experienced. At the lowest power it's pretty good clarity but zoom in to 125x and it's usable but pretty blurry. I didn't have a spotting scope and this will do until I can buy a better one. The goodies that came with it are a nice addition for the price. Again if you're not super concerned about clarity this will do but I've looked through other glass that is much higher quality.

I was not expecting much from this inexpensive scope but it surprised me.The optics are quite nice, not as clear as the more expensive scopes but not bad.The focus ring takes some getting used to. It is difficult to adjust but with patience one can achieve a nice focus.32 CAL bullet holes can be clearly seen at 200 yards with 90 power zoom.Overall a good scope for the money.

For the money, the scope is very acceptable.The tri pod and handle are Ok as well. For those that suggest the tri pod is worthless I would suggest they simply widen the stance of the tri pod when on a table for a more secure base. Its certainly not a class piece but far from worthless. The rubber cover ring for the 88mm lens is not. It simply won'y stay on. What is a bigger concern is the case. Its metal ( plus one ) but one of the latches won't secure properly. ( minus one ) And I sure don't want to walk around and have it come open and the scope fall out and break. I guess a simple fix would be a belt or strap or maybe fashion another latch system. Of course the buyer shouldn't have to but sometimes a simple fix can be much less frustrating than going thru the hassle of sending it back. I'm debating returning it but the most important part is the scope and that works. It would be great if one could simply return the case and cover for replacement and keep the rest but it seems you have to return the whole works. I would have given it 5 stars had the case and cover ring be OK. The plus's outweigh the minus.April, 2, 2014 Tried this out at the range ( which is why I purchased it ) in cloudy damp conditions. The scope worked.. a bit hard to keep steady when focusing but I did try it out to 100 yards at maximum power. I could clearly see .22 caliber holes on a black and then a white target. It will be interesting to see how it works in bright sunshine.. it can only be better. I'd raise it to 3 and 1/2 stars after today's performance. As others have noted the field of view is greatly diminished as all scopes are when using at max power.

I received the scope in a very short time which was great. Once I opened up the box and started going through everything the first thing I noticed was that the front lens cover would not stay on the scope. It is made of a really cheep piece of plastic. The only way to keep the lens cover on the scope would be to tape it on. The other thing I noticed was that to focus the scope was by turning the front lens. Really? Guess I should have done some more research on the scope. Hope that this isn't a show stopper. It is below zero here right now so I will have to wait for it to get a little warmer before using it outside.I will update more in the future.

This is a plastic telescope with the optical performance of plastic. The product kit is complete and has both a hand grip and a sturdy table top tripod. For field use a longer tripod is needed. For the shooting range or back yard birding (my uses) the short tripod is fine. I have added checking the tripod screws for tightness to my seasonal checklist.The focus is by rotating the objective of the telescope, and took about 30 complete cycles from maximum to minimum distance before it broke in. Focus is reasonably sharp, but far from astronomical or photographic quality.Nice large aperture for light gathering, and generally bright image.

The eye relief is horrible. And I compared it with a 35x spotting scope a friend had and it wasn't as good. 125x NOT!

I have had this for a little over a year and I wish I would've saved my money and got something that was a little more expensive because the lens on this spotting scope suck from day one out of the box first day you use took it outside and looked through it to do some shooting spotting and the lenses were fogged up and I figured it was from going inside outside and condensation getting built up inside the tube in that was not the case after about two hours in the sun the lenses were still fogged my advice save your money get a little bit better spotting scope

I feel that it is a poor design in more than one respect.Focusing is by adjusting the front ring and is akward to do while looking thru the scope,difficult as the focus ring is very tight and hard to do while viewing.As to focusing, the scope doesn't stay in focus when changing magnification power.It is not truly a zoom scope but would better be described as a varifocal type.The tripod attachment point is not at the center of balance and the included tripod is flimsy and unstable.It came in a nice case,which is where it will spend most of it's life before landfill.

Tripod is worthless, optic is to lens heavy for it. Tips over in any position. Actually disappointed with this purchase. Doesn't focus well feels and reacts like a $25 optic. Box is very nice. All in all I believe the description is deceiving once you get the optic home. Spend lots of money on Amazon usually don't have thus problem. Shipping was great as usual from Amazon..

***EDIT Spring 2013***This scope lasted about 3 months before the insides of the eye-piece fell apart. Email to the company (BARSKA) about a warranty got no response. I haven't tried calling yet to see if I can get through to them that way... I had expected it to last a lot longer than this, even for the price. I had only used it about a dozen times before it broke... I'm not sure that I'm really going to pursue a warranty - I might just save up for a scope closer to $1,000...***end EDIT***I was nervous buying a scope that was not more than a tenth the price of most I see in reviews of birding scopes. I was pleasantly surprised that it works quite nicely.I wish the eyepiece had more forgiving eye-relief - I have to take off my glasses to use it. That was expected, but was a detail I had a hard time finding in reviews. As long as I take off my glasses and put my eye right to it, it works great.I still haven't figured out how to take decent digiscoped pictures through it - I don't know if that's just me, or if that's something about how this scope is constructed.It works decently well, but having the focus control be the entire wide ring at the end of the whole scope is a bit inconvenient. Until I got used to it, it felt like I was going to end up disassembling the scope when I turned it.It's definitely not a $3k scope, but I don't think I feel like the ones that are a few thousand are enough better to pay that much more, at this point anyway.By the way, get a real tripod. The one it comes with is just a tiny little table-top thing that really doesn't work well at all. I got "Celestron Heavy-Duty Altazimuth Tripod" - it's definitely overkill, but feels stable, and the controls to rotate and tip it are very sensitive, i.e. you can move it very small amounts. Other tripods I've touched, it's very hard to control it precisely.

I bought this product for observing nature on a trip to the Mendocino coast. I was not happy with it as the resolution at the max was unsatisfactory at as focused as I could get it. It is also front heavy relative to the tripod mount making it difficult to aim at a subject even when mounted on a heavy video tripod as it always sags when the tripod adjustment handle is released. I therefore immediately returned it to Amazon. It's possible my expectations were too high for the price but I knew I would never be satisfied with it and would probably not be inclined to use it if I kept it.

Barska is not a bad scope, but this one is horrible. I got it thinking the 125x would be better than the 90x90 Colorado, it's not, I sent it back. The barska Colorado is far better scope, the image is closer and clearer! Get the Barska Colorado.

Clear optics on lowest of settings. Increase the magnification and it is nearly useless. Max setting is a joke. locking handle broke at threads making the cheap stand go to landfill on 2nd use. Cheap price. Cheap unit Save up and but a actual spotting scope

Could not focus at 300 yards

Hard to see thru and terrible to focus.When you do get it focused the eyepiece is so tiny that it is really hard to see your target I definitely would not recommend this spotting scope if you are serious about trying see the target downrange .The product looks great and comes with a cool hard and soft case. I'm just saying. I am a first time spotting scope buyer and was trying to save some money in lieu of using binoculars at the range.

The images and manufacturer write up look great, however the product is poor. Focus adjustment is extremely difficult due to the design. I have attempted to use it at an indoor and an outdoor range and have ended up borrowing one from the local range due to the issues with this design. The hard case started pulling apart on day one just by picking it up by the handle. Don't waste your time or money on this product.

It is unfortunate that this product did not work well for me. Barska puts out very good products and I may have gotten a defective one. It would not focus at 25 yards and I figured it was me doing something wrong. However, the following weekend I went shooting and set a target out at 100 yards; again I could not get scope to focus properly. Like I said, maybe I just ended up with a defective item. Though I gave it one star it does not mean I hate the product but rather the product did not work for me.