Monstrum - Anyone have any experience?

My wife picked one out for her AR about 3 years ago, their 3X prism scope. I think it was about $80. It is just a range toy, and she doesn't shoot a whole lot, so I wasn't concerned. Noticed right off the bat that the crosshairs were slightly turned, but the mount is fastened to the body with two screws in threaded holes, so would have to live with it. Not too big of a deal, just annoying. Third trip out, so probably about 100 rounds of .223, the entire electronics module fell off the side of the scope, breaking the wires as it fell. Brass screws in an aluminum housing, one or both stripped from .223 recoil. She specifically wanted the illumination, so was disappointed. I gave her the Vortex StrikeFire off of mine, and we left the Monstrum on the bench in case someone else wanted to mess with it. I have looked at budget optics for .22s and such, but always skip over their offerings now.

So, I'm going to answer from two perspectives, as a gun guy who has some knowledge of optics AND as someone who is on a tighter budget and has never spent over $200 on an optic.

The reality is, for MOST casual gun owners their optics won't see enough use to really see a meaningful difference in the usefulness between a cheaper brand and a premium brand. Ya, one might be clearer and just be of better overall quality, but if they just take it out a couple times a year they probably wont care and would rather spend the money elsewhere. I can't fault people for that, after all when I buy power tools I don't buy Festool or some other high end brand. I don't use them often enough to justify it.

On the other hand, there are a variety of good value optics below $200 that will work for 95% of uses. Like I said, I've never spent more than $200 on an optic. My currently used scopes on my rifles are a Primary Arms 4-16x44, Weaver Kaspa Tactical 2.5-10x50, Mueller APV 4.5-14x40, and Simmons Predator 1-6x24. The Weaver has an MSRP well above $200 but I got it on clearance, the Simmons also MSRPs above $200, I got it for $90 on a clearance deal as well. Anyway, all of those optics are beyond clear and repeatable enough for what I need them for. They are certainly no Nightforce, but for my uses I don't NEED that and for the price difference I have been able to buy more firearms and ammo to expand my enjoyment of the hobby.

Theres no inherent problem with being a brand snob, just need to be careful not to scare off casual owners and new owners by making the hobby seem prohibitively expensive or like an elitist community.

Now, as far as Monstrum, IMO there are better values in the price range. I think you can get good values in most brands, what separates the better brands is consistency/QC and warranty. IMO, Primary Arms is where I'd look for best bang for your buck in value optics. UTG seems to have picked up their game recently too, and they seem to be comparable to Monstrum or at least have been in the past.

I've not used any of the Monstrum scopes, but I've used plenty of their other parts, and so far I've been very happy with all of them.

I seem to have been unusually lucky, or perhaps I don't ask as much of my equipment as other folks, but I've had excellent luck with the sub 300 dollar scopes, many Chinese made.
From my experiences, if the company contracting the manufacturing sticks with relatively common designs (ie the makers have learned to make good functional copies of an existing, proven tech)and keeps up qc, They will have a reasonably good product at a lower cost than otherwise possible.
Vortex has capitalized on doing this, as has Athlon.
Monstrum seems to be content playing in the lower end optics and parts field at present, but again from what I've seen of their other parts, they do a good job of providing consistently acceptable products. Just don't expect world class glass, or all the angles on stuff like mounts be perfectly aligned.

Their web site says 1 year warranty on scopes. That says a lot!

I have 4 of em, mostly 3x30. Ran into a stretch where their supplier was sending low QC scope parts. Called once something broke, answered a few clarifying questions, maybe sent some pics for their info and boom, new scope shipped. Never had to return the old one. They have since switched suppliers and all 4 I have stayed solid, been about 3 years so far, mostly on beater range rifles and my kids 10/22. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

tbs said:

Their web site says 1 year warranty on scopes. That says a lot!

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That’s all I need to know too.

The FOV on a budget 3x claiming to be almost the same as a high end 1.5x would make me a little skeptical.

One year warranty.
Where is it made?

TonyAngel said:

The boat I'm in is that the ACOG I have on top of the pistol I just built is old. I've had it for a long time and it's about due for a hip replacement. I need to send it in to have the tritium replaced, and possibly a color change, although I haven't made up my mind on that yet. I need an optic for while my baby is away and thought I'd dip my toe in the 3X pool. I was in my 40s when I got the ACOG and the 1.5X was fine. Now that I'm in my 50s, I'm thinking that I could use a little more magnification. My knee jerk was to just grab a TA33, but man, the field of view on those things is so narrow. According to the specs on the monstrum 3X, the field of view isn't too much narrower than it is on my TA44.

Of course, I've been shopping, but once again...man, there's so much out there. I think this could be the topic of another thread.

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I haven't looked too hard at the prisms, but Burris, Athlon and Vortex offer some in the 2-300 dollar range I think.