Forgive the unearthing of this dead thread, but I have been looking to detail my EE-3 blaster, particularly in the scope area. My blaster is just a resin casting, therefore so is the scope...complete with casted, dead looking lens. I had thought about boring out the length of the scope with a long, skinny drill bit, and then epoxying lens on either end to make it look a bit more real.
Then I thought, as many of us have...what about just mounting a real one instead? And that is what led me to this thread. From the sound of things, the real ASI scope is next to impossible to dig up, and if you find one on eBay you are probably competing against your fellow Fetts.
FettDad's suggestion of taking the Dr. Frankenstein route intrigued me...basically take a couple of different scopes and combine the details you like best. So I started searching on Amazon to see what that kind of project would cost me. Then I found something that thought I would present to everyone to see what they thought might make a suitable substitute for a scope.
Barska has some cheap 4x15 ($6.99 AC10000) and 4x20 ($9.99 AC10730) rimfire scopes. The dimensional specs come in very close to the resin blaster I have...tube diameter matches on all three at 3/4". The overall scope length on my blaster is 10 9/16" or 10.5625". The AC10000 is 10.63" long, while the AC10730 is 10.55"...so the cheaper one is just slightly larger, while the $9.99 one is almost exact. Both look almost exactly the same...check the attached image and the links (the shopbarska.com links give many more details and specs than the Amazon ones).
The pros are that they are cheap. The dimensions are almost exact. And for the most part, they look a lot like the EE-3 scope, right out of the box. Because of that, it doesn't seem like there would need to be a whole lot of cutting it apart and reassembling.
The cons I can see right away are
- The rings don't match the ASI one at all. You could either use them as is (would that be that big of a deal?), or modify them, or take them off and use another solution. Plus the rings would need to be moved closer to each end.
- The dials look to be a little bigger and not beveled...though that probably wouldn't be that difficult of a modification. And removing the graphic on the one dial.
- The dial box isn't in the right configuration, but I would imagine all you'd need to do is just rotate it so the dials are in a V.
- The dial box looks to be more central while the one on my resin blaster is slightly forward of center...again...does it really matter?
So my question for all of you, do you guys think this would be a suitable substitute to trying to locate an ASI one? What are your thoughts on the ring situation? What do you think about the dials and box?
Barska 4x20
Amazon.com: BARSKA 4X20 Rimfire Riflescope: Sports & Outdoors: Reviews, Prices & more
BARSKA 4x20 RIMFIRE SCOPE - Riflescope by BARSKA
Barska 4x15
Amazon.com: BARSKA 4x15 Rimfire Riflescope: Sports & Outdoors: Reviews, Prices & more
BARSKA 4x15 RIMFIRE SCOPE - Air Rifle / Gun Scopes by BARSKA