Nope I never bought one but I had plenty of hands on experience with one this past weekend and thought I'd share.

My good friend and shooting buddy Chris came out Sunday to sight in a Christmas present - a H&R/NEF 12 ga. single shot slug gun.  He topped it with a BSA Red Dot sight using Weaver rings and bases mounted to the factory installed cantilever bar overhanging the break action.  His slug of choice were the Winchester Supreme Partition gold 12 ga. sabots.

I boresighted it for him and the first thing I noticed is something I can only describe as "parallax".  This scope does NOT magnify anything but simply superimposes a glowing red dot of varying intensity onto the glass of the sight.  There was huge sight variation if you left the gun in its vice and turned your head left/right and up/down to the point where the superimposed dot would be completely off target at 25 yards!  Intimidating for sure if you're after accuracy.  Regardless I did what I could and first shot the scope was on paper which spoke highly of my bore-sighting skills as I NEVER use those expensive and sometimes overrated bore-sighting laser devices .

So we dialed it in at 25 yards till it was "zeroed".  Though the "body" of the sight was a nice matte finish I did find some exterior features rather cheap.  The battery cover for the sight was plastic and threaded into the battery well.  The battery itself was a rather large watch battery with rather fragile metal prong contacts.  The scope was supplied with factory plastic lens covers which are standard of all scope covers and were acceptable.  Interestingly it appears that BSA is one of the few companies, if not the ONLY company that I'm aware of that actually threads the bell housings of their optics to accept threaded scope covers on standard scopes - not exactly a quick removal system but one that will definitely prevent them from accidentally falling off.  Myself, I always go with Butler Creek flip open scope covers - a small $20 investment for a wonderful accesory that protects the lenses of my rather pricey Leupold scopes.  Yet, even on this model, the scope covers were simply slip on design.  Though the windage and elevation caps were made of metal, the actual elevation and windage adjustments are my absolute favorite thing to cuss on this sight.  Though the click adjustments are fairly crisp, there is absolutely NO note of how much 1 click adjustment equals in point of impact on the turrets, the turret covers OR the owner's manual!  My buddy is going to be calling the company to find out just what the 100 yard click adjustment is worth.  For the record, the manual says that "the 100 yard click adjustment is marked on the adjustment dials" NOT AT ALL!!! 

So, returning to the 100 yard sight-in session we found that the initial impact was far below dead center of our 100 yard targets.  A few clicks in any direction seemed to make HUGE adjustments.  However, I must be quick to point out that the red dot setting on a 3 inch bullseye target at 100 yards nearly covers the entire 8.5 inch width of the target page we were shooting at.  Not exactly a fine pointing aiming instrument.  This, admittedly, was at the sight's highest/largest dot setting but was necessary during full daylight conditions as other dot settings weren't quickly or easily visible.  Had we been shooting of an evening instead of 11:00 am on a clear day, the results MIGHT be different.  Regardless, two clicks moved the POI on the target almost 12 inches.  This was confirmed by my shooting of 3 shots and his shooting of 3 shots so it is very unlikely that there is any shooter error resulting in such a huge change in the POI but rather large gross adjustments in the clicks themselves. 

Conclusion.  I hate everything BSA.  Which in my opinion stands for Bulls*** Aiming Device.  The scope is neither a fine aiming point instrument or one that I'd recommend.  It doesn't offer any magnification, draws in zero light during low light conditions and operates with a battery that will undoubtedly go dead one day where and when is something the shooter will never know.  I find the notion of turning the sight on and off laughable as there is no quick way to do this on running quarry.  Though I have no experience with even top of the line red dot sight models, what I've mentioned here will stand true of them as well - no magnification, no fine aiming point, battery hindrances.  I suppose that using these for fast moving game at close range (under 75 yards) would be about the ideal use for them.  I feel that a 1X scope is a far superior investment and would recommend the cheapest coated optic scope of this magnification over the BSA red dot or any red dot for that matter, so long as they could withstand the recoil of heavy calibers.