After taking the AR to the range yesterday, I decided I really want to have a longer range scope for it. The red dot is nice for quick target acquisition, but for longer distances I need some power. Not only am I having problems with squinting over long periods, but as I’m using my non-dominant eye, things just get worse. On the way home I was watching the headlights (daytime running, so ya know) of an oncoming truck and I could have sworn there were 4 lights; 2 over 2. When the truck got closer though… there were only 2 total. Not a good feeling when you’re having problems seeing.
Anyway… back to my original post. I’ve pretty much decided on a Nikon M-223 2-8×32 BDC. Right now Nikon is offering a free M223 mount with the purchase of an eligible scope.
Now, free should be… well FREE! This doesn’t appear to be the case with Cals Sporting Armory though. I initially looked at the page shown in the pic below and thought about how wonderful a deal is for that scope with a free m-223 mount! However, if you read the fine print in the bottom box, you have to click another link to get the free scope. So, I clicked that link and what did I find? Seems like the old switcheroo.
You can see in the picture above that the MFG PART# is the same, the UPC# is the same and even the Stock Status is the same. What’s different though is the price… or to be exact the “Sale Price”.
The difference between the two ‘packages’ is $66.98. So, it would appear that the ‘free’ scope isn’t really free after all. In fact, it really looks like you’re paying $66.98 for a mount with a $99.95 retail price. While receiving a $32.98 (essentially 1/3) discount on a scope mount is good, when you look at the bigger picture… FREE is still not free.
Sounds like false advertising to me. Either that or fraud, if they’re getting reimbursed by Nikon. I’ll be contacting Cal’s about this and will comment soon.
UPDATE 1: I just received the following email from Cal’s Sporting Armory
Hello,
The Nikon M-223 scopes are offered two ways on our site. Nikon is running a promo that offers a free scope mount. The Nikon promo is no real deal, all they did was jack up the dealer price and thus the retail price on the package. Our normal price on these M-223 scopes is lower than their promo offer. We buy the scopes two ways… just the scope and then their promo offer with the so called free mount, so that’s why the scopes are offered two ways on our site.
The Nikon promo deal will save you money if you want their M-223 mount. Most of our customers don’t want to use the Nikon mount, so they don’t buy the Nikon promo package they buy the scope offered without the mount and then by the mount they want to use… like the American Defense Ad-Recon-1 mount.
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I’ll surely be contacting Nikon next to see what’s up with that!
UPDATE 2: Still no email response from Nikon. 16:45 CDT 2011-05-17
UPDATE 3: Well… I got a response, but not an answer yet. Looks like I’m going to get shuffled around some.
| Subject |
| Free Nikon M-223 mount? |
| Discussion Thread |
| Response Via Email (Ed S.) |
05/20/2011 02:37 PM |
| Dear Mr. Buskov:
We have forwarded your email to Sport and Recreational Optics (SRO) at our headquarters in New York.
Sincerely,
Ed |
UPDATE 4: I actually got a response survey about my ‘service experience’. Since My question hasn’t been answered… I really don’t have much positive to say.
