ALDI Special ?20 review

KidCurry

Well-known member
AIUK Saviour
Well I never thought I would do a review on an ALDI special but here it is.


Build quality: well for ?20 it's a miracle. Good feel and weight with a good degree of rubber protection. Focus is smooth enough if a bit sensitive. Zoom feels positive. Tripod... yep includes a tripod is worth ?20 alone. It actually works well with the scope if a bit jumpy in the wind.

Optics: Wasn't expecting much and I was not expecting an image I would be looking for in a ?130 scope but there it was. Good level of focus across the FOV but does fall off towards the edges. At 40x, you don't want or need to go further it was good even to 100yds. It was a bright sunny day to be fair but I did not exprct to be able to identify my arrows at that range.To be honest I don't know where ALDI get these scopes and make a profit, they must have fallen off the back of a lorry.

Waterproofing: Not waterproof... but what the hell it's ?20, buy a 5p bag from tesco and chuck that over it.

Overall: if you want a scope that can reach 100yds in good light (still can't believe I'm saying this) and don't care that it may fog up in a couple of years, and you would rather spend more money money on a mid range finger tab, then buy one.

This is just the weirdest and unexpected review of a bit of archery kit I've done. The world can be an odd place sometimes :) But there it is.
 

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Paul Seeley

New member
?20 !!!

I'm staggered and amazed that you can see anything with it at all. Cheers for taking a punt on one and letting us know what it's like. Shame the nearest Aldi is miles away . . . .

Paul
 

fbirder

Member
These are very popular at our club and everybody who owns one is most pleased. Until they look through my Swarovski (bought for birding). But I still use the Aldi for anything bar club shooting (I don't fancy losing ?1300 worth of optics).
 

Corax67

Well-known member
Bought one a few years ago to keep in the lorry cab for a bit of break time birding, really happy with it - eventually gave it to someone in archery club and I use my Leica. It's still going strong with no signs of fogging.





Karl
 
For the money cant be beat , but I've now bought something better that can call line cutters at 90m at dusk . But a great scope for less than a night in your local and don't worry about using them in the rain they disassemble really easily and dry out no problem.
 

thepensbybowman

New member
I have been using one of these for target and clout (can see my nocks at 180yds) with no issues apart from fogging after one particularly bad weather shoot. I took it apart and stuck it in the airing cupboard for a couple of days and, hey presto, it's fine again! On the down side, I have seen a couple of poor quality ones around with the optics not nearly so good, but even then for ?20?
 

Andy!

Active member
KidCurry is right on the money.
These particular scopes must be the most common ones for rebranding around the world. If you look, you'll see them appear at world cups. In Australia, they're sold from three different shops under three different brands. Along with the plastic Meade, I reckon that they'd be one of the most common spotting scopes to find on any shooting line in Australia.
As noted, they're not the most waterproof.
I have friends with them who have managed to keep them quite rain resistant with the cunning use of a plastic bag.
Plastic or paper cups make awesome eyepiece covers.

The only downside to them is that people tend to put them on cheap or lightweight tripods "because they're a cheap scope".
This leads to the issue of them falling over and at that point, you might be in trouble. I've seen no repairs to these work well. However, I've seen the plastic Meade scopes get fixed multiple times when the prism pops out.

The fracture point on these scopes is the rear housing which typically will pop off intact and encourage re-gluing. The problem being is that alignment of the optical path relies on accurate joining and this is generally not considered at the time or easy to achieve during the process. Once you've got this thing glued and the prism alignment is out... you're basically screwed as the prism is held in the back housing.

So, buying a cheap tripod can be great if you counter the savings somewhat by buying a decent tripod. There are enough used Manfrotto 190 series floating around to set all archers up for life. A basic scope on a stunning tripod is far better to use than a top of the line scope on budget tripod.
 

UukhaLee

New member
+1 for the aldi scope - bought one early last year and its been perfect for archery tournaments all year. Can pick out my nocks & fletches easily at 100yds and never had a problem with focus or fogging. Agree you need a stout tripod though (with any scope). Its amazing how little movement is needed to make a target 100yds away go blurry.
 
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