Author: Snapcrackler
{!}
, Erik Carlson,
from Cedar Falls IA on
Aug 27, 2012
Pros: bright flashlight
Cons: cheap, flimsy, laser will not line up, incredibly cheap alignment screw design
Would recommend: no
Snapcrackler wrote:
First off gotta say that I have always had GREAT service from opticsplanet and I do not hold them responsible for this pooper scooper of a product, I have bought plenty of good products from them and they deliver on time. Now on to the review:
I bought this unit last year and up until a couple of weeks ago, I had spent about 2 total accumulated hours hours calling, emailing and (trying to) speak with Barska regarding a repair, replacement, or ANYTHING to cover my tail on this ridiculous piece of junk. I am taking the time today to write this review because not only did Barska repeatedly ignore my polite, concise and reasonable requests for compensation or repair, but mainly because the design on this thing is so unbelievably poor that it boggles the mind. After studying exchange rates on Chinese products and shipping, you will discover that it costs about 35 cents US to ship a product from China to the US, and it is equally cheap to manufacture/sell inexpensive gadgetry to the US from China because,well, they control the dollar. So paying over $50 for this piece of China junk is like plopping down $1000 for a toaster oven that burns your toast and will not eject the toast and catches on fire.
Bottom line - the threads that adjust the laser are set in soft plastic and the laser unit rides in a simple rubber grommet against spring tension. The tiny set screws ran out of adjustment for me before the laser came anywhere close to being adjusted correctly, and if you fiddle long enough, you can even drop the allen screw irretrievably inside of the unit after threading it in a little too far! So that's a neat feature.
The flashlight is very bright as you would hope for a 6 volt unit. But the joyful experience that is the Barska rd laser flashlight combo stops there, because the switches are flimsy, although unlike the laser adjustment setup they do actually function, turning the light on and off (I have done this over a dozen times and it has not broken yet! Props to Barska.) It's just such a stupid design that I am still amazed. So what did I do? Well, after about a dozen times trying to work with Barska on reimbursement or a replacement with another unfortunate piece of junk with the same sad design (I waited too long and was outside of the return time for Optics Planet, my mistake for procrastinating) I decided to modify this thing so that it would at least be somewhat useful until the rest of it stopped functioning completely.
I used a dremel with a fine cutting wheel and removed the part of the housing that surrounds the laser module. Since this part of the housing was manufactured out of recycled candy wrappers, it was not very difficult to cut it open in short order. Next, after apologising to my Mossberg 590 with Hogue Tamer grips, I mounted the Barska onto the laserlyte tri - rail on my shotgun. Next, I set a green barrel laser up and then mixed up a teaspoon full of two-part steel putty, and after removing the grommet & spring from the inside of the Barska unit, I formed this putty into the area around the aerospace quality tactical spec- ops secret forces swat team laser unit inside this Barska flashligh laser combo. Next it was a simple matter of forming the putty around the laser and aligning the dot to match up with my barrel laser, and letting it dry. Afterwards i used my dremel to shape the putty to create a handsomely shaped bump around the permanently aimed laser and colored it black.
So now I have a non - adjustable laser/flashlight combo that will at least tell me where my buckshot is going to hit, and will not fall out of alignment when I sneeze, which is what I suspect would happen if someone actually managed to line up the laser on one of these units with the supplied spring, grommet and set screw setup.
