I almost hate to post my opinion. The reason I hate to post it is so far, I've had pretty decent luck with Simmons, and in the past, I've thought they were one of the best of the bottom tier brands, but I'm still going to say what my opinion is and what I think. Hopefully, I don't get flamed.
One bad thing about Simmons is they are always changing hands so you never know who makes the scope you are buying.
Anyway, I've had two Simmons and I've been decently happy with them. However, if I was using them for long range shooting I would not be happy with either of them.The first one I've used is a 3-9x32 Simmons Deerfield. This one was on a .22. It worked great for years. It was fairly clear, and actually pretty decent in low light. It really impressed me. It would probably be about 6 years old now so I'm not sure who made them at the time. It's been dropped, banged around, and really just treated like crap, yet it still always has stayed zero. It took a hard fall right on the scope once and it was still dead on. I've had others take less and softer falls and be off several inches. This scope also seemed to track well. I've read all the complaints about cheap scopes and this one didn't seem to have any of them. The glass wasn't the clearest I've seen, but it was better than some scopes 5-6 times it's price range. It was perfectly clear enough to see anything you wanted to during the day. I also took it out in all sorts of weather and it never fogged internally. It did fog on the outside so that I had to wipe off the lenses, but all scopes do this. All in all this scope was just a great scope and is what turned me on to liking Simmons. The reason I wouldn't have been happy with this for long range shooting is the limited magnification. You want more than 9x for long range shooting. The one issue I did have with it is that after quite a few years of abuse the front ring thing that screws on and holds the front lens came loose. If you take this off you can turn the front lens. When this happened it did shift the poi a couple of inches upwards. I tightened it back down tight and just checked it periodically, and never had an issue again. I guess it just worked loose after years of abuse. I can't blame it. I think if I put epoxy or something on it it would guarantee that it never came loose again, but I didn't really see a need for that since I tightened it down and it fixed it. I'm also not sure if it still had nitrogen in it after this. It may have leaked out, but I'm not sure. I will say though that even in rough weather it never fogged internally even after this. All in all I loved and still love this scope. I actually still has it and last I used it it still worked perfectly.
Then the next scope I had was a Simmons 8 Point Blazer. I got this scope on a rifle used. That being said it works for what I'm doing, but would not for long range shooting. This is nowhere near as good of a scope imo as the Deerfield, but it does okay for the price. Once set it seems to hold zero. It's been banged around a little and I know some before I got it. Actually it road around in a truck and was hunted with fairly hard before I got it, but shot little and wasn't very old so didn't have a rough life too long. Then again they told me it was sighted in and it shot 1" or so to the right. So I went to adjust it. The issue I quickly ran into is that it did not track reliably at all which is why it would make a horrible long range scope. I moved it 2 clicks left hoping to move it about .5" then see where I was. To my shot it moved it about 2" left. I moved it back one click and luckily for me it hit dead center of the bulls eye and shoots perfect. It's held zero, and worked fine since. However, I wouldn't want to be trying to dial it in for long range shots as I just don't think it would turn out well. For a hunting scope that you set and leave zeroed it seems to work great. I try to put this one in a case instead of just putting it on the floorboard of the truck like the other Simmons I had. I also try not to drop it, so it doesn't see near the abuse the other one has, but it holds up to what little it does see.
Now the tracking is the major issue with this, but it's what kills the deal for the long range shooter. When it comes to the glass in this, I've not been as impressed with it as I was with the Deerfield, but once again it does decent. In daylight it does great. You can see great with it. The only time I had an issue is in bright direct sunlight I could see a little bit of reflection in the glass that was distracting. Now I'm not sure any scope wouldn't have done this so I can't criticize it. In low light it does decent. When I say decent I can say it performed better than a Leupold VX-I I tested it against, but it fails miserably compared to a Burris Fullfield II. So it's not great in low light, but isn't horrible and should treat you well during legal hunting hours. The tracking was the only issue I ever saw with this scope and for a hunting rifle that doesn't matter as you set it once.
So as you can see I've used two cheap Simmons without major issues. That being said, if you get one that tracks well I think it would work decent for long range shooting, but poor tracking is a common complaint of cheap scopes and one of mine did exhibit that. I will also say I have quite a few friends with Simmons and only one of them has ever had a problem. Some are 8 points which are cheapo's and some are Aetec's. So in general I don't think they are horrible, but I think you can do much better on a long range rifle.
If it was me for a long range rifle I'd look at a SWFA SS scope. They seem to be a much better bet for the money. That way you know it will track well and be durable, yet they still aren't horribly priced. If you really can't afford one though the Simmons may be a decent scope. Just make sure you test out the tracking ability, and it's ability to hold zero as well as have the parallax set correctly. If it passes these tests, I'd keep it. If not, I'd try to get another one while you can exchange it.
If you ever have to deal with the warranty service, I've heard it sucks many times over since Bushnell bought them. In fact, I've not heard much if anything good about Bushnell's warranty. They do service the SWFA scopes too so that scares me a bit about it. So I guess just make sure you have an exchange period to test it out during. If it doesn't work exchange it. If you have to deal with the warranty department expect to pay shipping both ways, wait quite a while, and just have a headache in general. If your scope is no longer available you may have to take a downgrade. There is a thread on Opticstalk.com talking about this right now. Basically, the fact that Simmons keeps changing hands so you never know who is making the scope (some seem good, others suck), and the fact that Bushnell owns them and handles the warranty work are the only two things that would make me not recommend them.
