- Location
- Edmonton mostly
Howdy to all out there. I'm writing this review for anyone interested in the newest line of bushnell elite scopes. Personally when I saw the billing 4.5-30,(they also have a 2.5-16) my reaction was the same as everyone else i have ever told the scope specs to, "to thirty????". Yes to thirty. I had to have one! So I casually swung by wholesale sports in edmonton, where they politley replied, they were sold out of the 4.5-30 model, dang.
Not to be deterred I hopped on the motorcycle and took a cruise to lethbridge under the guise of visiting a friend, little did he realize my ultirior motives for coming. They had one, just one. Out of the box it is a big scope, at 21 oz, 50 mm objective and a 30mm main tube, and 13.5 inches long. Supplied in the box are also a 5" sun shade and various bushnell propaganda. The scope is exceptionally clear through out the magnification range, to a point. I didnt expect it to make it all the way to 30 and not get fuzzy, and I was right, it loses some clarity at about 26 power and requires the use of the handy side paralax adjust to bring out some of the clarity and a little diddling on the focus to make it clearer at high power, shucks, oh well.
The reticle on mine is billed as the fine multi-x, it is a shade lighter than the standard bushnell multi x reticle, though still slightly thicker than a leupold fine duplex. It is also available in mil-dot, it wasnt when i went to buy one so I wound up with a fine multi-x and a cunning plan. Shucks again.
I mounted the scope myself on my existing leupold bases, with new 30 mm rings, it displaces a leupold vari-x II 4-12x40. The rifle is a remington sendero in 300 wm, due to the heavy contour I went with the medium high 30mm rings, and the mounting is just right, a lighter contour barrel might do it with plain mediums, thats just a guess though! The rifle and scope are intented for hunting purposes, but I also like to play with coyotes that think they are safe.
First impression while mounting, the bushnell is fairly forgiving about the eye relief used throughout the power range, again once you hit about 26 power your head has to be just right to get the picture, most under that its like looking at a HD LCD TV, seems clearer than the real world. The sun shade would overwhelm the looks of many rifles, as would this large scope, but on the sendero they go well together.
Now onto my cunning plan! Since they did not have the mil dot I decided i would set the scope up with plenty of adjustment room, (the knobs are finger adjustable, audible clicks, 1/4 moa and they have a neat feature where you pull the know out and can reset your 0 mark without any allen keys or tools). I achieved this by turning the elevation know down to bottom out, then came up one rotation, giving me plenty of down if i needed it for sighting in. This also allowed me plenty of up adjustment for long range shooting.
But how will you sight in with the scope already set? Easy, eyeball it! Borsighting is fun and easy to do on your own, and you dont need lasers or really any expirience, leupold style bases are great for this
. sandbagged in the rifle at the range, pulled the bolt out and eyeballed down the tube to the 100 yard target I had set out. The rear base on the leupold bases allows you to get most of your left and right taken care of. just swing the rear with the screws till the crosshair is in the middle of what you've eyeballed down the tube, then just tighten it in place.
But what about up and down? Well, what I wound up doing was picking up some 10 thou brass shimstock (easy to cut to size), with the average base to base length 1 thou shimming equals about 1 inch at 100 yards, not an exact science here but its close. I stuck in 10 to start, snugged the rings and fired 2 rounds at the 50 yard target. They were 5.5 inches low at 50, meaning 11 at 100. so I slacked off the rings and stuck in another 10, snugged down and fired 2 at 100. 1 inch low and 2.5 inches left. My math worked out! Not bad for eyeballin it. I then used my turrets to tune in to shooting the center for left and right and went up to 2 inches high at 100.
After that was done I sighted the rifle for dead on at 250 yards and reset my turret zeroes. this covers me for hunting easily, I push 165 gr hornady sst's to about 3075 for great accuracy and deadly effect. on deer sized game the max point blank sight in technique lets me place crosshairs and pull the trigger out to 350 or so without having to think much, which is nice in a pinch. anything farther than that you usually have time to work with anway, rangefinders are also good to have if you want to play the long range game.
If you want to figger out your max point blank, go to http://www.biggameinfo.com/BalCalc.aspx with applicable knowing about your loads and bullets, punch em in and it tells you, also it does handy range cards up.
I would recommend this scope to anyone who was looking for a scope that can fill a wide array of tasks, the mil-dot would undoubtably be good for varminters, the lower powers up to about 10 great for the average deer hunter, the higher powers are great for people who know how to use them. These scopes are probably the brightest I have ever encountered and put you into the relm about arguing with yourself over what you can see and what the legal shooting times are. Target shooters would probably prefer a finer crosshair and the fuzziness at extreme magnification could become a problem for perfectionists. Its not a nightforce, but it is a spectacular scope in its own relm. For further product info check out the bushnell websight, real handy cause you're already online!
hope this helps, and also sheds light on simple self shim jobs
Not to be deterred I hopped on the motorcycle and took a cruise to lethbridge under the guise of visiting a friend, little did he realize my ultirior motives for coming. They had one, just one. Out of the box it is a big scope, at 21 oz, 50 mm objective and a 30mm main tube, and 13.5 inches long. Supplied in the box are also a 5" sun shade and various bushnell propaganda. The scope is exceptionally clear through out the magnification range, to a point. I didnt expect it to make it all the way to 30 and not get fuzzy, and I was right, it loses some clarity at about 26 power and requires the use of the handy side paralax adjust to bring out some of the clarity and a little diddling on the focus to make it clearer at high power, shucks, oh well.
The reticle on mine is billed as the fine multi-x, it is a shade lighter than the standard bushnell multi x reticle, though still slightly thicker than a leupold fine duplex. It is also available in mil-dot, it wasnt when i went to buy one so I wound up with a fine multi-x and a cunning plan. Shucks again.
I mounted the scope myself on my existing leupold bases, with new 30 mm rings, it displaces a leupold vari-x II 4-12x40. The rifle is a remington sendero in 300 wm, due to the heavy contour I went with the medium high 30mm rings, and the mounting is just right, a lighter contour barrel might do it with plain mediums, thats just a guess though! The rifle and scope are intented for hunting purposes, but I also like to play with coyotes that think they are safe.
First impression while mounting, the bushnell is fairly forgiving about the eye relief used throughout the power range, again once you hit about 26 power your head has to be just right to get the picture, most under that its like looking at a HD LCD TV, seems clearer than the real world. The sun shade would overwhelm the looks of many rifles, as would this large scope, but on the sendero they go well together.
Now onto my cunning plan! Since they did not have the mil dot I decided i would set the scope up with plenty of adjustment room, (the knobs are finger adjustable, audible clicks, 1/4 moa and they have a neat feature where you pull the know out and can reset your 0 mark without any allen keys or tools). I achieved this by turning the elevation know down to bottom out, then came up one rotation, giving me plenty of down if i needed it for sighting in. This also allowed me plenty of up adjustment for long range shooting.
But how will you sight in with the scope already set? Easy, eyeball it! Borsighting is fun and easy to do on your own, and you dont need lasers or really any expirience, leupold style bases are great for this
. sandbagged in the rifle at the range, pulled the bolt out and eyeballed down the tube to the 100 yard target I had set out. The rear base on the leupold bases allows you to get most of your left and right taken care of. just swing the rear with the screws till the crosshair is in the middle of what you've eyeballed down the tube, then just tighten it in place. But what about up and down? Well, what I wound up doing was picking up some 10 thou brass shimstock (easy to cut to size), with the average base to base length 1 thou shimming equals about 1 inch at 100 yards, not an exact science here but its close. I stuck in 10 to start, snugged the rings and fired 2 rounds at the 50 yard target. They were 5.5 inches low at 50, meaning 11 at 100. so I slacked off the rings and stuck in another 10, snugged down and fired 2 at 100. 1 inch low and 2.5 inches left. My math worked out! Not bad for eyeballin it. I then used my turrets to tune in to shooting the center for left and right and went up to 2 inches high at 100.
After that was done I sighted the rifle for dead on at 250 yards and reset my turret zeroes. this covers me for hunting easily, I push 165 gr hornady sst's to about 3075 for great accuracy and deadly effect. on deer sized game the max point blank sight in technique lets me place crosshairs and pull the trigger out to 350 or so without having to think much, which is nice in a pinch. anything farther than that you usually have time to work with anway, rangefinders are also good to have if you want to play the long range game.
If you want to figger out your max point blank, go to http://www.biggameinfo.com/BalCalc.aspx with applicable knowing about your loads and bullets, punch em in and it tells you, also it does handy range cards up.
I would recommend this scope to anyone who was looking for a scope that can fill a wide array of tasks, the mil-dot would undoubtably be good for varminters, the lower powers up to about 10 great for the average deer hunter, the higher powers are great for people who know how to use them. These scopes are probably the brightest I have ever encountered and put you into the relm about arguing with yourself over what you can see and what the legal shooting times are. Target shooters would probably prefer a finer crosshair and the fuzziness at extreme magnification could become a problem for perfectionists. Its not a nightforce, but it is a spectacular scope in its own relm. For further product info check out the bushnell websight, real handy cause you're already online!
hope this helps, and also sheds light on simple self shim jobs
