I saw that P&D had a used Cooper listed on their site a few weeks ago. I really wanted it, but my self control held out. Until yesterday, at least. I marched in there to buy it, but it had already been sold. I figured that since I'd just 'saved' $1500, I should shop around for a bit. I saw that new Bushnell 4200 side focus sitting in the display case, and I'm pretty sure I heard it calling to me (it's hard to tell for sure, it's hard to hear over the other voices in my head 
). So I bought it
First impressions are good. The scope is surprisingly solid, and surprisingly heavy. This scope is quite a bit shorter than the typical 4200 6-24 scopes, which adds to the 'solid' feel of the scope. No matter, it's going on a 12lb gun. I'd prefer a 30mm tube, but this one only comes in 1". No big deal, really.
The optics are up to the 4200's usual standards, and it has a first-focal-plane mil-dot reticle, calibrated at 12x - which is a nice feature - at 6x the dots are 2 mil and at 24x they're at 1/2 mil, so it's an easy *2 or /2 calculation to make. It's a standard Elite reflective-type reticle - it reflects light coming into the eyepiece back at you, so it's visible even when the objective is covered up. No firefly here but a great improvement over the standard etched-glass or wire reticles found on some other scopes.
It has the side-adjust parallax knob, of course, indexed from 25yds to 500yds, and beyond that to infinity. It has what Bushnell calls 'semi-target' turrets on it - essentially they are small target turrets with screw-on cover caps. The documentation is pretty skimpy - I can't figure out how to zero the knobs - there's no set screw on them.
Eye relief is pretty short, especially at higher magnifications but that's never bothered me before. And, of course, this scope is going on a light-recoiling varmint gun, but I haven't quite decided which one.
Anyway, I can't wait to mount it on a real gun, and see how it performs. I haven't heard any reports of zeros changing significantly with zoom on 4200's, but that's my top concern at this point. Plus, I'd like to see how responsive the 'clicks' are with the 'semi-target' knobs and optics.
Any one else have any experiences with this scope that you'd care to share?
). So I bought it First impressions are good. The scope is surprisingly solid, and surprisingly heavy. This scope is quite a bit shorter than the typical 4200 6-24 scopes, which adds to the 'solid' feel of the scope. No matter, it's going on a 12lb gun. I'd prefer a 30mm tube, but this one only comes in 1". No big deal, really.
The optics are up to the 4200's usual standards, and it has a first-focal-plane mil-dot reticle, calibrated at 12x - which is a nice feature - at 6x the dots are 2 mil and at 24x they're at 1/2 mil, so it's an easy *2 or /2 calculation to make. It's a standard Elite reflective-type reticle - it reflects light coming into the eyepiece back at you, so it's visible even when the objective is covered up. No firefly here but a great improvement over the standard etched-glass or wire reticles found on some other scopes.
It has the side-adjust parallax knob, of course, indexed from 25yds to 500yds, and beyond that to infinity. It has what Bushnell calls 'semi-target' turrets on it - essentially they are small target turrets with screw-on cover caps. The documentation is pretty skimpy - I can't figure out how to zero the knobs - there's no set screw on them.
Eye relief is pretty short, especially at higher magnifications but that's never bothered me before. And, of course, this scope is going on a light-recoiling varmint gun, but I haven't quite decided which one.
Anyway, I can't wait to mount it on a real gun, and see how it performs. I haven't heard any reports of zeros changing significantly with zoom on 4200's, but that's my top concern at this point. Plus, I'd like to see how responsive the 'clicks' are with the 'semi-target' knobs and optics.
Any one else have any experiences with this scope that you'd care to share?
