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Bushnell 6-18x 40mm
PN 633184
Short Review.
The Good: Spot on Tracking. Target Turrets, and .22 Specific Dial up turret caps. Excellent tactile clicks. Side Focus. Variable power with well weighted zoom ring. 199.00 street price!!!
The Bad: Thick Reticle (even for a duplex). No Sunshade
.
The Ugly: Chromatic Aberrations. Power Level is not accurate. Lens coatings. Tight Eyebox. 199.00 Price.
To Wit: I decided to take a leap into lower end optics for a couple .22 Rifles in the gopher patch. I regularly shoot from 30-175m with these firearms, and they have performed very well. (Both firearms normally wear Sightron SIII glass Walther SS .22lrs)
So armed with a Fist Full of Dollars (I couldn't resist saying that) I went into the local Brick and Mortar and bought a couple scopes.
Mounted with some steel rings, I have to admit, this is a fairly impressive looking package for a street price of 250.00 OTD!
In range use the tracking held well. Passing both the 50m and 100m Box test using Federal 40gn STD Velocity ammunition (at all levels of magnification). So The dial up and down and tracking were good. I love scopes that can repeatable track and was reasonably impressed.
Next up, staring at White Checkplot paper at 50/100/200/250m to take a look at clarity. Specifically, glass quality, coatings, etc. Everything was looking fantastic until I passed the 14X mark in magnification. What began as a slight prism/rainbow effect outline on the white paper edges became increasingly distracting.
Magnification. Almost but not quite? 6x is close to 6.5 and 18x is closer to 20x.
In the field: Well it's gopher season, and I am a fanatic about shooting the critters!!! it also supports the Raptor and predator population with a little free meat, so it is easy to justify going out with 2-3 bricks of .22lr
When buying a budget scope, the toughest part of the review is maintaining objectivity. It is not a Sightron SIII. It's cost is ten times LESS than a new SIII. But of course you need a benchmark and a solid metric to review against so here it is.
This scope is AWESOME to a point. With good tactile feeling in the controls, this scope feels a lot more expensive than it's meagre price would suggest. Indeed the turret clicks were most satisfying, and the side focus was just the right tension. What was hard to get used to is the eye relief. Or lack thereof. You are either in the zone or you are not. Bushnell claims 3.9" eye relief. Not even at the lowest power could I get close to that figure. 2.7 at 6x and probably 1.2@ maximum magnification.
This is to be expected in this class of optic however, and in the grand scheme of things, we can get used to almost anything. Especially for 199.00!!!
About 3 hours into my hunt behind the lens, I had to take a break. The chromatic aberrations, and lack of sunshade gave me some wicked eyestrain. I think this is also a consideration of not only glass quality, but coating quality.
Conclusion? Great optic for the money, you can afford to scope all of your unscoped .22 rifles, take them into the gopher patch and have a lot of fun!!!
I have a SMALL wishlist for Bushnell. At this price point they have the Vortex Crossfire II line all sorts of covered in terms of glass quality at a price that is significantly less than Vortex. But I wish Bushnell would add a sunshade, and a better coating on the lenses. And one more reticle choice!!
Would this increase the price? Absolutely, but I would be more than willing to pay up to 75.00 for these features to be added to this scope, and it would then be quite untouchable in the bang for the buck category.
In conclusion, we have a solid scope, with decent performance chops at a 7/11 price point. Not many scopes sub 300.00 come even close to this blend of features and performance. Perhaps Bushnell is its own worst enemy here. An extra bit of cash would really make this a standout in the value category.
Price 9/10
Performance 6/10
Glass 5/10
Features 6/10
PS, no i do not get paid to review gear, and yes I am keeping this glass in rotation on my gopher guns.
PN 633184
Short Review.
The Good: Spot on Tracking. Target Turrets, and .22 Specific Dial up turret caps. Excellent tactile clicks. Side Focus. Variable power with well weighted zoom ring. 199.00 street price!!!
The Bad: Thick Reticle (even for a duplex). No Sunshade
. The Ugly: Chromatic Aberrations. Power Level is not accurate. Lens coatings. Tight Eyebox. 199.00 Price.
To Wit: I decided to take a leap into lower end optics for a couple .22 Rifles in the gopher patch. I regularly shoot from 30-175m with these firearms, and they have performed very well. (Both firearms normally wear Sightron SIII glass Walther SS .22lrs)
So armed with a Fist Full of Dollars (I couldn't resist saying that) I went into the local Brick and Mortar and bought a couple scopes.
Mounted with some steel rings, I have to admit, this is a fairly impressive looking package for a street price of 250.00 OTD!
In range use the tracking held well. Passing both the 50m and 100m Box test using Federal 40gn STD Velocity ammunition (at all levels of magnification). So The dial up and down and tracking were good. I love scopes that can repeatable track and was reasonably impressed.
Next up, staring at White Checkplot paper at 50/100/200/250m to take a look at clarity. Specifically, glass quality, coatings, etc. Everything was looking fantastic until I passed the 14X mark in magnification. What began as a slight prism/rainbow effect outline on the white paper edges became increasingly distracting.
Magnification. Almost but not quite? 6x is close to 6.5 and 18x is closer to 20x.
In the field: Well it's gopher season, and I am a fanatic about shooting the critters!!! it also supports the Raptor and predator population with a little free meat, so it is easy to justify going out with 2-3 bricks of .22lr
When buying a budget scope, the toughest part of the review is maintaining objectivity. It is not a Sightron SIII. It's cost is ten times LESS than a new SIII. But of course you need a benchmark and a solid metric to review against so here it is.
This scope is AWESOME to a point. With good tactile feeling in the controls, this scope feels a lot more expensive than it's meagre price would suggest. Indeed the turret clicks were most satisfying, and the side focus was just the right tension. What was hard to get used to is the eye relief. Or lack thereof. You are either in the zone or you are not. Bushnell claims 3.9" eye relief. Not even at the lowest power could I get close to that figure. 2.7 at 6x and probably 1.2@ maximum magnification.
This is to be expected in this class of optic however, and in the grand scheme of things, we can get used to almost anything. Especially for 199.00!!!
About 3 hours into my hunt behind the lens, I had to take a break. The chromatic aberrations, and lack of sunshade gave me some wicked eyestrain. I think this is also a consideration of not only glass quality, but coating quality.
Conclusion? Great optic for the money, you can afford to scope all of your unscoped .22 rifles, take them into the gopher patch and have a lot of fun!!!
I have a SMALL wishlist for Bushnell. At this price point they have the Vortex Crossfire II line all sorts of covered in terms of glass quality at a price that is significantly less than Vortex. But I wish Bushnell would add a sunshade, and a better coating on the lenses. And one more reticle choice!!
Would this increase the price? Absolutely, but I would be more than willing to pay up to 75.00 for these features to be added to this scope, and it would then be quite untouchable in the bang for the buck category.
In conclusion, we have a solid scope, with decent performance chops at a 7/11 price point. Not many scopes sub 300.00 come even close to this blend of features and performance. Perhaps Bushnell is its own worst enemy here. An extra bit of cash would really make this a standout in the value category.
Price 9/10
Performance 6/10
Glass 5/10
Features 6/10
PS, no i do not get paid to review gear, and yes I am keeping this glass in rotation on my gopher guns.
