Thanks guys for your replies back greatly appreciated. Have been looking at some scopes on the exchange forum, but scepticle because i haven't obviously looked through it to notice any differences between models and brands. Should i just go to my local dealer who carrys leupold., and bushnell and buy a scope first hand? Or try and find a used one and upgrade with the money saved buying used and being able to choose more brands also. If anyone else has any other brands, models or comments to help me weed through some of the used scopes would be appreciated.
Thanks everyone.
Absolutely try one out first, and make sure to do it
outside. Natural light and indoor light can really fool the eye!
When I faced the decision you are facing now I went to a shop that sold Leupold, Bushnell and Zeiss, they set a table up outside for me, layed a cloth over it and I began to compare.
I loved tham all, but the Leupold had what seemed to me to be a "brownish" tint, it was faint and I would never have noticed if there wasn't other optics right beside it.
The Zeiss that they had held some pretty fat crosshairs, I am sure they make finer ones, but the shop didn't have any on my visit.
I was outfitting a varmint rifle, so I was looking for specific features, it turned out that the 6500 was the only one that had all the features on one scope, side paralax (less hand movement), and an amazing zoom level of 2.5 to 16X, that lets you take the same scope right in to the thick of the bush then step out and zoom right in on a tiny target at 300 yards. That was a huge deciding factor for me.
Light management was a tough thing to do at the time of sale, just no way to compare unless you shop at night. I am estatic with the low light performance though, even when it is too dark to see with the naked eye the scope will provide a great sight picture.
Having the Rain Guard was just a bonus, I love hunting in "less than desirable" weather, that scope just wont fog up!
Even my hardcore Leupold freinds say "Wow", when they look through it in an outdoor enviroment.
It has been on my rifle since the introduction of the 6500 series, smacked around, beat up, frozen, soaked, dropped and tossed in to my truck on almost a daily basis, it holds a true zero and has proven it's self as a rock solid rifle scope.
I think the only mistake Bushnell made on this scope is putting their name on it.
