Its sad to hear so many negative comments on Bushnells warranty these days. Its been quite a few years since I have made any warranty claims with them, but I always had Excellent service with them. In the past, I have returned scopes, bino's, and a few years ago an old Tasco spotting scope that someone was throwing out, and they always sent me new replacements asap. I remember about 13yrs ago, I sent in a really old Trophy scope right before hunting season, an they replaced it with a new elite series, and I received it by courrier in 2 days!!
Oh, and as for your question, they have never asked for a receit or warranty card or even ask me if I was the original owner, but as I said that was a while ago.
Its all the negative comments in the past year or so I have been hearing that has made me switch to Burris. I guess I will only find out how good Burris's service is if one of my new scopes crap out..... hopefully they will not.