Rifle Scopes Bought a Bushnell Elite 6500, any feedback?

[Ticeman]

Finally bought a scope for my 338 LM today, Bushnell Elite 6500 4.5-30 x 50. Anyone have one? the glass seems really good, looking for some feedback.

It's not mounted yet, what size of rings do I need? this is my first LR gun, so pardon the dumb question.

 

[Jayman_10X]

Re: Bought a Bushnell Elite 6500, any feedback?

Tice,

You have a good scope, though I don't know how it will hold up to the recoil of a 338LM, only because I haven't tested it yet. If the rifle is heavy enough you should be fine. Use 30mm rings, medium height, but measure first to be certain. Measure from the centerline/optical line to the top of scope mount.

My brother has the exact scope you do on a 22-250 Rem that we use on our annual prairie dog shoot each summer. The scope works great, tracks well, and great clarity. I agree with stealth, above, that the edges get slightly fuzzy at extreme power, but nothing to make any difference whatsoever. Great scopes for the money.

I run a 4200 Elite on my 260 and that's a bonafide 0.3 MOA rifle out to 600 yards (I haven't tested it beyond yet) so, yeah, great scopes.

 

[Ticeman]

Re: Bought a Bushnell Elite 6500, any feedback?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Jayman_10X</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tice,

You have a good scope, though I don't know how it will hold up to the recoil of a 338LM, only because I haven't tested it yet. If the rifle is heavy enough you should be fine. Use 30mm rings, medium height, but measure first to be certain. Measure from the centerline/optical line to the top of scope mount.

My brother has the exact scope you do on a 22-250 Rem that we use on our annual prairie dog shoot each summer. The scope works great, tracks well, and great clarity. I agree with stealth, above, that the edges get slightly fuzzy at extreme power, but nothing to make any difference whatsoever. Great scopes for the money.

I run a 4200 Elite on my 260 and that's a bonafide 0.3 MOA rifle out to 600 yards (I haven't tested it beyond yet) so, yeah, great scopes. </div></div>


Thanks, went back to the gun show and bought 30 mm rings (leupold med. height) and got it mounted, looks like it'll work fine, got to get her dialed in tomorrow, thanks fellas!

 

[firecaptain]

Re: Bought a Bushnell Elite 6500, any feedback?

I have one on my SPS Tactical 308 and use it to shoot to 500 yards. I am very impressed so far with limited use, about a year or so. Clear glass, turrents seem to come back to zero. We shoot from 1-500 yards, back to 100 and then back to 500 all in one match, so far no problems. Turrets are easy to zero and the parallex works fine too. No regrets so far.

 

[Erud]

Re: Bought a Bushnell Elite 6500, any feedback?

My dad bought one of those a couple of years ago and put it on a Varmint AR. I advised him to look at some other options but he didn't want to spend a lot and went with the 6500. It have shot it quite a bit and can honestly say that aside from sub-$50 BSA scopes and the like from Wal-Mart, it is hands-down the worst scope I have ever used. Looks great on paper, but the execution is extremely flawed.

On his scope, the eye relief for use at max magnification is close to 8". I don't care what the specs say, if my head is not 8" behind the ocular lens it tunnels and I can not see the whole FOV. With anything even close to a normal mounting set-up, this puts your cheek pretty darn close to the back edge of the stock. The eye box is the smallest of any scope I've ever looked through and on max power it can literally take you 10 seconds to find the position where you can actually see through the scope - this is not helped by being awkwardly at the back end of your stock trying to get a cheek weld.

Also, image quality degrades quickly on higher powers making it mostly useless above about 20x. It will be a very rare occasion that you dial this scope up to 30x and are happy with the results.

I briefly had a 2.5-16x 6500 that I bought for 50% off retail at a store going out of business and it had all of the same issues, just at a lesser degree than the 4.5-30. I sold it very quickly and was happy to be rid of it.

Personally, i think there are tons of better scopes available for the same or less money. The Bushnell 4200 is a great value and much cheaper than the 6500. Since you've already bought it, I hope you have better luck with it than I expect you will. I would not buy one of these scopes at any cost.

Erik

 

[Jayman_10X]

Re: Bought a Bushnell Elite 6500, any feedback?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Erud</div><div class="ubbcode-body">My dad bought one of those a couple of years ago and put it on a Varmint AR. I advised him to look at some other options but he didn't want to spend a lot and went with the 6500. It have shot it quite a bit and can honestly say that aside from sub-$50 BSA scopes and the like from Wal-Mart, it is hands-down the worst scope I have ever used. Looks great on paper, but the execution is extremely flawed.

On his scope, the eye relief for use at max magnification is close to 8". I don't care what the specs say, if my head is not 8" behind the ocular lens it tunnels and I can not see the whole FOV. With anything even close to a normal mounting set-up, this puts your cheek pretty darn close to the back edge of the stock. The eye box is the smallest of any scope I've ever looked through and on max power it can literally take you 10 seconds to find the position where you can actually see through the scope - this is not helped by being awkwardly at the back end of your stock trying to get a cheek weld.

Also, image quality degrades quickly on higher powers making it mostly useless above about 20x. It will be a very rare occasion that you dial this scope up to 30x and are happy with the results.

I briefly had a 2.5-16x 6500 that I bought for 50% off retail at a store going out of business and it had all of the same issues, just at a lesser degree than the 4.5-30. I sold it very quickly and was happy to be rid of it.

Personally, i think there are tons of better scopes available for the same or less money. The Bushnell 4200 is a great value and much cheaper than the 6500. Since you've already bought it, I hope you have better luck with it than I expect you will. I would not buy one of these scopes at any cost.

Erik

</div></div>

Erik,

I am sorry to read of your two bad experiences. I would suggest your Dad return it to Bushnell. Explain the problem in writing and call them to find out where to ship it to and you'll get a repair or new scope returned in mail. Shouldn't be a problem. You might need to provide the receipt of purchase but I'm not sure.

For my part I've used 3 Elite scopes (x2 4200's & x1 6500) and they all work great. Eye relief and all else is as advertised. I would not hesitate to buy again.

thanks,
Jason