Hi Guys, I’m looking for some feedback from those of you who either own or have used the Bushnell HDMR’s. Much of what I’m about to detail here isn’t new ground but if you will bear with me through this long post detailing my experience I would really appreciate some honest feedback from some of you HDMR owners as to the qualities of the scopes you own.
After having an opportunity for some firsthand time with two HDMR’s at a competition back in February I decided to buy a Bushnell HDMR with the G2 reticle. I thought it would be a good fit for an AR in 308 and was really excited about the reticle and power range. After I had it for a few days I was noticing that when looking at lighter colored objects they frequently had a halo or ring around them that was a purple or blue color. The more I looked through the scope the more it seemed to jump out at me. I was pretty surprised at what I was seeing after having viewed two other HDMR’s previously, one with the H59 and the other with the TRMR2 where I did not notice this issue at all. Several months removed from my purchase date I found through some research here on the Hide that I’m not the first one to experience this and it isn’t headline news for anyone.
Back to the purchase, I did do a side by side comparison with a Vortex Razor 5-20 and a Super Sniper 5-20 and had none of the same issues in these two scopes looking at the exact same targets in the exact same conditions on the same day. This being the case, I called Bushnell customer service on April 30th and a pleasant lady named Alex took my call and listened to my issue and told me that I definitely should not be experiencing this issue with the scope and to send it back to them for repair. So on May 1st, I shipped it out to Bushnell with a letter describing the problem and referencing the phone conversation.
A few days after it delivered to Bushnell I received a post card in the mail from them with a case number and a website to keep tabs on the status of my repair. I checked the site just about daily seeing no change in status of my ticket. Then on May 18th the scope delivered back to me with a letter saying it was inspected and determined to be within spec, all without the website having ever noted it having been inspected or shipping back to me.
As part of the assessment, Bushnell noted they had centered the reticle and cleaned the lenses for me. As I unpacked the scope I immediately noticed that there were now some new cosmetic flaws on the scope that were not there at the time I sent it to Bushnell. Both of the screws used to secure the windage and elevation knobs had deformations in them where a poor fitting tool had been used to remove them and the parallax knob had an extremely minor scratch on the knurling. Granted these were all minor flaws, very minor in the case of the parallax knob, and didn’t impact the functionality of the optic one bit but it was quite surprising to see it come back from the manufacturer this way. I would have expected them to have a proper fitting tool to remove the screws or maybe a spare nickel or quarter lying about to use for the task. Moving past these issues I took the scope out the next day for another view and it was more of the same fringing around the higher contrast/white objects.
Obviously disappointed, I contacted the Scott at Liberty Optics and he requested that I send the scope back to him so that he could personally inspect it. I packed it up and shipped it out to him on May 22nd. He spent some time with the scope and agreed with me that the scope should not be this way and he would contact Bushnell for a replacement. He drafted a letter going into great detail about the issue with the scope and the need for replacement. Bushnell received the scope from him and returned the same scope back to him saying they had centered the reticle, adjusted the parallax, and cleaned the lenses. We both wondered if they even bothered to read the letter about the issue.
Following the receipt back from the Bushnell he contacted them repeatedly talking to numerous persons in all levels of operations at the company to secure a replacement scope. It was literally like pulling teeth for him to get any action from anyone at Bushnell. Finally, on August 22nd he received a replacement scope from Bushnell, only 113 days after I originally sent my scope in to Bushnell for repair. I was excited that the issue was finally going to be resolved and the empty set of rings on my rifle would be filed again. Having invested almost four months of his life in the issue with Bushnell, Scott wanted to assess the scope before sending it out to me to ensure that it was of the quality we both expected. Test failed. He said the replacement scope was essentially the same as the first one with no noticeable improvement.
For those of you that are still hanging in there on this thread, what is your experience with the HDMR? Are your samples totally devoid of this issue or do you have the same issue and are just not bothered by it or feel that it is offset by the other features of the scope? Does this issue seem be limited to just models with certain reticles? From the majority of the posts here that I have seen since taking delivery of mine it appears that this is one of the most highly recommended optic and reticle combinations on the market. That has to be for a reason. At the same time, I see posts on optics and gear in general where the level of quality and service expected from the majority of Hide members is so high that it just doesn’t seem congruent that what I have experienced would be tolerated by the population at large. So what say ye?
Given the virtually non-existent customer service response to date from Bushnell and time invested thus far, I don’t know if it is worth trying yet a third sample from them, from their ELITE line no less, to see if I can get a scope without this issue.
Thanks for your insight and patience in reading this lengthy post.
James
After having an opportunity for some firsthand time with two HDMR’s at a competition back in February I decided to buy a Bushnell HDMR with the G2 reticle. I thought it would be a good fit for an AR in 308 and was really excited about the reticle and power range. After I had it for a few days I was noticing that when looking at lighter colored objects they frequently had a halo or ring around them that was a purple or blue color. The more I looked through the scope the more it seemed to jump out at me. I was pretty surprised at what I was seeing after having viewed two other HDMR’s previously, one with the H59 and the other with the TRMR2 where I did not notice this issue at all. Several months removed from my purchase date I found through some research here on the Hide that I’m not the first one to experience this and it isn’t headline news for anyone.
Back to the purchase, I did do a side by side comparison with a Vortex Razor 5-20 and a Super Sniper 5-20 and had none of the same issues in these two scopes looking at the exact same targets in the exact same conditions on the same day. This being the case, I called Bushnell customer service on April 30th and a pleasant lady named Alex took my call and listened to my issue and told me that I definitely should not be experiencing this issue with the scope and to send it back to them for repair. So on May 1st, I shipped it out to Bushnell with a letter describing the problem and referencing the phone conversation.
A few days after it delivered to Bushnell I received a post card in the mail from them with a case number and a website to keep tabs on the status of my repair. I checked the site just about daily seeing no change in status of my ticket. Then on May 18th the scope delivered back to me with a letter saying it was inspected and determined to be within spec, all without the website having ever noted it having been inspected or shipping back to me.
As part of the assessment, Bushnell noted they had centered the reticle and cleaned the lenses for me. As I unpacked the scope I immediately noticed that there were now some new cosmetic flaws on the scope that were not there at the time I sent it to Bushnell. Both of the screws used to secure the windage and elevation knobs had deformations in them where a poor fitting tool had been used to remove them and the parallax knob had an extremely minor scratch on the knurling. Granted these were all minor flaws, very minor in the case of the parallax knob, and didn’t impact the functionality of the optic one bit but it was quite surprising to see it come back from the manufacturer this way. I would have expected them to have a proper fitting tool to remove the screws or maybe a spare nickel or quarter lying about to use for the task. Moving past these issues I took the scope out the next day for another view and it was more of the same fringing around the higher contrast/white objects.
Obviously disappointed, I contacted the Scott at Liberty Optics and he requested that I send the scope back to him so that he could personally inspect it. I packed it up and shipped it out to him on May 22nd. He spent some time with the scope and agreed with me that the scope should not be this way and he would contact Bushnell for a replacement. He drafted a letter going into great detail about the issue with the scope and the need for replacement. Bushnell received the scope from him and returned the same scope back to him saying they had centered the reticle, adjusted the parallax, and cleaned the lenses. We both wondered if they even bothered to read the letter about the issue.
Following the receipt back from the Bushnell he contacted them repeatedly talking to numerous persons in all levels of operations at the company to secure a replacement scope. It was literally like pulling teeth for him to get any action from anyone at Bushnell. Finally, on August 22nd he received a replacement scope from Bushnell, only 113 days after I originally sent my scope in to Bushnell for repair. I was excited that the issue was finally going to be resolved and the empty set of rings on my rifle would be filed again. Having invested almost four months of his life in the issue with Bushnell, Scott wanted to assess the scope before sending it out to me to ensure that it was of the quality we both expected. Test failed. He said the replacement scope was essentially the same as the first one with no noticeable improvement.
For those of you that are still hanging in there on this thread, what is your experience with the HDMR? Are your samples totally devoid of this issue or do you have the same issue and are just not bothered by it or feel that it is offset by the other features of the scope? Does this issue seem be limited to just models with certain reticles? From the majority of the posts here that I have seen since taking delivery of mine it appears that this is one of the most highly recommended optic and reticle combinations on the market. That has to be for a reason. At the same time, I see posts on optics and gear in general where the level of quality and service expected from the majority of Hide members is so high that it just doesn’t seem congruent that what I have experienced would be tolerated by the population at large. So what say ye?
Given the virtually non-existent customer service response to date from Bushnell and time invested thus far, I don’t know if it is worth trying yet a third sample from them, from their ELITE line no less, to see if I can get a scope without this issue.
Thanks for your insight and patience in reading this lengthy post.
James
