Thinkin about getting one of these, how does it compare to the newer razor hd 27-60x85 spotter?
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Bushnell Legend T Series 15-45x60 FFP
- Thread starter Vamike9
- Start date
Would be extremely interested in your findings between these 2 since about about to buy one. Leaning toward the Bushnell because of the reticle, size, etc. but just want to make sure I’m not leaving a whole lot on the table. Thanks
I sold mine about a month after i got it. I had bought into the whole, compares to the Goldring, compares to the MK4, compares to the Razor HD hype.
It is a good deal and compares favorably to other $400.00 spotters. That being said, it does not compare favorably to any of the $900 spotters like the Razor HD or Goldring, and certainly not to a MK4.
I decided to sell it when i had it set up next to Skookums ancient Bushnell Spacemaster at a couple hundred yards, the kind with the all-metal body and textured powdercoat finish, and was outclassed by the Spacemaster.
With the Spacemaster i could make out .223 bulletholes, with the Bushnell T series they were invisible.
As TacticalDillhole pointed out a half-dozen times, it in no way compares to the Goldring, Razor HD, and certainly not the MK4 for glass clarity.
Its a $400 Chinese spotter. It may be the best $400 Chinese spotter on the market considering the compact design, rails, and good reticle. Is glass quality is as good or better than other $400 chinese spotters. But youll be pretty disappointed if you set it up next to a 900$ Japanese spotter.
I set it up next to Skookums Kowa Prominar and again, its not even in the same galaxy, let alone the same solar system, planet, continent or league.
I bought an Optolyth TBG80, with a 30x reticle eyepiece. Sitting the Optolyth side-by-side with the Kowa TSN-4, the Optolyth is very much in the same league.
It is a good deal and compares favorably to other $400.00 spotters. That being said, it does not compare favorably to any of the $900 spotters like the Razor HD or Goldring, and certainly not to a MK4.
I decided to sell it when i had it set up next to Skookums ancient Bushnell Spacemaster at a couple hundred yards, the kind with the all-metal body and textured powdercoat finish, and was outclassed by the Spacemaster.
With the Spacemaster i could make out .223 bulletholes, with the Bushnell T series they were invisible.
As TacticalDillhole pointed out a half-dozen times, it in no way compares to the Goldring, Razor HD, and certainly not the MK4 for glass clarity.
Its a $400 Chinese spotter. It may be the best $400 Chinese spotter on the market considering the compact design, rails, and good reticle. Is glass quality is as good or better than other $400 chinese spotters. But youll be pretty disappointed if you set it up next to a 900$ Japanese spotter.
I set it up next to Skookums Kowa Prominar and again, its not even in the same galaxy, let alone the same solar system, planet, continent or league.
I bought an Optolyth TBG80, with a 30x reticle eyepiece. Sitting the Optolyth side-by-side with the Kowa TSN-4, the Optolyth is very much in the same league.
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this is my 1st spotting scope. I'm a CQB/300yd tactical shooter. just new to the LR scene, so I dont mind starting out with this and then moving up. im sure if I dont like it anymore, next year I can get $300 for it all day & start over.
I just got mine in today after selling my razor hd 27-60x85 and I was actually pleasantly surprised. Yea maybe it’s not as bright but the resolution through the mag range is really good. A little bit of CA, but the FFP with a reticle is more valuable to me
I have had mine for over a year now. My thoughts and experiences...
The optic would not focus correctly till I torqued down the loctited ring that holds the magnification settings on top. Once I did that, it got better and I could focus it adequately. That also made the magnification off because the rubber ring with magnification levels is glued the to ring I just turned. So I had to lift the rubber ring by separating its glue and rotating it back to the correct position.
I also had the focus tight one way with backlash the other way that makes the optic neay impossible to focus because of the super sensitive focus from the coarse threads and slop that allows the focus to dtift. The Oring trick helped a ton with the inadvertent movement, but nothing will help the lack of a fine focus knob snd coarse threaded focus.
The rails work great, but they are cheap with cheap screws and tend to back out. You really need loctite and torque. It needs a new cover so you can keep things on the rails. The factory cover is worthless. Will get a Triad eventually. The eyepiece is a different size than the Leupold MK4 / M151 it tries to copy, so things like a Badger SNAP or other Leupold accessories wont fit.
Its a good but finiky low end spotter. Not garbage, but not great optical quality either and not very user friendly. I wish there was something about 50-70% more expensive with better optical quality, build quality, and user friendliness that also had coatings that were NV friendly, but there is not.
Even the Leupold GR HD which is better optically than the standard Leupold MK4 kills NV transmission with its coatings.
Is there a spotter in the $1k range with a FFP reticle and similar size and weight to this one? I still have time to return mine if there is. Don’t want to spend over $1k though.
Closest thing to 1000 is the Athlon Cronus Tactical:
https://shop.opticsplanet.com/athlo...5rJk_NRgL75Wj9Ggymb7HrkUfqnAp45MaAjdCEALw_wcB
Other options for a little more:
Goldring with impact reticle for 1400.00
The mildot version is 1700.00
https://www.anarchyoutdoors.com/gol...pact-reticle-hd-straight-viewing-shadow-gray/
https://shop.opticsplanet.com/athlo...5rJk_NRgL75Wj9Ggymb7HrkUfqnAp45MaAjdCEALw_wcB
Other options for a little more:
Goldring with impact reticle for 1400.00
The mildot version is 1700.00
https://www.anarchyoutdoors.com/gol...pact-reticle-hd-straight-viewing-shadow-gray/
Yea, im with you.
I bought an Optolyth last year, which including eyepieces, was well over 1000$.
If the Athlon had been available then, id have bought it and happily waited.
Im happy with the Optolyth, its a phenominal spotter, but its reticle eyepiece is fixed 30x and my 20-60 variable eyepiece has no reticle. It's eyepieces are in the neighborhood of $500 each.
My advice, if you want a FFP, reticle equipped variable, then either pre-order the Athlon or wait untill its available.
Theyre a new company and all indications are that they are giving the customer plenty of quality for the money. Theres almost no chance this new spotter will be anything less than a great buy.
If, last year, id had any indication this Athlon was in the near future, id have pre-ordered one and happily waited. I like everything about the design.
Follow the Cronus Tactical thread. There are alot of guys waiting for these to start shipping.
So far, late October seems to be the release timeframe.
I bought an Optolyth last year, which including eyepieces, was well over 1000$.
If the Athlon had been available then, id have bought it and happily waited.
Im happy with the Optolyth, its a phenominal spotter, but its reticle eyepiece is fixed 30x and my 20-60 variable eyepiece has no reticle. It's eyepieces are in the neighborhood of $500 each.
My advice, if you want a FFP, reticle equipped variable, then either pre-order the Athlon or wait untill its available.
Theyre a new company and all indications are that they are giving the customer plenty of quality for the money. Theres almost no chance this new spotter will be anything less than a great buy.
If, last year, id had any indication this Athlon was in the near future, id have pre-ordered one and happily waited. I like everything about the design.
Follow the Cronus Tactical thread. There are alot of guys waiting for these to start shipping.
So far, late October seems to be the release timeframe.
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Holy crap that is a screaming deal! I got a great deal on mine a couple years ago and it has been my go-to spotter since. The focus is finicky and the 1913 rail screws are too shallow IMHO (I mount NV to the right one, Radius rangefinder to the left one, and IR illuminator to the top one) but it is worth the $ spent for sure.
I've owned a T-series spotter for about a year now, and this sums up my experience with it nicely. It's good quality for the price (especially considering the features), but comparing it to a spotter in the $900 and up range isn't realistic.
Thanks for posting about the sale. Amazon has it today for $389 - worth it to me to have it quicker. Optics Planet free shipping takes forever. Just ordered via Amazon Prime and will have it Monday.
So many people keep trying to compare it beyond it's market... Plain and simple if you require a FFP Mil reticle that is a tad more portable this is your best bang for buck choice (plus this thing goes on sale a lot)
Dev L,
I've seen you post before about torquing the focus ring down to get better focus, can you elaborate more on this? I had one of the very first ones of these out with the walking focus ring. I sent it back to Bushnell not long afterwards and they sent me a brand new replacement and the focus isn't quite as crisp as the first one. Just never really messed with trying to improve the focus.
I'm looking for the same. Can anyone help with finding the correct 0-ring? That scout link is dead. Or, just tell me where the o-ring was placed. Is it being put in the space where the focus ring and the rubber fixed ring (with magnification numbers) meet? If so, it looks like a 50mm id o-ring would work.
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Yep, I've been using a PhoneSkope with mine for a while now. I use it a lot for getting video of the targets at matches or when I am doing barricade work for practice.
What do you want to know?
I got mine for Christmas and took it out the next day and noticed there was paint splatter from the reticle on the lense , so I sent it back to OP and going with the Konus 80 mm until I can afford something nicer
What exactly did you see in the glass? Why not give Bushnell a chance to address it?
I also had a hell of a time getting it to focus and when OP said they would swap me out for the Konus.. I was all over it..
I have a friend the shoots hi-power and he says the Konus is what most of the guys use for spotters.. because they can upgrade the eye piece to the a kowa 25x wide angle
About my focus fix... The focus was off. The supposedly non movable fixed ring that has the magnification level numbers were riding on could move on mine. I tightened it clockwise. The focus improved. I believe they are locktited at the factory to keep them from moving when they are assembled. Mine was not installed correctly AND the locktite broke loose.
If your disappointed in this spotting scope for $400, you are not going to find a better one with a reticle at this price. I sent mine back because of the focus ring & 2 weeks later bushnell sent me another one that works fine but that’s the gamble you take buying a $400 spotter. Bushnell has really good customer service, you can keep sending them back till you get a good one. It works great for short to medium ranges but not so good for long range. Long range it can spot bullet splash & call corrections ok but for me I use it along side a Kowa 88mm & some Zeiss conquest hd 8x32 binoculars also helping, so it has its place & works. It’s not a leupold mk4 or a razor so don’t expect that, but I think it’s a very good $400 spotter
Thanks for sharing. I read your post then turned mine too and it fixed it, no more "walking focus". That sure beats sending to Bushnell to fix.
I’m not much of an Athlon fan, but the Cronus tactical looks fairly solid for <$1k
I’ve read a lot of reviews saying the bushnell looked as good as the mk4/golden ring & I disagreed vs the one I saw. I told my brother about it because he was in the military & spent a lot of time behind a mk4 & he said most of the reviews weren’t wrong that the bushnell ffp Ed looked almost as good. He said that there’s 3 different models & the one I saw was the golden ring hd which uses better Ed/hd glass than the mk4 or regular golden ring. The one I looked at was a golden ring hd & the guy had leupold put the tmr reticle in. If you want a better version that’s more reliable than the bushnell the hd Golden would be the way to go
I'd look at the LMSS, which has ED Prime glass. The LMSS2 was unveiled at SHOT, but they're not going to be hitting the street for a while.
If the lmss2 has the same glass & coatings as the dmr2 pro & xrs2 it will be hard to beat. The new glass on the xrs2 & dmr2 pro is very good & good prices can be found on them
The LMSS1 and 2 both use the same ED Prime glass from the XRS2 and DMR2 Pro, but I am not sure if they might tweak the coatings for spotting use/lens sizes or anything like that.
Can’t beat that. It took 3 replacements to get one as good as my cousins. My cousin got lucky getting such a good one but now mine is as good as his & im happy. For the price you can’t beat these, ffp reticle & decent glass
I just ordered one on 2/11/18 from B&H Photo for $389 with free shipping.
With the current 20% off rebate from Bushnell, that spotter will only cost you $311 plus whatever tax B&H charges. I had to jump on it.....one of those "don't even bother thinking about it" type purchases. That's a heck of a deal on any 15x-45x spotting scope from a reputable company.
Mine just arrived today and I was impressed with what little bit of peering I did in the field behind my office. All of my focus/adjustment rings worked perfectly and I was pleased with what I was able to resolve in an oak tree 400-ish yards away.
It will never be confused with a Swarovski spotter, but you'll also never buy a Swaro spotter for $311.
Nowhere else can you get a FFP-reticle spotter for that kind of deal.
With the current 20% off rebate from Bushnell, that spotter will only cost you $311 plus whatever tax B&H charges. I had to jump on it.....one of those "don't even bother thinking about it" type purchases. That's a heck of a deal on any 15x-45x spotting scope from a reputable company.
Mine just arrived today and I was impressed with what little bit of peering I did in the field behind my office. All of my focus/adjustment rings worked perfectly and I was pleased with what I was able to resolve in an oak tree 400-ish yards away.
It will never be confused with a Swarovski spotter, but you'll also never buy a Swaro spotter for $311.
Nowhere else can you get a FFP-reticle spotter for that kind of deal.
One thing that I wondered about was the box says Ed prime. So the new xrs2 & dmr2 pro use Ed prime but with different coatings. I wonder if there are different grades of Ed prime or the coating that makes the difference in the xrs2 because it is way nicer image. It’s hard to imagine the coating making it that much better because the xrs2 is very good
