Re: Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 20x60-80
I had the liittle brother, the Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 12-36x50mm 45 degree which I used for 100 - 300 yards.
First off I will say that for the money you get alot of scope. While It was my first spotter as well, I had recreational shooters with lesser scopes (sub 200 dollars) mention it looked better than theirs. The package includes the scope, non-removable eyepiece, soft case, and even a tabletop tripod.
My impressions on its performance is only adequate. The tripod was not very stable. Built out of plastic it would shake even in light wind. At mid to higher magnification it was quite a bit darker, most noticably on cloudy days or when the sun was setting. The two level focus knobs were nice in fine tuning, but could never achieve what you may consider "impressively sharp". The eye relief was not long enough to view with shooting glasses on. There was also a piece of trapped material that from time to time appeared in the view. A nice smack would get it stuck to a side to become invisible again for a few months. Due to the 36x magnification maximum, had it been better image quality, would probably have sufficed even for 300 yard shooting but I decided to upgrade.
After about a year I ended up trading it back to SWFA for about 75% of what i had paid to upgrade to a Pentax PF-65ED with a fixed 39x WX eyepiece . I researched quite a bit, wanted something in the 60-70mm area to improve the brightness but not be too big. This scope is amazing. Much wider field of view, crisp and sharp image from better glass and focus, longer eye relief to accomodate glasses. I even do a little bit of stargazing with it now and bring it along on some trips to national parks. The views are stunning.
Overall the Bushnell is a good scope for the price and should beat most others in its range. I am not trying to knock it especially if price is the limiting factor, however from my experiences, paying the extra money to upgrade to the Pentax was definitely worth it.
