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Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

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Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby rogerhoad » Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:53 pm

On Kevin's advice I purchased one of the above to replace the Hawke 3-9x50 that I had on my C.Z. .22.

I bought it from Campbell Ritchie's of Grantown on Spey through his e bay shop for £160, wish I had looked at Sportsman Gun Centre as they had it for £134, any way I still think it was a good buy. Service was excellent ,I ordered it on Sunday afternoon and received it on Tuesday.

My only concern was that going from a 50 to 40 might give a dimmer image, however this is not the case ,I would say that it is as bright if not brighter than the Hawke even when lamping. It was great when zeroing it as on 15x magnification I could see the bullet holes which saved a lot of walking. I used some of Kevin's targets which I downloaded from his website, very good & clear.

I would put this scope on a par with my Leupold VX 11 3-9x50 that I have on my .17.

Brilliant bit of kit at the price.

Are they stopping making the Legend as there seem to be very few adverts for them and in very limited focal lengths?
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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby Yatesy » Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:16 pm

Roger

Couldn't agree more mate. I have had a couple of these in the past. Sold one like a prawn :? Anyway I got let down by someone on a scope for my new (Secondhand) Tikka M595 .223, so I put the legend on it. Like you say very clear even better for lamping than the big WTC 6.5-20x50. the 40mm objective thing being better must be down to the glass quality? I have tried a few 50's upto £200 and they were no where near the Legend.

So good I have just ordered another to replace the one I took of the HW60J .22lr.

Just for anyone else who may be interested as Roger said the sportsman gun centre were knocking them out at £133.95. But are out of stock at present. I asked them if they could do a deal on two (I'm a cheeky t++t like that :grin: ) They said no BUT prices may improve even more as they have just done a direct deal with Bushnell :shock:

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KY
Tikka M595 Stainless .223 Bushnell Elite 4200 8-32x40
WEIHRAUCH HW60 .22LR Bushnell Legend 5-15x40
WEIHRAUCH HW60 .17HMR Simmons WTC 6.5-20x50
Daystate X2 Thumbhole .177 Bushnell Legend 5-15x40
HW25 .177 for my Little Lad.
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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby rossco » Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:33 am

I have a Bushnell Elite 4200 6-24 x 40 Mil-Dot and have had 3 years of very good service!

I would like to upgrade my scope but for the £240 I paid for it (from the States) the quality is hard to fault.

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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby Beer Hunter » Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:22 pm

rossco wrote:I have a Bushnell Elite 4200 6-24 x 40 Mil-Dot and have had 3 years of very good service!

I would like to upgrade my scope but for the £240 I paid for it (from the States) the quality is hard to fault.

Ross

I have the same scope on my .22LR and it is a cracker. You have to pay a LOT of money to get something better.

Kev.
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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby rogerhoad » Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:22 pm

Yatesy wrote:Roger

Couldn't agree more mate. I have had a couple of these in the past. Sold one like a prawn :? Anyway I got let down by someone on a scope for my new (Secondhand) Tikka M595 .223, so I put the legend on it. Like you say very clear even better for lamping than the big WTC 6.5-20x50. the 40mm objective thing being better must be down to the glass quality? I have tried a few 50's upto £200 and they were no where near the Legend.

So good I have just ordered another to replace the one I took of the HW60J .22lr.

Just for anyone else who may be interested as Roger said the sportsman gun centre were knocking them out at £133.95. But are out of stock at present. I asked them if they could do a deal on two (I'm a cheeky t++t like that :grin: ) They said no BUT prices may improve even more as they have just done a direct deal with Bushnell :shock:

ATB
KY


I think somebody was giving you some bulls excrement here. I've just had a look at their website and they're now listing it at £152.98. Glad I got mine when I did only £7.00 difference and brilliant service.
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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby rossco » Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:11 pm

Beer Hunter wrote:
rossco wrote:I have a Bushnell Elite 4200 6-24 x 40 Mil-Dot and have had 3 years of very good service!

I would like to upgrade my scope but for the £240 I paid for it (from the States) the quality is hard to fault.

Ross

I have the same scope on my .22LR and it is a cracker. You have to pay a LOT of money to get something better.

Kev.


My father-in-law has a brand new un-used Leupold 6.5-20 x 50 Mark IV LTR Mil-Dot scope sitting in a box.
He has put a Swarovski 6-24 x 50 PV-S on his Surgeon 6.5 x 47.

Do you think I should try and cut a deal with him on the Leupold and put that on my .260 instead of the Bushnell?

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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby Beer Hunter » Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:28 pm

rossco wrote:My father-in-law has a brand new un-used Leupold 6.5-20 x 50 Mark IV LTR Mil-Dot scope sitting in a box.
He has put a Swarovski 6-24 x 50 PV-S on his Surgeon 6.5 x 47.

Do you think I should try and cut a deal with him on the Leupold and put that on my .260 instead of the Bushnell?

Ross

That depends on what you want. The Leupold is really a target / long range vermin scope.

Kev.
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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby varminter » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:06 pm

Beer Hunter wrote:..My father-in-law has a brand new un-used Leupold 6.5-20 x 50 Mark IV LTR Mil-Dot scope sitting in a box.
He has put a Swarovski 6-24 x 50 PV-S on his Surgeon 6.5 x 47..........The Leupold is really a target / long range vermin scope.

Kev.

Yes, a nice one too. Did he use it for varminting? If not, what, I wonder...? How much does he want for it...?
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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby rossco » Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:53 pm

He hasn't used it at all, it is brand new!

He went through a phase of buying scopes from ebay and bought the above Leupold, another Leupold that had been upgraded by Premier Reticles and the Swarovski.
I don't think he is particuarly bothered about selling it, but probably will to me if I ask him.

But would it be better than my Bushnell? I can look through it and they both look similar. I presume it should be a brighter picture due to the 30mm tube and 50mm objective.

I probably will have it eventually, although it will be only a 20x not a 24x.

I wonder how much I could get for my Bushnell second hand? Maybe £175?

I only shoot target - the only thing that bothers me is that will it cope out to a 1000 yards or am I better off saving for the 12-42 power Nightforce? (could take me a while!!)

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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby rossco » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:48 pm

Any further input guys...........?

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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby Beer Hunter » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:52 pm

Ross,

You just need to look through both and make your own judgement.
I don't think it will be much / if any brighter than the Bushnell and the HMR is great with mil-dots.

If you want to kill more bunnies, I'd pocket the difference and buy more ammo.

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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby rossco » Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:08 pm

Like I have said, I only target shoot at the moment anyway.

HMR? I only have the .260 at the moment......

Both have Mil-Dot.

I will have a look tomorrow as I am shooting at 600.

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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby varminter » Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:20 pm

rossco wrote:He hasn't used it at all, it is brand new!

Grab it if you can... For yourself, or me!

But would it be better than my Bushnell?

Yes.
I can look through it and they both look similar. I presume it should be a brighter picture due to the 30mm tube and 50mm objective...Ross

Yes, but a lot more on top of that. I know many seem very impressed with the top-end Bushnells but I just can't forget that Bushnell (which does no manufacturing itself, back in Kansas City) is cannily trading on the reputation of Bausch & Lomb Elite scopes, having taken over B&L years ago and subsequently dropped B&L branded scopes. AFAIK Bushnell Elites are made in the Phillipines: this in itself is not necessarily damning, since it is said that even Nikon scopes are assembled there too. But they're probably not as good as the older Elites that were made by Light Optical Works in Japan. And the manufacturing/component sourcing has changed several times in the past 20 years. A great deal of optical kit, even high class stuff, uses components made in all sorts of places (I have an idea that Leupold glass is Japanese, and my Steiner "German" binoculars use assemblies manufactured in China/Hong Kong) so what counts is provenance, reputation, consistency, quality control and technical support. These qualities are respected by e.g. Zeiss, Swaro, Leupold and Nikon, and their stuff is very well bolted together. No matter how good Bushnell is thought to be, it ain't in the same league. You pays your money.... I just bought a s/h Simmons which seems fine - but it's a stopgap and I'm getting a better one soon. I've no idea exactly what the current level of tech support is for Simmons and Bushnell, but I do know I don't want to find out! That Leupold is better. Get it, Ross, and you won't regret it.
regards, Malcolm
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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby Beer Hunter » Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:32 pm

I'm not so sure. Not once have I looked through a Leupold scope and thought -wow that's nice.
They are always competent, but nothing more.

Have a look on page 62 of this months "Sporting Rifle" - Leupold quality is all over the place. Look on page 61 and you see Bushnell 4200's significantly beating Leupold and Swarovski.

Nothing, but nothing beats comparing scopes with your own eyes - and doing a box test ;)

Kev.
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Re: Bushnell Legend 5-15x40

Postby varminter » Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:46 am

Beer Hunter wrote:I'm not so sure. Not once have I looked through a Leupold scope and thought -wow that's nice.
They are always competent, but nothing more.
Have a look on page 62 of this months "Sporting Rifle" - Leupold quality is all over the place. Look on page 61 and you see Bushnell 4200's significantly beating Leupold and Swarovski.
Nothing, but nothing beats comparing scopes with your own eyes - and doing a box test ;)
Kev.

I don't think looking through a scope is a profound test of its ultimate quality. Sure, it's very important, and you can usually tell at once if something is positively duff, or unusually good; otherwise, a very careful side-by-side comparison of different scopes would be necessary for this to be menaingful, along with bench tests with collimators, and it would need to be done by someone very experienced too. A scope is far more than its bits of optical glass: materials, machining tolerances, seals, design, assembly, QC, and of course after-sales service and tech support.
It's on all these counts that Leupold has built a massive reputation in the USA - and I know nothing of "Sporting Rifle " magazine (never heard of it in fact) but I suspect it's Brit, and I don't know the qualifications of its testers to make judgements about scopes. AFAIC Leupold is very, very consistent - and that quality is worth its weight in gold. Bushnells might indeed be pretty good - but that would be some Bushnell models, at certain stages in their very mixed, complicated marketing & manufacturing history, and very likely also just some batches that experienced unusually rigorous QC.... Even with those qualifications, one would still wonder what kind of after-sales service you might get on a Bushnell scope ten years down the line...
Sorry, but even though I'd be very happy to try one of these Bushnells myself, and I might like it, there is no way Bushnell is on a par with Leupold or Swarovski, and if this Sporting Rifle thingy suggests otherwise I'd have to say they're bonkers.
Regards, Malcolm
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