KurtM
Well-Known Fanatic
I am no kind of "product reviewer" but I have had a quite a bit of time behind one of these scopes now. Mine is the First Focal Plain, these were the first ones to come out so that is what I have. The one I have is a BTR-1. You will have to go to bushnell.com and look the reticle up cause I don't have a way to post it from here.
First the likes. The scope is amazingly clear, it is as good as My Swarovski Z6I. The reticle is as close to perfect in a 3-gun scope as I have ever seen. Run it with a 250 yard zero and all the subsequent cross hairs line up all the way down to 800 yards.....think of it as a TA-11 reticle without the doughnut and just the 2 M.O.A. inner dot. For the zero ...top of the dot is 200 yards, bottom of the dot is 300 yards and then just go to the cross hairs as you progress down for each 100 yards....BUT WAIT!!!! the crosshairs are really inverted Ts so the tip of the inverted T is your 50 yard increment! so your 350 yard zero is the tip of the inverterd T for your 400 yard zero.
It is daylight visible in the illumination department, but not quite as bright as a Swaro...it is akin to a Meopta. It has TWO night Vision settings which work GREAT with any N.O.D.s so Hog hunting at night with a AN/PVS-14 or the like is GREAT!! Way better than the Swaro!.....In this department.
The adjustments are absolutely right on, and I have done a "box drill" and also used a ballistic program and the clicks are just about as close as anything I have used....,1 click = .1 Mil or .34 M.O.A.
The adjustment knobs are easily resettable to zero and are CAPPED so you never have to worry about it "self adjusting" dragging it in and out of a bag, like some of the other optics with exposed "target knobs". Besides once you have it set, you don't need to be a "twist weeny" as the BDC works GREAT!!!
It takes a common battery that you can find at wal-mart, unlike the older Meopta.
Dislikes! and there aren"t many!! the "big circle" around most of the reticle is too close around the 500 yard mark. it is hard to do wind hold off past about 3 mils/ 4 M.O.A as the circle is in the way. ON 6.5X you have to be fairly consistent in head palcement or your reticle will fuzz a bit, or the target will "fuzz" a bit....but it doesn't seem to affect accuracy. The Swaro is much more forgiving! I will say this, I was always able to hit the target even out to 700 yards even if everything wasn't quite what i would like for focus...but it is a bit strange. I really don't like First Focal Plain Scopes....I have a second focal plain on the way....but I don't like the reticle getting sooooo small I can't see the middle. (in it's defence, on 1X it was real easy to hit a C zone sized target at 300 by putting the lit reticle in the middle of it). On 1X it is fairly easy to see the reticle against a cardboard target, but if the target is a bit on the dark side the reticle disappears, unless illuminated. It is kind of heavy, but that is the price you pay for having something BULLET PROOF! It s built hell for stout, with a one piece tube machined out of solid aluminum!
Many thanks are requiered for My Red Neck Tactical partner Trapr Swonson for figuring out all the M.O.A drops and subtentions, or I would still be slinging bullets trying to figure out what all the lines mean! In general....It is well worth the $1000.00 you see them for on SWAFA or OPTICS PLANET. I was so impressded I decided to shoot for them! Kurt
First the likes. The scope is amazingly clear, it is as good as My Swarovski Z6I. The reticle is as close to perfect in a 3-gun scope as I have ever seen. Run it with a 250 yard zero and all the subsequent cross hairs line up all the way down to 800 yards.....think of it as a TA-11 reticle without the doughnut and just the 2 M.O.A. inner dot. For the zero ...top of the dot is 200 yards, bottom of the dot is 300 yards and then just go to the cross hairs as you progress down for each 100 yards....BUT WAIT!!!! the crosshairs are really inverted Ts so the tip of the inverted T is your 50 yard increment! so your 350 yard zero is the tip of the inverterd T for your 400 yard zero.
It is daylight visible in the illumination department, but not quite as bright as a Swaro...it is akin to a Meopta. It has TWO night Vision settings which work GREAT with any N.O.D.s so Hog hunting at night with a AN/PVS-14 or the like is GREAT!! Way better than the Swaro!.....In this department.
The adjustments are absolutely right on, and I have done a "box drill" and also used a ballistic program and the clicks are just about as close as anything I have used....,1 click = .1 Mil or .34 M.O.A.
The adjustment knobs are easily resettable to zero and are CAPPED so you never have to worry about it "self adjusting" dragging it in and out of a bag, like some of the other optics with exposed "target knobs". Besides once you have it set, you don't need to be a "twist weeny" as the BDC works GREAT!!!
It takes a common battery that you can find at wal-mart, unlike the older Meopta.
Dislikes! and there aren"t many!! the "big circle" around most of the reticle is too close around the 500 yard mark. it is hard to do wind hold off past about 3 mils/ 4 M.O.A as the circle is in the way. ON 6.5X you have to be fairly consistent in head palcement or your reticle will fuzz a bit, or the target will "fuzz" a bit....but it doesn't seem to affect accuracy. The Swaro is much more forgiving! I will say this, I was always able to hit the target even out to 700 yards even if everything wasn't quite what i would like for focus...but it is a bit strange. I really don't like First Focal Plain Scopes....I have a second focal plain on the way....but I don't like the reticle getting sooooo small I can't see the middle. (in it's defence, on 1X it was real easy to hit a C zone sized target at 300 by putting the lit reticle in the middle of it). On 1X it is fairly easy to see the reticle against a cardboard target, but if the target is a bit on the dark side the reticle disappears, unless illuminated. It is kind of heavy, but that is the price you pay for having something BULLET PROOF! It s built hell for stout, with a one piece tube machined out of solid aluminum!
Many thanks are requiered for My Red Neck Tactical partner Trapr Swonson for figuring out all the M.O.A drops and subtentions, or I would still be slinging bullets trying to figure out what all the lines mean! In general....It is well worth the $1000.00 you see them for on SWAFA or OPTICS PLANET. I was so impressded I decided to shoot for them! Kurt
