OK, part 2.

Only a couple of points for now.

First, double checking the specs, I was happy to see that I won't need new rings. The Bushnell is a 1" tube like the Vortex. Check. And it's only a 40mm objective, which is only 8mm larger than the Vortex, so it'll fit easily on the 10/22 in the current Monstrum 0.8" height rings. Excellent. Easy breezy.

Second, after imbibing quantities of carnitas, with onion, green chili, pimento pepper and re-fried Cannellini beans on a flour tortilla, I finished reading the two review articles. I learned several interesting things about it that I didn't catch before. (One of them claims that parallax is adjustable, but the Bushnell page says it's fixed.)

But the biggest for me, for now, is that the reticle is designed specifically for 40 gr high velocity ammo. Again, not just any 40 gr .22LR. High velocity.

Not even SV, but HV.

That'll adjust my shooting, I guess, because I've been focusing on SV and subsonic (i.e., Quiet Semi-Auto).

Oh well, change can be good sometimes. Back to Mini-Mags. And I confess: I sort of always had a thing for Velocitors.

Ok, here are the articles. If you're only going to read/scan one, make it the first one. It's all about the squirrels' heads.

One: Field Tested: Bushnell Rimfire 3-9×40: Forget holdover guessing on varmints and steel — the new Rimfire 3-9×40 from Bushnell is made for serious .22LR shooters

Two: Bushnell Rimfire 3-9×40 Rifle Scope Review: Unmatched Clarity Meets Robust Build

Finally, for now, here's my current desktop image. Can you tell I'm excited by this scope?

 

I used to run that bushnell scope. It's decent and with the BDC it is relatively easy to use. I used it with both HV and SV ammo. The BDC does not coincide with either perfectly but will get you close. Also, I believe they are only "correct" at a certain zoom setting. I believe full zoom is what the drops are set for from the factory. Not sure anymore. It worked fine for me shooting steel targets. The parallax is not adjustable but I never had an issue with that. Nice scope for the money for sure!

 

@The Dutchman , that's excellent information. Really good to read all of it.

Your take on the reticle use sounds spot on to me ... at least in a general way for now. (Too late in my day during dinner digestion to wrestle with specifics. )

But I've wondered already about that BDC reticle. Yes, at the factory, it's set with a particular HV ammo in mind at a given magnification. And that'll be fun to explore.

But I'm willing to bet $5 that with a bit of experimenting, shooting a bunch of rounds, the reticle could be ... potentially, calibrated (?) ... or maybe scaled is a better descriptor ... for other ammo at specific distances. For example, completely hypothetical scenario, perhaps the first tic down marks the holdover for CCI SV at 60 yds. Or whatever. You get my drift.

The company description also states that's it's designed for a 50 yard zero, but in another place says either 25 or 50. From charts I've seen, zeroing at 25 with a 40 gr zeroes again at 50. So there's a relationship there that the BDC reticle could be useful for (but I can't imagine what would be yet -- I don't think fluently in trajectory charts).

I dunno. Just thinking in writing. As a biologist who had the privilege to use some fine research microscopes (Nikons, Zeiss, etc -- we're talking $10k minimum with highest mags to 1000X with superb clarity so you can look inside of a cell nucleus), scopes fascinate me.

And when they're useful for improving my shooting, all the better.

 

I had mine zero at 50 yards. You can sort of "tune" the drops using the zoom function at different levels. I kept a DOPE card on my phone with all my drop and zoom info for different ammo. Same as I do with my other scopes/rifles

 

This is how I have used my second focal plane BDC scopes in the past. Settle in on accurate and plentiful ammo and get to know at what scope magnification and range a certain line or dot is correct, e.g. at 30 yds and 4x the first line accurate, at 60 yards and 7x the third is dead on, etc.

 

January 3. I just ordered my scope. Delivery projection: January 15 - 18.

Now, I wait ... ⏰

 

Being hungry for more views and reviews about my new scope, after dinner, I did an Internet search (using Bing) on "Bushnell Rimfire 3-9x40 Scope Illuminated review".

To my surprise, this thread came up as one of the top hits on the search. Here's the screen shot. I've put a red rectangle around the reference to this thread. The one below it is one of the reviews I posted last evening.

I'm guessing this means there aren't a lot of reviews about it out there.

So maybe this thread will wind up being a valued service of some small use to the rimfire community. Wow, maybe I'll become famous ... and rich!

Ok, scratch that last part.

 

Is this the $79 scope that Amazon sells?

 

@wmgeorge64 , yes, that's it. It seems like the same one that's listed for $99 on Bushnell's site. Any opinion about it?

 

You can read the Reviews on Amazon. Amazon.com : Bushnell Rimfire 3-9x40 Illuminated Riflescope, Hunting Riflescope with BDC Reticle Lightweight and Waterproof Sealed : Sports & Outdoors

 

Yep, I did read all the Amazon reviews before I ordered it. They are useful, as are the ones on Optics Planet.

By searching a little harder, I've found three additional non-customer reviews. All appear fairly substantive, and so far, more pros than cons. I'm reading them now, and will the post links later.

For now, I have two questions. I just called Bushnell customer service. Spoke to a patient guy who did his best to answer the questions, but couldn't give a confident response to either. ("That's above my pay grade", he said, jokingly.)

First, exactly what part of the reticle is illuminated, and how? From the image of the reticle on Bushnell's page for the scope (see below), I'm assuming that the red parts -- crosshair and the drop points -- are illuminated. But I've seen no one explain or even describe that yet. The dots sort of remind me of a dot in a red dot scope. But I've never seen red lines before.

And how would they project that onto the etched reticle? Yet, there are five (or is it six?) brightness levels (reportedly) and -- I love this part -- "off" on the dial is on both sides of a particular setting. That is, on the adjustment dial, every other notch is off. So once you find the level you prefer, only one click in either direction turns it off. That's just brilliant.

Or is the illumination more of the entire reticle, including the black crosshair lines? Like a little overhead light inside the scope. I dunno, that seems silly, but ...

I was a little surprised that the customer rep at Bushnell didn't know about the illumination questions. (He said he's interacted with the scope several times, but never turned on the illumination. But he also said that he's recommended it to numerous hunters, and several have offered feedback that it's the best thing they've found since sliced bread. (His metaphor)

So color me curious about the illumination portion and technology ... from a purely tech geek perspective. (Inquiring minds want to know.).

@Kfxguy, can you shed any light on this issue? [Pun intended.]

Second, what's an "exit pupil"? This is a line from one of the reviews I'll post this evening. "Standard features ... include multi-coated surfaces, one-piece tube design and a large 40mm objective for more clarity, improved resolution and a larger exit pupil." The customer rep didn't know that either, but guessed it had something to do with the ocular. I wonder if it's related to parallax.

{Added by edit: I found an explanation of exit pupil here. Bottom line: the larger the objective diameter, the larger the exit pupil (the diameter in mm of the image you see in the scope) at a given magnification. But, size of the exit pupil is not always correlated with quality. That article is worth a read... }

 

Well I spent a lot more money and got a Vortex and here is what the Reticle looks like.
Its just a 1.5 MOA red dot in the center.
https://media.mwstatic.com/productd...rtex_crossfire_ii_v_brite_reticle_details.pdf

 

Interesting. Similar to mine in a sense, but simpler: just the one red dot along with the black posts. Fascinating technology.

 

Very common these days to see only the more center sectors of the reticle illuminated and I think it is easier and less expensive for the manufacturer to do this than try to illuminate the entire reticle.
Not to mention it probably extends battery life by a lot.

 

Just the center lights up. Just like the illustration. In very low like (pretty much darkness) if you crank it up on bright, you can see a shadow of red light surrounding the outside. But when you have it that bright….you won’t want it that bright. So in short, if you use it at appropriate brightness levels for the conditions, you won’t see it (the red light around the outside). If I had to guess, it works like fiber optic.

 

 

^That makes sense. Fiber optic is a great hypothesis. I hope we can get to the bottom of that.

OK, links to more three more reviews ... as promised. Two are contemporary. The third is more historical ... just for some Bushnell history.

1) A review by The Truth About Guns. I find them reasonable. This one is short. Mostly just states the facts about features. No commitments about quality ... but doesn't pan it either. Includes a blurb about the long history of Bushnell, just for context.

2) A much longer review. Title: "The Best Rimfire Scopes of 2023". Byline: We put the Tract 22 Fire 4-12X40 up against the Bushnell DZ22 to find out which BDC rimfire scope is the best for small game hunting. So the title is pretty bold: one of these scopes is the best BDC rimfire scope of 2023. OK.

The author compares the two focusing on the BDC of both, testing their accuracy from 75 yds to 175. Conclusions: A) Both scopes are great, but the Bushnell is half the price of the Tract. B) If you want to shoot targets at >75 yds, go with the Tract 22. If you shoot mostly <75 yds, go with the Bushnell.

3) I'm posting this one for historical reasons, demonstrating that Bushnell has been doing quality stuff for decades for reasonable prices. It was written a long time ago. It doesn't deal with the Bushnell in question in this thread, but two other Bushnells: one fixed magnification (4X), the other variable (3-9x32).

Why do I say older scopes? Because the author -- Chuck Hawks (a very respected gun person who wrote many reviews, whose reviews I trust, and I've read a LOT of them for decades, even if I didn't agree with every one of his conclusions) -- says that he and his fellow scope testers bought the two scopes locally for $30 and $40. That wasn't last year.

 

An illuminated etched reticle is so much better than a wire one when it’s on.

Had both, and the wire one will always have too much flaring even at its lowest setting.

Probably because of my astigmatism, too.

 

This is the best I could do. Camera didn’t want to cooperate

 

@Kfxguy , thanks much for those images. They're helpful. And good work given how hard it is to snap photos through a scope.

Question: at what illumination setting is the second photo with the red showing? I'm going to guess that's on max. I'm wondering if the lines themselves -- not the dots so much, but the lines -- get thinner as you dial down the illumination level. Their thickness relative to the black lines in the second photo may be an optical or digital "mirage" or distortion, but they look pretty thick there ... again relative to the black lines. Is that how the red lines actually (in real space without camera) appear to you relative to the black ones?

And it appears that we now have two working hypotheses about the process of illumination. One is fiber optic, the other is luminescent paint/stain that "glows" a bit when illuminated.

I confess, I lean toward the later -- luminescent paint/stain -- since 1) a VP at NightForce explains that's how it's done for their scopes (thanks for that info, @RSR67), so it's probably a common practice in other companies; 2) it would be technologically easier to set up; and 3) no doubt less expensive, especially in a budget scope like this one.

But regardless, it's still interesting technology ... and new to me to have an illuminated reticle in a non-red dot.

 

It lights up the same as the black picture. Its just distorted because of how hard it is to get a picture through a scope AND its on full brightness because my shop lighting is very bright.

 

In my experience, setting the illumination to 1 is already appropriate enough for me when hunting at night. Well, I used to hunt rats a lot with blowguns and airguns in my native country. My rig would normally be a combo of red led + red dot or a scope, and I would very seldom turn on the scope's light, as the projection from the torch was more than enough to make the reticle visible.

The flaring on KF's reticle, IMHO, is being exaggerated by the camera. On my U-MOA etched reticle, only the center crosshair would light up in red or green, and it was very distinct, AFAICR (sold it), with no juxtaposition up to the 3rd setting.

If that Bushnell has an etched reticle, then you should be satisfied. Big difference, really, in wire and etched when you light them up.

I have had 4 Bushnell Japanese Elites (only the 6-24x50 with G2DMR reticle remains), but each one are/were basic.

 

Super useful post, RSR. Thanks much. This is making more and more sense.

{Amazon confirms that my scope shipped as of today, but the tracking number is not in the UPS data base yet, so I don't know where it's coming from. In any case, I'm betting a quarter I'll see it next week. --- Added a couple of hours later: it's leaving from Sacramento CA; that's almost as far from me in the US as one can get so we'll see how long it takes to get here. Depends on the weather in the middle, probably ... }​

Those air guns are really nice looking. I've resisted the temptation (so far) to get into air gunning. For me, it'd be a rifle since -- as I recently learned by buying an M4 22/45 (will be up for sale soon) -- I'm a die-hard rifle guy (other than my Security 380, but that's an SD pistol ... different function entirely). I did own a Benjamin pump rifle as a kid; it was my second rifle (after my Daisy BB rifle), just before my first .22 rifle. (Rem Nylon 66 ... gone from my possession decades ago, but it wore a Leupold scope back then. I should've kept the scope.)

But I'd love to discuss your blow guns sometime. Any thread going about them? I guess they might fit into the air gun subforum -- I mean, it's air blown from one's lungs that propels the projectile, so .... I'm very intrigued by yours and would like to learn more.

I've been eying the Cold Steel Blowgun, both their stock model and the Tim Well's upgrade model. I've got one in my shopping list at Amazon. But it's low priority for me (10/22 upgrades first, along with new 4-wheeler tires in spring and my copay for some fairly extensive dental work). Still, I'm intrigued by them. I own a 3' cheapie for use inside my apartment. Lots of fun, and great lung exercise (I'm still recovering from effects of a rare form of inflammation-based pneumonia two years ago, and lung exercises help.)

Ok, back to scopes. Question about this:

If that Bushnell has an etched reticle, then you should be satisfied. Big difference, really, in wire and etched when you light them up.

So there are some that use wire instead of etched, eh? Interesting. Is it fiber optic or ... something else. (I'm a biologist/ecologist, and mostly ignorant of such illuminating technology.)

 

Some of the air-powered toys I left behind for rat hunting

They are with Teutonic and Briton suppressors.

 

Is this Bushy made in China or SoKor?

When I first came to the US, I bought a Bushy, the Engage when they first came out, that was made in SoKor.

A very good and clear scope, but the hashes were just too close together it was such a bane to determine where you were at

 

china

 

Dearth sir, I have had numerous illuminated and non-illuminated UTG/ Leapers when I was still in Asia--where they cost about 250% more, lol but true! Anyway, all of them had wire reticles, but a bud of mine bought for me an illuminated Hawke 4-12x50 from the US and hand-carried it. My, it sure was an epiphany when I peered through it lit up. The difference was glaring, yes sir, 'cuz I was to compare both side side 👍

I still have another Hawke, a 2-7x32 IR mildot, in the PI, although I have long ago transitioned to scopes not made in the PRC.

 

1 thing I’ve observed is that Bushnell’s mildot reticles, on the Elites, are not as fine the Hawke’s. I much prefer them thinner/smaller.

I have had 3 Elites with mildots: the old school 1” 6-24x40 AO, the Tac 5-15x40 AO, and the 30mm 6-24x50. Their dots and line(s) are somewhat corpulent for me. Their Deploy MOA is super thin though but too much traffic, to reiterate.

This was my very 1st Bushnell, an Elite on a Czech AG (with an obligatory custom blowgun ). It’s about 2’ long with its sunshade:

 

Be sure to download the Bushnell ballistics ap. It’ll show you the range and drop of every magnification. Plus the pics below show the difference between SV and HV ammo

1 thing I’ve observed is that Bushnell’s mildot reticles, on the Elites, are not as fine the Hawke’s. I much prefer them thinner/smaller.

I have had 3 Elites with mildots: the old school 1” 6-24x40 AO, the Tac 5-15x40 AO, and the 30mm 6-24x50. Their dots and line(s) are somewhat corpulent for me. Their Deploy MOA is super thin though but too much traffic, to reiterate.

This was my very 1st Bushnell, an Elite on a Czech AG (with an obligatory custom blowgun ). It’s about 2’ long with its sunshade:

View attachment 451844

 

Tuesday, January 9.

My scope shipped last Friday. Tracking tells me it left CA. But no more information has been available for three days. Winter storm Finn is wreaking havoc in the mid west, so I'm guessing it's on a UPS truck stuck in some town or rest stop somewhere between there and here.

 

<Deleted original post. Ah, that was a late night irrelevant post that just wasted server space and electrons.>

January 10. Tracking tells me the Bushnell has arrived in Chelmsford MA (a major UPS hub for New England). That's usually the last major stop before deliveries happen to me the next day ... IF transport from Chelmsford up to Bangor over night. Then it'll be only about an hour away.

Am I excited? Of course.

 

Thursday, January 11. My Bushnell (Bushy) arrived today in Bangor, just over an hour west of me. (Actually it's across the river in Brewer, which is even closer.)

We're between winter storms (next one is Saturday), so I fully expect it'll be arriving here on Friday via UPS.

I've already taken the Vortex Crossfire II 2-7X32 Rimfire off of Dearth (though the 1" rings are still in place). My plan is to compare it side by side with the Bushy in my hand (instead of one on the rifle, one not).

It's interesting how excited one can get about such a simple, relatively inexpensive (relative to a lot of optics being discussed on RC) piece of technology. But I am ...

 

When I was still in Asia, I would wait for months

Surprisingly, my optics over there were/are of higher quality and much more expensive than what I own here.

The US of A is so spoiled with myriad selection, so I thought that when I got here I’d be going for even the more expensive ones, but quite the opposite thing happened