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Bushnell 4200, &, Burris Mildot clearity? |
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Centerfire
Optics Apprentice Joined: September/28/2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 54 |
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Posted: September/30/2006 at 16:28 |
Hello Gents,
I'm trying to narrow down my choice for a mil-dot scope to put on my flat top National Match AR15 rifle. I want to use it for both precision paper punching and long range varmint shooting. MY CONCERN IS WITH THE RETICLE CLEARITY AND SIZE OF THE MIL-DOT.
Well, guys....IS THE BUSHNELL 4200 MIL-DOT RETICLE ON PAR WITH THE BURRIS FULLFIELD BALLISTIC MIL-DOT RETICLE ? IF THE BURRIS IS A BETTER AND SHARPER RETICLE....THEN IN YOUR OPINION, IS IT THAT MUCH BETTER TO THE DEGREE OF PASSING UP THE OPTICALLY SUPERIOR BUSHNELL 4200?
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Centerfire
Optics Apprentice Joined: September/28/2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 54 |
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107 hits, and nothing? OK, I shortened the post by 50%. Will somebody read it now? |
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ceylonc
Optics Journeyman Joined: September/13/2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 514 |
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Be patient... The right people just haven't seen your posting yet.
I wish I could help but I don't have a lot of personal experience with either scope. Best of luck! |
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koshkin
MODERATOR Dark Lord of Optics Joined: June/15/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 13182 |
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I am not sure what you mean by :sharper".
If the reticle does not appear sharp, you focus it using the eye-piece adjustment. If you can not focus the reticle, send the scope back to the manufacturer and make them fix it. As for these two scopes, Elite 4200 is a better scope, go with it. It's MilDot reticle is correct at 12x while the reticle in the Burris is correct at 20x. Hence, at longer ranges Elite 4200 reticle obscures less of the target. ILya |
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ranburr
Optics Master Joined: May/16/2004 Status: Offline Points: 1082 |
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4200.
ranburr |
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Centerfire
Optics Apprentice Joined: September/28/2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 54 |
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Thanks Koshkin,
I suppose "sharp" was an improper term to use. What I really meant was useable. To me useable is when the dots and lines of the reticle itself are refined and not so bold as to block out small targets, whether it be the very center of the x on a target, or a prarie dog in the distance.
As an example, the clarity of a Weaver V24 would have sufficed just fine on my flat top National Match AR15 for the $335 it cost, but I decided against buying it solely due to the two different comments by others telling me that the reticle was too large.
I don't own many different scopes for relative comparisons, but for instance one day I looked through a Mueller scope in a store, and I got nauseous upon viewing the size of the reticle in it! Definately not useable..... at least not to me.
One of the sacrifices I will would have to accept with the 4200 series scopes is it's excess length. I can't think of anything much longer accept my posts.
Appreciate your in depth feedback.
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koshkin
MODERATOR Dark Lord of Optics Joined: June/15/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 13182 |
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There are two Elite 4200 6-24x40 scopes: AO and side focus. I think both have the MilDot reticle calibrated to be correct at 12x, which means that the reticle will not obscure too much of the target. Side Focus scope, while a bit more expensive, is substantially shorter.
ILya |
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Centerfire
Optics Apprentice Joined: September/28/2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 54 |
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I had tried to verify the length of the side focus 4200 in the past week. The Bushnell web sight lists the 4200 side focus as a 13" length scope. This is almost a full 4" shorter then their standard AO 4200 scopes.
As their 7x-21x 3200 scope is mistakenly listed on their sight as 12.8" long, (it's actually closer to 14.5" long) I am suspicious that this listed 13" specification too is another error. Such a short overall length on a high magnification scope seems too good to be true!
I'll buy it if it's actually 13" long, and if the ocular tube is not larger then 40mm. ( that's 1.165" on a caliper) It will not clear the back-up-iron-sights on my rifle if larger then 1.165". The Burris 6x-20x has a 39mm ocular eye piece that will fit just fine. But I'd really rather have the 4200 quality for about the same price. Now you see the fussing I've had to go through?
I'll have to see if I can verify the specs elsewhere. Thanks again.
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koshkin
MODERATOR Dark Lord of Optics Joined: June/15/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 13182 |
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I do not have the side focus scope, so I can not give you the exact measurements. It is substantially shorter though and has significantly longer eye relief (and a correspondingly narrower field of view). You could ask someone who has, or call a dealer (SWFA, ofr example) and ask them to measure it for you.
ILya |
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sscoyote
Optics Journeyman Joined: October/05/2004 Status: Offline Points: 328 |
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If the mil-dot calibration is at 20X, then it should cover less of the tgt. at longer ranges, as the image size will be larger, with equivalent reticle subtension, if i'm not mistaken on this. Personally if you're going for varmints at long-range i'd recalibrate the reticle subtensions for the higher magnification, since the image will be larger, and the reticle subtension will be smaller. My BMD reticle is calibrated for app. 14X on my Signature 6-24X, but i don't know about the other Burris offerings with that reticle.
Nice thing about the 6-24X 4200 is that if it's calibrated for 12X, then 24X should be real close to half of all the subtensions, but the downside is that u only get 9 IPHY trajectory compensation (more than enuf for me actually), but much more accurate ranging interpolation. |
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Steve
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koshkin
MODERATOR Dark Lord of Optics Joined: June/15/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 13182 |
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You may have a point on the reticle dimensions. For some reason I thought about it differently, but you are making sense. I still think that Elite 4200 is a better scope, though. ILya |
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sscoyote
Optics Journeyman Joined: October/05/2004 Status: Offline Points: 328 |
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I'd bet it is. Last Bushnell i had was a 4-12X Banner-- but it was great glass in that optic, i thought.
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Steve
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