Bushnell Elite 6500 Review

[Dave D]

Bushnell Elite 6500 2.5-16x42mm Model 652164MD (mill dot)
Technical Specification

Weight 17.3 oz
Length 13.5 inches
30mm one piece tube
Focus 10yards - infinity
¼ M.O.A
Fully multicoated lenses (multiple coatings on all air-glass surfaces)
True mill dot @ 10 mag

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The Scope
After much deliberating, mental torture and a few mind wrestles, I have plunged in and bought a Bushnell Elite 6500.

I considered all the various alternatives around some more expensive, some cheaper, but I have always liked the Bushnell range of scopes.

The scope arrived as all Bushnell’s do in its glossy black box containing scope, sunshade, warranty, instructions and marketing material the is so common these days. The packaging is good, but considering how much these scopes are I feel maybe more quality and perhaps a nice bag (as MTC do) would be a good idea.

When you first remove the scope from the box you notice the feel and quality of the finish. The nice touches are the embossed logo’s on the turret caps and the quality of the gold lettering. The scope feels very robust and sturdy.

Examining the scope closely you notice the quality shine through, unscrewing the turret caps you find the are smooth in the threads and easily located for screwing back on, no fear of a cross thread with cold fingers on a early winters morn.

The turrets turn easily with enough resistance to feel positive about each click without the worry of over doing it. The fast focus eyebell turns easily allowing easy adjustment to suit any eyes.

Parallax adjustment is a saddle mounted side focus system ( thanks to Leupold on the MKIV for that ) The focus wheel is adequately marked for all ranges with the minimum focus distance being 10 yards with suitable sized gaps in between each yardage mark. As with the rest of the scope this feels well made an turn’s easily and very smoothly.

The reticule fitted is a standard mill dot, and is true at 10 mag, useful for HFT, SFT and makes life easier for working out trajectories.

Bushnell make a bold statement in there brochure about the scope, and I quote “ The world’s brightest rifle scope”, I don’t have access to all the various comparable models that are available so I can’t compare, but I have used a lot of different scopes in 25 years and I wouldn’t doubt there claim after trying it at sunset and beyond, it does appear to suck a lot of light in even in the most
murky conditions.

Actual shooting bit
I am going to use this as my all purpose scope for hunting, HFT, SFT, and maybe FT so it will need to perform in all conditions and weather, all elites have the rain guard coating so a bit of damp weather won’t bother it. I have used other elites in all weather conditions so will say it does work and help.

At only 13.5” long it’s a lot shorter than the 4200 6-24 I had ( 16.9” ) so mounting it on the HW97 was easy and gave lots of clearance and a good balance to the rifle.

I zeroed the rifle indoors at 35 yards and immediately was impressed with the clarity and sight picture, could even make out the edges of the pellet holes showing the paper fibres.

Depth of field is excellent with the parallax set at 25 yards and at 10 mag you can easily make out targets from 10-50 yards, with only the close and anything past 42 yards starting to go blurred.

Outside in the fields the scope was exceptional, even with the sun going down and facing towards it the picture was clear and with no white out.

I have not had chance to check the parallax error on the scope when used for HFT when I do I will ad the findings onto this post.

Conclusion

This new Bushnell is the best they have made so far, I am sure they will become as popular as Leupolds and others, the FT boys will be interested in the 4.5 - 30 mag that’s out if it is a good range finder it will be hard to beat.

Price’s in the UK do vary from the full retail at £699 ( J J Vickers ) to around £490 at some UK gun shops. Import prices from the states Bring it down even more to around the £350 mark (not inc import duty). So the best advice is to shop around.

The elite 6500 is as good as scopes costing £2-300 more and in my opinion has set a new high for a sub £500 scope.

Build quality, finish, sight picture are just some of the highlights if you get chance have a look through one you will be impressed.

As I use it more and do more tests and trials I will add to the post on here

Thanks, hope you enjoyed the review.


Dave