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

[Dave D]

Pics have now been added

When I have more findings I will add to the post on here

Thanks

Dave

[Paul.]

Good review Dave. I am liking the sound of the high mag 6500

[Dave D]

Good review Dave. I am liking the sound of the high mag 6500

Thanks Paul, as it get's used more I will post onto this thread. Will be interesting to see what the powder burners think on this range of scopes as in the states they have had rave reviews when used on centerfire and rimfire rifles

Dave

[Paul.]

Thanks Paul, as it get's used more I will post onto this thread. Will be interesting to see what the powder burners think on this range of scopes as in the states they have had rave reviews when used on centerfire and rimfire rifles

Dave

You have certainly wetted my appetite for one Dave, please keep your thoughts coming.

[blue]

Dave.
Have you noticed any zero shift from the lowest to the highest mag on the scope?
Only reason I ask is that it was something I started to find on the 4200 series scopes.

[gillieman]

Thats a cracking review Dave on the 6500, i dont think you'll be able to pick up these scopes up for £490, we've just ordered 6 of these scopes for the shop and selling them for £500 thats £200 lower than the rrp of £786 unless of course they are grey imports.

[sidesy]

Thats a cracking review Dave on the 6500, i dont think you'll be able to pick up these scopes up for £490, we've just ordered 6 of these scopes for the shop and selling them £200 lower than the rrp of £786 unless of course they are grey imports.

great review, and better to think they are only a few miles away.....if the taipans dont show soon ...i can feel a tonys camo purchase coming up....

[sparky]

Been using one of these for 3 weeks now and well happy with it.

Pete

[Dave D]

Thanks for all the nice comments on the review.

These are great scopes and the more its used the better it gets.

Pete will call you over the weekend, glad your enjoying yours.

Thanks

Dave

[Pod]

Check out BAR's website

[Gavlar]

I actualy like fixed mag side PX scopes, but the choice is a bit thin. I've had three Falcon Menace 7.5 x 50 and was well pleased with them, though I found them a bit bulky and heavy.

I had a Menace on my Anschutz .22lr, it performed well enough and frankly excellent for the money but the size and weight didn't really suit the Anschutz.

I searched the net and found the Bushnell 6500 2.5-16x42 for £408 posted, brand new on special offer from a reputable UK on line retailer (I won't name them out of respect to JSR). Too good to be true it seemd but I took the plunge and bought it on Monday. It arrived Tuesday.

Unfortunately the special offer was removed as soon as I bought mine, so you will just have to shop around yourselves!!

To say I was impressed with the service was an understatement. As for the scope, I'm very impressed. It is light and sits low on my rifle. The optics are excellent, the adjustments are smooth and not at all stiff. The windage and elevation turrets are not the tactical type, which removes the worry of knocking them. The side PX and mag ring are as smooth as any I've owned before.

At the moment, the scope has only been boresighted in the garden. I did take it out last night to a farm on MOD land, only to find the MOD range open and therefore the farm out of bounds so it will have to wait till Saturday for a full trial.

I have owned a Zeiss and Leupold VX111, both with side wheel PX. I can't put my finger on why, but I just didn't get on with the Zeiss, not a critisism just my personal preference. The VX111 was fantastic and was easily reparrallaxed to make it more usefull at airgun and .22lr ranges. The only reason I sold it was because I was skint at the time. The Bushnell appears to have all of the advantages of these other higher end scopes, doesn't need to be reparrallxed and it has a mildot reticle, which for me is a massive bonus.

My personal preference has always been for big objectives, but the write ups on this scope tend to suggest it is as good as many others with 50 or 56 mm objective lenses, only time and bunnies will tell.

[riflehunter77]

Maybe I have missed this earlier but I see the 6500 series is now available with tactial turrets.

http://www.bushnell.com/general/rifl...0_65-4305t.cfm

[Ady]

I'm confused.

How do the 'resettable' turrets work and look like.

Most the pictures I see look like this with no markings round the outside so I imagine you can't dial up and down.
http://www.gunreports.com/media/news...500-2-5-16.jpg

But here you see the standard scope with markings on low profile turrets
http://www.airgunbuyer.com/makeBig.asp?ID=2734&pic=0

I also know they have recently bought out a new tactical model with turrets but they look just too big and not very neat
http://images2.opticsplanet.com/640-...pe-652164t.jpg

[jagxkrs]

I'm confused.

How do the 'resettable' turrets work and look like.

Most the pictures I see look like this with no markings round the outside so I imagine you can't dial up and down.
http://www.gunreports.com/media/news...500-2-5-16.jpg

But here you see the standard scope with markings on low profile turrets
http://www.airgunbuyer.com/makeBig.asp?ID=2734&pic=0

I also know they have recently bought out a new tactical model with turrets but they look just too big and not very neat
http://images2.opticsplanet.com/640-...pe-652164t.jpg

Oh dear In the first pick the turrets have there screw on covers on, in the second they don't hope this helps