Bushnell Nitro 5-20x44 SFP, pretty spiffy!

[LoonWulf]

Just got one of these from Camera Land NY for about 200. I havent gotten to do much more then unbox, and mount it. But so far im VERY impressed with the quality of the image, accessories included, and general value of this thing.

Packaging is nice, if really bloody bulky. If i didnt KNOW it was a scope I might have mistaken the box for a nice pair of basket ball shoes.
Comes with butler creek class flip up covers, sunshade, and cleaning cloth (which is attached to its own cute little bag....thing).
Standard paperwork, etc...
I ware size 13 slipper/shoes










Physically its not as large a scope as one would think, It is pretty heavy tho at 24oz.
The build quality feels and looks good. I ended up with the Gray, cause it was cheap....
Finish is nice and smooth, little red rings are subdued enough to not be upsetting, and all the markings are very nicely done.
If there is one complaint is the badging on the objective is a little loud.
These guys are made in Korea for all you anti-China folks.




Optically Im very happy.
I cant really give a much better description than that, as I have a real hard time telling much difference unless its VERY noticeable. Compared to everything I own, its as good (or close enough i cant tell) as any of them.



Ill have to check adjustments, but the turrets click nicely, with very little lash in the mechanism itself. The knobs seem to have some slip in the splines tho, so while theres not noticeable lash in the mechanism, you can very slightly turn the knobs on the posts. That amounts to about a 1/2 line of ambiguity unless you make an effort to make sure its as far one way as it will go. Parallax is 10-infinity and seems to actually be pretty close, at least according to what limited testing i can do.

 

[LoonWulf]

Scope WAS going to go on my 6.5G upper...but it looks nice on my all gray 06AI and the capped turrets fit better with the hunting rifle. Ill put my Athlon Midas BTR on my Grendel upper.



Sucky thru the scope picture on my phone, I really need to figgure out a better way to do this lol.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Hmmm, my last Bushnell was a Banner and it was total junk. Kinda soured me on the brand.

But this one seems much better. Plus, Ive worked for the Koreans and they generally take actual pride in their products, so Im cautiously optimistic about this one.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[LoonWulf]

Hmmm, my last Bushnell was a Banner and it was total junk. Kinda soured me on the brand.

But this one seems much better. Plus, Ive worked for the Koreans and they generally take actual pride in their products, so Im cautiously optimistic about this one.

Thanks for sharing!

I bough 4, 4-16x40 banners from Wally world few years ago. One was bad, two were sold nib, and the third .....I'm not sure where it went.
If you get a good one, or well, don't get a bad one, they are decent for the price.

The Nitros are definitely a few steps up tho.
I got 100rnds of 06ai to fireform, well see how it handles that.

 

[troy fairweather]

Looks good on your 3006ai. I like the retical to.how is the eye relief, I think it said 3.7 or something.

 

[LoonWulf]

Looks good on your 3006ai. I like the retical to.how is the eye relief, I think it said 3.7 or something.

3.7 sounds about right, not a lot of change thru the power range, and seems pretty forgiving. There isnt an edge to edge image in the occular tho, it has a noticeable black ring. This dosent bother me any but might bother other folks.

 

[LoonWulf]

fired 30rnds of the 100 I made in pretty quick succession. Tracking seems good. Tho I was still having ignition issues with my 06, which gave me a bit of a flinch for some reason, and I wasn't shooting real well.

The clarity wasn't quite as good as my Midas, when both were set at max, but with the Nitro backed down to equal powers, they were close enough I couldn't be tell a difference in image quality.
As the light dropped the Athlon produced a brighter image, but it also has a 50mm objective.

 

[troy fairweather]

fired 30rnds of the 100 I made in pretty quick succession. Tracking seems good, tho I was still having ignition issues with my 06, which gave me a bit of a flinch for some reason, and I wasn't shooting real well.

The clarity wasn't quite as good as my Midas, when both were set at max, but with the Nitro backed down to equal powers, they were close enough I couldn't be tell a difference in image quality.
As the light dropped the Athlon produced a brighter image, but it also has a 50mm objective.

Aren't the midas about $700 and the nitro about $500 msrp. 44-50 can make a difference in lo light. Still think for $200 the nitro seems a good deal.

Trying to think any other ways why your having ignition problems.

 

[LoonWulf]

Aren't the midas about $700 and the nitro about $500 msrp. 44-50 can make a difference in lo light. Still think for $200 the nitro seems a good deal.

Trying to think any other ways why your having ignition problems.

Yeah, mine is a first gen Midas, and I picked it up for only about 50 more than the sfp nitro, but MSRP and street were about 300 different.

The Nitros a really good scope for the money. Even right at dark, i could still see well enough for 20x on my shoot an see targets, and could pick out the yellow outlines of bullet holes. Drop to a lower power and it did fine resolving branches of individual Ohia trees, which arnt that easy to differentiate.

I'm very happy with the purchase, I'd probably buy another one of these BEFORE buying another Midas just because it's got capped turrets. To get that from an Athlon, (above the Argos, which has stupid but turrets) you gotta go to the HMR which is a 500 dollar scope.