About 3 months ago I purchased a Bushnell 3200 5-15x40 Tactical to top off an AR15 Sniper System I had just finished building. I should probably have reconsidered that decision since I've always had good luck with Leupys on my work rifles, but I'd dropped a fairly substantial amount of cash into the rifle, and I was trying to save a few bucks on the optic (I know, I know). I've had pretty good luck with Bushnell products on my sporting guns, and the 3200 Tactical model had good customer reviews, so I decided to give it a try.
Well, for the past three months, I've been using the scope and evaluating the system. During that time the scope had performed quite reliably. The glass was good, the adjustments were repeatable (although the clicks were a bit mushy), and I had experienced no problems with wandering zeros, or anything else. In fact, I was in the final stages of testing this system, and I was about to start fielding it operationally.
Then last week I took the rifle & scope to a sniper match. During the match it started to rain and before long we were shooting in an absolute down pour. I must say that during the match the scope performed admirably. The rainguard did exactly what the Bushnell marketing claims, and even though it was raining extremely hard I never had any difficulty seeing/shooting the target. In fact, I was rather impressed with the scope's performance under adverse conditions.
Unfortunately, it appears some moisture managed to make its way inside the scope. I took it to the range yesterday, and with temperatures in the low 80's, the scope fogged internally. The fogging was so complete that I could not even see through the tube. I was on the range from about 1000 - 1530, and the fog never dissipated.
Thus, today I contacted Bushnell and Spoke to Scott in customer service (thanks Beretta man for his contact info). Along with telling me to return the scope for repair, he also offered me an opportunity to upgrade to a 6500 series scope. I am now trying to decide between accepting the upgrade deal and/or moving to a different brand of scope. My question to those of you who have experience with the 6500 series is 1: what do you think of their performance in general? ; and 2: Have you used them in adverse conditions (rain, snow, etc.) and how did they do?
Thanks,
HRF
Well, for the past three months, I've been using the scope and evaluating the system. During that time the scope had performed quite reliably. The glass was good, the adjustments were repeatable (although the clicks were a bit mushy), and I had experienced no problems with wandering zeros, or anything else. In fact, I was in the final stages of testing this system, and I was about to start fielding it operationally.
Then last week I took the rifle & scope to a sniper match. During the match it started to rain and before long we were shooting in an absolute down pour. I must say that during the match the scope performed admirably. The rainguard did exactly what the Bushnell marketing claims, and even though it was raining extremely hard I never had any difficulty seeing/shooting the target. In fact, I was rather impressed with the scope's performance under adverse conditions.
Unfortunately, it appears some moisture managed to make its way inside the scope. I took it to the range yesterday, and with temperatures in the low 80's, the scope fogged internally. The fogging was so complete that I could not even see through the tube. I was on the range from about 1000 - 1530, and the fog never dissipated.
Thus, today I contacted Bushnell and Spoke to Scott in customer service (thanks Beretta man for his contact info). Along with telling me to return the scope for repair, he also offered me an opportunity to upgrade to a 6500 series scope. I am now trying to decide between accepting the upgrade deal and/or moving to a different brand of scope. My question to those of you who have experience with the 6500 series is 1: what do you think of their performance in general? ; and 2: Have you used them in adverse conditions (rain, snow, etc.) and how did they do?
Thanks,
HRF
