Bushnell Forge - What Am I Missing?

[Egray00]

I grabbed a clearance Bushnell forge 3-24 with the G4I reticle. I didn’t have super high hopes with it being an 8x erector for $500, but it checked a ton of boxes. I planned on using it on my .22 trainer to practice dialing for wind since I couldn’t use the ret as a crutch. I heard decent things about forge glass, and this wouldn’t get out past 300 so I snagged it.

I won’t do a full write up of the scope, but suffice it to say even with my low expectations it still didn’t make the cut… but there was one ‘feature’ that I just could not wrap my head around. The turret adjustments were in .05mil increments, and the markings on the turrets were in 0.1. I noticed it straight out of the box, and assumed the click value was just a misprint. Seeing as how this scope was going to be exclusively for training dialing for me, the first thing I did was tracking test. Sure enough, I turned the turret to 1 mil (10 clicks) and got .5 mil of travel on travel.

Is this just a complete design flaw? Or is there some reason you would ever want mismatched turret values that I am unaware of? Looking back at the listings it is now abundantly obvious that nobody lists the adjustment values.

Forgive typos, on my phone.

 

[spife7980]

I do know that they had a sale on a batch of them for like half price because of that...

It appears that you bought one of them.

 

[Egray00]

I do know that they had a sale on a batch of them for like half price because of that...

It appears that you bought one of them.

Looks like it. I did a quick Google and searched on here to see if there were any glaring issues. Guess I should I have looked a little deeper…

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

That's.... odd. I never played around with that model of Forge (it was originally done for the European hunting market, hence the reticle), so I don't have any first hand experience with it. I did run the 3-18 for a while on my NRL22 rig and had one of the 4.5-27x illuminated models for testing, and I found the glass on those to be pretty good for the money.

Maybe @Team RCBS & Bushnell can chime in here.

 

[Team RCBS & Bushnell]

They were made for the European market, which is why the markings are what they are.

 

[BLJ]

I picked up a 2-16 recently for my 308. So if I’m understanding you right, it takes twice the clicks as it normally would? I noticed the different markings on the turrets.
This scope checks a lot of boxes for me. Figures something goofy would come up.

 

[Egray00]

I picked up a 2-16 recently for my 308. So if I’m understanding you right, it takes twice the clicks as it normally would? I noticed the different markings on the turrets.
This scope checks a lot of boxes for me. Figures something goofy would come up.

Yep! Turn the turret to 1 mil, and you get .5mil of adjustment. I seriously wonder what anyone (European market or not) would ever want that for.

 

[BLJ]

Finer adjustment(?) maybe??? Turrets seem to calibrated to 100 meters as well. Are all mil scopes that way?

 

[spife7980]

It’s the mismatch between what the turret is labeled and what actually happens inside the scope that’s the issue.

 

[Cr1775]

It was made in china what was your expectation ?

 

[BLJ]

@Egray00. I know a mil is a mil regardless of distance. But at what distance did you perform your tracking test? Meaning, is it something that lines up at 100 yards, (10 clicks equals .5 mil) that may start showing up at a greater distance (10 clicks equals .6 or .7 mil at 500 for example)? Or .3 or.4 at 500?

 

[Cr1775]

Could a person change the markings on turret? Would that not solve problem?

 

[nn8734]

Turrets seem to calibrated to 100 meters as well. Are all mil scopes that way?

Yes. One click equals one centimeter (.1 Mil) at 100 meters. Tracking tests should be done at 100 meters not 100 yards. Very small difference at that distance between the two but if you wanted to be as accurate as possible do it at 100m.

His scope’s mechanical adjustment increments are .05 mils, not .1 like the markings says they should be.

He should get a refund if bought retail as it’s a known issue.

Could a person change the markings on turret? Would that not solve problem?

Yea validate the drops with hits on target recording the values along the way at 100m increments to whatever distance then either run a program that produces a new scale based on the actual distance like Leupold’s m3 scopes and tape it to the elevation turret or simply do that using masking tape and a super fine pen. No need to do it for windage as most just hold for wind.

Alternatively, zero the rifle and just hold over using the reticle if there’s sufficient sub tension and elevation hold over visible. This assumes either a FFP scope or a SFP on the “correct” mag setting.

I seriously wonder what anyone (European market or not) would ever want that for.

Hensoldt made some of their scopes with .05mil adjustments for the police and agency sniper markets in Europe and later on imported them to the US.

 

[BLJ]

Personally I think that if it is a .05 mil per click through out its range, I’m okay with it. Mine will be on a 308 hunting rifle so 1 rotation of the turret equaling 5 mils would be plenty for me.
Everything else about the scope is exactly what I was wanting. Hope the turrets work out.

 

[Egray00]

Yes. One click equals one centimeter (.1 Mil) at 100 meters. Tracking tests should be done at 100 meters not 100 yards. Very small difference at that distance between the two but if you wanted to be as accurate as possible do it at 100m.

His scope’s mechanical adjustment increments are .05 mils, not .1 like the markings says they should be.

He should get a refund if bought retail as it’s a known issue.

Yea validate the drops with hits on target recording the values along the way at 100m increments to whatever distance then either run a program that produces a new scale based on the actual distance like Leupold’s m3 scopes and tape it to the elevation turret or simply do that using masking tape and a super fine pen. No need to do it for windage as most just hold for wind.

Alternatively, zero the rifle and just hold over using the reticle if there’s sufficient sub tension and elevation hold over visible. This assumes either a FFP scope or a SFP on the “correct” mag setting.

Hensoldt made some of their scopes with .05mil adjustments for the police and agency sniper markets in Europe and later on imported them to the US.

Tracking test done at 100m, and since this application was for a .22, that’s really all I needed to know.

Sounds like the .05mil travel was intentional for the EU market, then they got lazy and stuck a NA turret cap on it. Yes, if someone LOVED everything else about the optic they could tape/white out/sharpie some corresponding .05 numbers on there, but since this was meant to be a cheap trainer for dialing it would mostly defeat the purpose.

The optic has been sold cheap with the adjustments disclosed. Again, I really wasn’t expecting something crazy good for $550, but I just made the assumption the Forge reputation would compete with similarly priced Athlons, Vortex, Burris etc. but it had almost no redeeming qualities that would make me look past the glaring turret issue.

I didn’t want this to be a PSA, but I guess avoid the clearanced 3-24x56 Forge.

I hope the 2-16 is better.

 

[BLJ]

I'm going to ggive the 2-16 a try. If the adjustments are true to 500, that would be plenty for me.
Probably going to be a couple weeks, but I'll try to remeber to update here.

 

[Mongoose67]

I just bought the 2-16x50 same series from South Korea and love it. It sounds like someone played with your turrets. Mine are marked .5CM which equals .05 Mil and it tracks true. These were developed for the European market, so that's why they are CM. The glass is ED Prime which is amazing. The .05 CM/MIL will be more precise which is a good thing if you are wanting it for 300-500 yards. The 34mm tube gives you more adjustment as well. Its as good or better than my DMRII which was more $$.

 

[BLJ]

Forgot about this one. Here’s an update.
The scope went back to Bushnell. Parallax and tracking weren’t true. Parallax was adjusted past 500 to be kinda focused at 100. Tried to sight in my 308 (that is a known shooter) and tracking was everywhere. No pattern. Very sporadic. Couldn’t get the gun sighted in. Changed out the scope and it was fine.
Bushnell didn’t have anything comparable to send me back so I ended up with a credit. I was really hoping that it would work out. It really was perfect for my application in a lot of ways. It just didn’t function.
If you have one that works, good for you. I hope it keeps working.