Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Problem with new Bushnell Banner Scope

I've mounted and boresighted dozens of scopes in my life so I'm not exactly inexperienced at this. I mounted a brand new Bushnell Banner 1.5-4.5X scope on a new Ruger in 7mm-08 (not exactly a punishing caliber to shoot). I take great pains to insure that the windage portion of the reticle is exactly vertical. On the VERY FIRST SHOT, the reticle listed at least ten degrees to starboard. Afterward, the rifle still grouped on the 50 yard bench but within ten rounds, groups opened up to three inches.

While anyone can put a defective scope on the market, it irks me to have to send them $10.00, plus my postage and insurance to fix a brand new product. So much for bargain products. You get what you pay for.

Well, unfortunately those sort of things occur when you buy the lowest end scopes that a manufacturer makes, these things happen when you go cheap. It doesn't matter what manufacturer it is, the quality is not going to be there in a #39.00 Chinese made scope. You pretty much summed it up when you said "you get what you pay for".

It seems to me that you have a limited number of choices;
#1-take the scope back to the store you purchased it from and try to get them to replace it.
#2 - Pay the $10.00 and have it replaced/repaired.
#3 - Throw it into the trash.
#4 - Go on the internet and rant about how you went cheap and the scope failed, you will get sympathy from a lot of other folks about how they too purchased a cheap scope and it failed and everything that particular company makes is a piece of trash.

Sorry you are dealing with it. The cheaper Bushnells are actually pretty dang reliable for what they are and you can get a lemon in any brand. I find them cheap- but not utter crap. Remember this, even with the $10 return cost what do you have invested in it???? plenty of guys that have spent 10x that on a scope and wound up in the same boat. On a similar note one of the few Cooper rifles I ever saw was brand new at the range. I stood in wonder at it. Dang thing would not even put a dimple in a primer and the poor guy lived hours from Cabelas where he bought it. His swagger walking in evaporated into a hasty, wordless, exit. So IT happens. Still, glad you realize you get what you pay for. One of my favorite phrases turned hear was "I can't afford cheap optics". Meaning it can be a false economy if one increments his way to the scope of his ultimate eventuality. I would rather pay $250- $300 for one 'good' scope than own 2 or 3 cheaper ones along the way- btdt. Doesn't mean there aren't a few less expensive scopes I could live with for a while. I am inclined to think the Weaver V series are the best of the cheapest and worth more than the cost.

When I was looking for a scope for my 30-06 I called Bushnell and asked about recoil shock on some of their less expensive scopes. they said that they recoil test only their Elite series scopes. They test them to 1,000 rounds of a .375 H&H. But these are $200-$700 scopes, not $50.00 I actually went to a Pentax Gameskeeper instead of a Bushnell 3200 because I got a lot of good info about them on this forum. Sio far, I am happy with it. No problem holding zero with a 30-06 Tikka Lite, which kicks a bit more because of it's light weight.
It sort of irks me, too when they tell you "shockproof" and you know it isn't. Again, I guess it boils down to that you get what you pay for.

It wouldn't suprise me if they don't really spend any time fixing that model scope, and that the $10 isn't a handling fee but is their actual replacement cost for a new one right out of the shipping container.

They're off the hook for free.

I also doubt that they will attempt a repair on a low-end scope like the Banner, but they are not really off the hook for free.
They have the original cost of the scope plus they have someone working at the facility who receives the scope, someone who decides whether to trash it or repair it, someone who packs and ships a replacement, and then there is the shipping cost of the replacement. So with all of that it surely costs them more than the $10.00 handling fee that they charge but the real down side is the bad press that they receive.

I really don't understand why any company would sell a low-end scope, I would think that the bad press companies receive from them would not be worth the hassle of selling them.

I also do not understand why anyone would purchase a low-end scope. After all if one purchases a scope for that price range just how can they have much in the way of expectations for it.

The option is to buy a Leupold VX-1 3x9 for around $220.00 and they will repair it for free when it fails.

Yet with all of that being said I have a Banner 22 that is over 30 years old that has never given me a moments problem, but it has been on a 22 lr. I paid about $30.00 for it 30 years ago which in dollar cost was more than $30.00 in todays money. Oh yes, it is a fixed 4 power, so it doesn't have any moving parts to fail.

drover

I get your drift, but these guys



are there on the clock anyway. If this



refers to the original scope the customer took care of that, if it's the replacement then that's the $10.

I didn't put in the shipping cost, so I'll agree they're out something plus the bad press.

I counsel guys all the time about the false economy of "going cheap" so stuff like low end Bushnells and Tascos put a bad taste in my mouth. I guess my first post seemed harsh, not that there's a much lighter tone in this one.

Mathman - I read your reply and now that I think about it cheap scopes have the ability to turn the whole world economy around. Bear with me on this and you see where I am going with it.

#1 - The cheap scope manufacturer employs a Chinaman to manufacture it.
#2 - Another Chinaman loads it on a ship for export.
#3 - It is unloaded by a worker in the U.S.
#4 - It is sorted and loaded on a truck by another worker.
#5 - It is driven cross country by a trucker.
#6 - It is unloaded and stocked at the distribution center by another worker.
#7 - It is removed from stock, loaded on a truck for shipment to a wholesaler.
#8 - It is driven cross country to the wholesaler.
#9 - It is unloaded and stocked at the wholesalers
#10 - It is loaded on a truck and sent to the retailers.
#11 - It is unloaded and stocked at the retailers.
#12 - It is sold by a salesman at the retailers.

This $39.00 scope has been handled a minimum of 12 times before it is ever put on a rifle and at every step of the way someone was being paid. Heck - it looks to me like cheap scopes are what is keeping the economy going - look at how many people are employed by only one $39.00 scope.

How in the heck can anyone sell a scope for $39.00??? <grin>

You may be onto something.

I wonder how many Austrian and German forest elves are employed rubbing out the magic shoot-all-night coatings for all those 56mm lenses?