Back in 2014, I decided that my eyes had aged enough that it was time to give up my fascination with cheap scopes. I had a bunch of scopes from the 70s onwards that I'd acquired under various circumstances. I doubt I'd paid more than $30 for any of them. Between them and my aging eyes, I'd lost a good 10 minutes of hunting on either side of the day. All I was seeing through the scopes was mud.
I had room to experiment. I bought a Bushnell Elite 3-9X40, a Bushnell Trophy 4-12X40 and a Bushnell Banner 3-9X40, all with the Dawn to Dusk Coatings. Along the way, I compared them to a few other scopes-- Leupolds and the like, and I really couldn't tell the difference. All 3 scopes ended up being just fine. I think the Elite went for $320, the Trophy cost $200+ and the Banner went for well under $100. I successfully hunted with all 3 over the next couple of years. When it came time to buy the next scope, I bought a Banner and at last count, I've purchased 6 more since. I've also now got 2 Banners in 1.5-4.5X32 mounted on shotguns. My sons and my granddaughter now have Bushnell Banners mounted on their deer rifles.
Granted, I'm not all that demanding. Most of the deer I take are shot within 200 yards. Most of my hunting takes place in fairly mild conditions, and I am never more than a half mile away from a warm cabin. Still, I've gone 8 years and I have nary a complaint. All the scopes are easy to adjust and keep their zeroes. I seldom have to make adjustments from year to year unless I'm changing the load.
My question to y'all is this: what am I missing? What would I have gained if I'd doubled or tripled my optics budget?
There's got to be something that my old eyes ain't catching. What is it?
From my experience with a few banners back in the 90's, they are extremely weak scopes. I remember the last one (the straw that broke the camels back) I bought only lasted a few hours before it went tits up. I took it back to the store and got my money back. I swore them off at that point. Others failed as well. I ran them on 10-22's and a 22wmr. I tried to give them a chance, but with that kind of performance, they are garbage. If you really want a good strong reasonably inexpensive rifle scope, try the Burris FFII 3-9x40 and do yourself a favor and get the one with the ballistic plex reticle. You'll be glad you did.. I'd also like to add that the Bushnell elites are excellent scopes, but don't trust them for dialing. They also didn't make a useable ballistic type reticle, so you are forced to "set and forget" it. Limited on your range as well. Set for MPBR or the like. I much prefer the ballistic plex reticle on the Burris.
