Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics bushnell elites now made in china

lately the last 2 elite scopes I have seen say made in china on the bottom. I wonder why they didn't just keep going with the 3200 and 4200 models instead of "upgrading" them to chinese manufacture.

The Elite binos are still made in Japan.

I don't believe they are all made there just certain models

I think zeiss terra's are too.

They are very nice glass and even nicer construction quality. I think where they are engineered and designed, and the German QC overseeing them when complete before shipping out is the key to their success.

By comparison, the Japanese made bushnell fusion 1 mile QC is so bad I've seen three pairs and all were three were bad! They must have skipped the Toyota quality assurance seminars

I'm not convinced origin of MFG alone is the decision maker. The manufacturer keeping a close eye on detail so that spec's are met and quality is assured trumps country of MFG.

I've seen a pile of crap come out of USA mfg too! More often then not lately.

JJ- does that include your replacement pair?

Yes, they are all gone. I no longer own any of them. three failures in 5 weeks sent me straight to Leica to the geovids. Thankfully the vendor and Bushnell recognized the problems and refunded every penny.

The customer service of the vendor was flawless. Bushnell tried hard to create a solution. However in the end they could not support this products problems. I actually felt kinda sorry for the folks in their tech support having to struggle with the quality.. It must be awful In their situation to know the facts, and have to bite their tongue with a customer on the phone that knows. It was obvious I was not the first or only person with grave disappointment using these.

Leica Geovids are much more expensive. However they work and are crafted with typical Leica construction and quality. If I remember, they are made in Portugal not Germany. I'll have to check that, but something tells me they are not made in Germany.

Respectfully disagree, email Bushnell and ask them the country of manufacture for the Elite line of scopes; it's China. Production was shifted to China when the 3200 and 4200 models were discontinued. That's why the Japanese made scopes sell so well on ebay, most people realize that there was an increase in price coupled with a slight loss of quality.

this really sucks the elite 4200 series were my favorite standard scope. I have noticed that on ebay the prices there have jumped 50 bucks in the last few months. I still have a brand new one sitting in the box from when they were blowing the last of the 3x9's out, I was going to sell it but maybe I should just keep it because there isn't anymore coming out. I have also noticed that in stores around me, cabelas, scheels, sportsmans warehouse etc bushnell only has the cheaper line available in those stores. why spend more money on chinese made scopes.

Elite riflescopes are still stamped Japan. The two side focus models that were stamped Elite are no longer Elite models. They are Legend models.

no they are not legend models!!!! next time I see them I will take pictures. I don't think the elite 6500 is made in china, but the 3x9 I saw in cabelas was made in china and another elite I saw marked special edition with side focus was also made in china. the made in china marking is on the underside the scope tube is matte finish the made in china lettering is gloss, its very subtle and kinda hard to read.

I have heard the same thing about the "Special Edition" 3-9 model and someone here or on some other forum posted pictures of it and it was marked China. Not sure if this was something that was rebranded by Bushnell or not as those Special Edition models were also listed under the Elite line by SWFA too. If you look at the SWFA website, you will now see those two side focus 3-9's (2-3-9x40's and 2-3-9x50's) listed under the Legend line-up. Someone had pulled 4 different Elite models from the warehouse and all were marked Japan.

thinking the terra's are made in japan, not china...love jap glass but didnt care for the terra i handled

the Elite tactical I bought last summer is marked........JAPAN

Every elite scope I have looked at has "Made in Japan" marked on the box.

I think if you search the forum, you'll see this has pretty much been hashed out and unless Bushnell has shifted production recently, the new Elites should be from Japan.

There are likely still some "Elite" scopes floating around that were made in China and still being sold NIB. As stated earlier, this line has become the Bushnell Trophy XLT line.

I believe the "current" Elite line is all Japan produced though. At least all 4 of mine are made in Japan. FWIW...

Last week I sold a 3-9x40mm Japanese made Elite scope on ebay for $250; it was NIB and it sold via the BuyNow feature within 12 hours of listing.

my wife`s last doa 600 bushnell elite 3-9x40 is made in japan and looks exactly like the older 4200 maybe a little brighter.

What still unclear to me is which of the newer elite models are the old 3200's and which are the old 4200 models ?

For the most part it's pretty easy to just form the zoom magnification range. 3200's are 3x zoom (3-9, 4-12, 5-15..) and the 4200's are 4x zoom (2.5-10, 4-16, 6-24...).

That's not true. There's a ton of Elite 4200 3-9x40s floating around. All of mine are Japan made. I have a few of them.