Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Thoughts on Bushnell Banner 1.5-4.5x32

Picked up a good/cheap deal on an older Marlin 30-30. It's not perfect, but will make an excellent carry/truck gun. Not wanting to spend a whole lot on scoping this thing, as I only paid $200. Seems several Marlin owners are fond of this scope, but I'm leery do to is cheap price. Seems to get fair reviews, but what say the CF experts here?

John, The scope you mentioned is a brother so to speak to the 1.75-4x32 Banner shotgun scope which I can say is a favorite of the grandkids here, with the six inches of eye relief which makes it easy for them to acquire a sight picture along with the circle x reticle which just draws you on target. We have four or more of these. I would suggest either would work well on your lever gun......

I've got one of the shotgun scopes and like most everything about it....eye relief...big bold reticle...great for woods.
But off the bench at 100 yds it does have a fair amount of paralax. That said I still get good groups with it.
I've seen many reviews on the banner and they are very favorable for a $75 scope.

They are pretty tough with so-so optics. The tough part is what sells. The Banner is the cheapest scope I would trust not to fall apart.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm wanting. With such low power, I don't expect to count hairs at 400yds! Just something compact to give an edge over iron sights (which the rear blade is absent anyways, hence the low price) without compromising a lever guns speed & balance.

I had a Banner literally fall apart on me and another cost a buddy an elk hunt, I would rather use iron sights than a banner on a big game rifle - most of my scoped rifles have scopes that cost me more than the rifle, it is easier to find bargains on rifles than scopes. I'd probably pick up a Leupold VX1 2-7x33 in your favorite reticle but it would run you $19 more than you paid for the gun.

You could find a few cheaper scopes that would work very well Vortex Diamondback 1.75-5x32, Burris FF2 2-7x35, Weaver V7 2-7x35, Sightron S1 2-7x35, Nikon Prostaff 2-7x32, etc with real lifetime warranties but they all run about $150+ so the vx1 is in the same ballpark and if it stops working right 35 years from now you can send it in to be repaired without cost.

This under an inch 5 shot group was done w/a 2-7 Burris at 100. It does make a nice scope and the ballistic plex can be made to match up nicely.
Where you see the group centered the first hatch mark lines up at 200 the 2nd 250 and the 3rd is 300.
Just the way you see it here I can regularly ring our clubs 300 yd gong on a calm day. The bullet is a naked blem nosler 150 grain ballistic tip.

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I was wondering when someone would suggest a scope I'm not interested in. I fully understand there are better and more expensive options, which consequently could be carried out add-naseum!!! Sorry, but I'm not concerned with those. Mainly cause I don't consider them truly "compact".

Love the VX-2 ultralight/compact, but feel they are way overpriced and compromised for what they offer. The Timberline series by Burris is a better deal in my opinion. But still.........for a knock-about/truck gun, can't really justify the cost.

I have that scope on a Rem 788 in 7-08. It's been on that rifle for the last 10yrs or so. Not the greatest glass but it holds zero just fine.

I put a Bushnell banner 1.5-4x20 on a 350 Rem Mag back in '86. After one season moved it to a Savage 99C .308. Sold the combo to one of my cousins sometime in the 90's. He moved the scope to his father's 300 Savage 99F because it was better than the Simmons his father had. My cousin's son still uses the 300 Savage/ Bushnell setup every fall, no problems after 28 years and three harder kicking rifles than your 30/30.

I'd say keep it as long as its optically OK.

I don't want to suggest that I didn't kill deer with my banner, I killed a bunch over several years - if all you do is walk or ride to the tree stand or blind in good weather at the same altitude it may last a long while.

I tend to drag my old butt up mountains in rapidly changing weather conditions and through brush chasing deer and elk more often than not bumping me and my scope more than enough to destroy a banner. If you only plan to do that gentle flat land hunting from 4 wheeler to blind my advice may not be right.

But I'm not saying get a swarovski z6 for a $200 rifle. I just wouldn't put a piece of crap scope on a hunting rifle if $75 more got me something dependable. Use the crappy scope if you trust your luck, ive made that mistake and don't plan to repeat it.

I like mine. It holds zero and has given me zero problems. Hard to beat for the money and your intended purpose.

Well..........I'll keep my eyes peeled for a used Burris Mini/Short Mag/Timberline 2-7x26 on here and eBay. Sure wish they didn't discontinue them. They were only like $175 brand new a couple years ago. In the mean time, I'll get the aforementioned Banner.

Decided to take the money I would normally spend on one of these cheap Bushnell's and bought a vintage El Paso Weaver V7 Steel Lite-II. Which also happened to be made nearly the same year as the rifle ('82 scope, '83 rifle). Was able to glean some info, in that these were apparently the last and "best" of the USA made Weavers.

Nice match to your rifle. In its day that was a high end scope and they were very reliable......much better then the Banner. I would guess it wont compare to glass from this decade but as a putting meat in the freezer tool will work great and has some cool factor as well.

Yeah.......everything I gathered from those far more knowledgeable than me, is that these were better than nearly all consumer scopes of the day they competed against and every bit the equal to the Leupold Vari-X III., but at a slightly cheaper price point. With click adjustments and fully multi-coated lenses.

Forgive me if I missed it on an earlier post - but did you get it for the same price as the Banner or fork out a few extra $$ for that nice Weaver?

Same price basically. $80 + $10 s/h for the Weaver (LNIB) vs $70-$80 for a new Banner but with fee shipping from several vendors.

Finally got home and was able to inspect this older weaver. Looked so good (near new finish) with only minor mounting marks, so nice in fact, that it kinda seemed out of place on the strait stock Texan I just picked up. So, I instead replaced an old 2-8x32 Tasco that has a rough finish and bad focus above 6x which was on my other Marlin 336 that I had converted to .307Win years ago.

When I came of elk hunting age in the early 70's my dad gave me a first year production M700 "carbine" in 270W, topped with a old Lyman scope that was kinda' dark to look through.

In anticipation of this day, I had saved my pennies and promptly went to the local sporting goods store and traded in the Lyman on a new Banner 1.5-4 and a Western skinning knife when they were still made in Boulder.

Traded the M700, the Western knife sits a box with the rest of my spare hunting knives, the Bushnell now sits atop a M721 "camp rifle" and still sees occasional use.

Killed a lot of elk with that scope in the 70's, and bear, pronghorns, plus a B&C buck too. That scope has been carried on LOTS of high country horsepack hunts and survived in a scabbard despite the best efforts of my cantankerous cowhorse, (the same horse that bent the barrel on my dad's M721 almost 45 years ago) plus all the way to Georgia on a whitetail hunt.

I think the old jap made Bushnell optics are still good stuff. I have a pair of 10x50 Custom binos I carry in my truck. Bought it for $45 on Craigslist.

Casey