Bushnell scopes on British snipers' rifles......???

[Warren]

Warren was the problem scopes named Banner, Trophy or Legend scopes or were they the Elite.
The Banner , Trophy and Legend scopes are Bushnell's low cost Tasco/Barska types. the Elite's are supposed to be their higher quality scopes. Not Swarovski, Schmidt & Bender or Zeiss quality for sure but decent for the price.

Not sure of the Bushnell model as I did not record them in my book. It was a quick easy fix. I'll be seeing a couple of the chaps in the next while so I'll ask and let you know via PM. The Zeiss's have been the same and again no explanation other than extreme cold and heavy recoil in one case that I can remember.

[Surpmil]

From what I've read, "Bushnell" have never had factories of their own, they began as an importer of Japanese binoculars, then branched out into telescopes of various kinds and then rifle scopes. Again, according to what I have read, there are only a half dozen or so serious optical factories in Japan, and many different brands buy from them and have the scopes engraved with whatever info they wish, including, horror of horrors, our esteemed friends from der Vaterland! In fact one gent was telling me about the boxes and boxes of Hoya lenses he saw in the Zeiss factory, and he is an entirely reliable source. Now, if the high and mighty Zeiss condescend to buy glass from the Japanese, you can be sure most of the lesser players do as well. Not surprising, since in the camera world, it was an accepted fact that Japanese glass was in many cases better than German, even in the 1950s.

I had an Elite 6500 and it is a fine scope, very robust.

I have an IOR scope with reticule illumination and the same thought crossed my mind as Peter mentioned: turning on your reticule at night is a nice way to say "here I am!". On the other hand, the Soviets illuminated the reticule for the PSO-1 scope. Perhaps they figured there are only so many night vision scopes out and about on the battlefield at any given time. With these fine etched reticules we use now, you really don't have any choice in low light conditions. It's that or go back to the old three thick posts and one thinner from the top that the Germans found best in WWI.

What's old is new again.

[m4carbine]

Bushnell is and always was an importer/marketing company like Tasco, B&L did make stuff here, they still do contact lenses and spectacle lenses. I have an M48 spotter made in Rochester NY by B&L.

I am not sure when but B&L bought Bushnell and allowed it to use its name to add value the the Bushnell name, sometime in the early 2000's B&L sold off bushnell.
Bushnell continued to license the name till about 2011.

B&L's top end scopes are/have been made by a Japanese optical company called Lite optical for at lease 2 decades. This fact makes them slow to get changes made or accurate reticles, language barrier.

The B&L 10X made in the early 90's was used on the XM/M25 rifle in the SF community. it was considered to be a pretty good optic.

[Surpmil]

Some interesting info here: Scope makers (Gale McMillan)

Worth saving a copy; it may not always be there.

[RCEMERalf]

I recall a solicitation out of NSWC Crane for the B&L 10X. I seem to remember that these were to be fitted to M14s to be fired at mines at sea. Seems that there was an overrun on production as I saw advertisements for them for sale. NSWC Crane evaluates and buys weapons and associated kit for the Seals.