Head's Up for you Lefties

[J.Baker]

If you're a lefty and have been looking at or considering a newer Bushnell Elite Tactical scope, be forewarned that depending on model it may not work on your LH rifle. The problem lies with models that feature the "ThrowHammer Lever" on the magnification ring and that it will interfere with or possibly even prevent you from being able to cycle your bolt when the magnification is cranked down to the lowest settings. At the lowest setting on the DMR II-i 3.5-21x50mm I just received the lever rests at about 7 o`clock when set to 3.5X (when looking from the rear of the scope). As such there's no way you would be able to lift and cycle the bolt without hitting it. Even if you remove the lever (it attaches to an integral mount on the magnification ring via a pair of small hex screws) the mounting boss sticks up far enough that it would contact your hand and the sharp edges would likely cut you.

Clearly Bushnell degreed the cam ramp for the magnification ring to maximize clearance for right-hand guns as at max magnification the lever is at around the 1-2 o`clock position.

[Zero333]

My brother has no problems with his lefty Savage and shooting with Elite tactical Bushnell 3.5-21 DMR and 4.5-30 XRS. But he doesn't use a cattail throw lever. Nor does he use a aftermarket bolt handle.

I welded up a bolt handle for him to his liking and of course keeping in mind the clearance between the scope and his thumb. A factory Savage hunting bolt handle did work fine too.

[J.Baker]

My brother has no problems with his lefty Savage and shooting with Elite tactical Bushnell 3.5-21 DMR and 4.5-30 XRS. But he doesn't use a cattail throw lever. Nor does he use a aftermarket bolt handle.

I welded up a bolt handle for him to his liking and of course keeping in mind the clearance between the scope and his thumb. A factory Savage hunting bolt handle did work fine too.

That's all fine and dandy for your brother and his scopes, but you're comparing apples to oranges there since he's not running a cattail on either (the whole point of my first post). As I clearly stated in my original post...


The problem lies with models that feature the "ThrowHammer Lever" on the magnification ring and that it will interfere with or possibly even prevent you from being able to cycle your bolt when the magnification is cranked up to the highest settings.

Bolt handle style has nothing to do with it as the photo's below show. The third photo shows a standard small factory bolt handle. The fourth photo shows a factory large round knob bolt handle.

The first photo below just shows the cattail isn't a typical wrap-around bolt-on affair, but rather is built into the magnification ring so it can't be re-clocked for a lefty. In this pic the magnification is at 21x and as you can see it offers plenty of clearance for the bolt on a RH gun.

The second photo shows the cattail's location in regards to the bolt handle slot (magnification is set at 3.5x here)

Third photo shows a LH bolt started into the raceway of this RH action, and even fully rearward you can easily see it's not going to clear the cattail.

The fourth photo shows the RH bolt turned around and taped to the buffer tube with the BAS butted up against the rear of the action and the lugs horizontal as they would be in the raceway to ensure the handle is at the proper angle. Even a blind squirrel can see the bolt handle isn't going to clear the cattail in this one.

With this mock-up you would have to dial the magnification up to 8-10x before the bolt handle would fully clear the cattail.

[Zero333]

Yeah I figured the Throw lever is not a good idea for southpaws.

Hopefully there are other scopes out there with throw levers that work for lefties.