What scope for $1500 to $2000

[Phranque]

Bushnell Tactical Elite ERS... A lot of people look down their nose at these because it's "Bushnell", but their top end scopes are awesome for the money, and it's dead in your price range.

[Rich Coyle]

Bushnell Tactical Elite ERS... A lot of people look down their nose at these because it's "Bushnell", but their top end scopes are awesome for the money, and it's dead in your price range.

If the glass in the Bushnell Tacticals is as good as the glass in the 6500 4 1/2-30X50 you will be hard pressed to find something with better glass. Just yesterday I had a chance to compare my Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X50 with a Vortex Razor 5-25X50 outside the store. I found a sign with writing on it hundreds of yards away. I laid the Razor on a sandbag. It took a couple minutes of adjustments to read the words instead of making out a letter or two with it on 5X. No further adjustments helped. I switched to the 6500 with it set on 4 1/2X. Instantly I could read it with ease. So far the only scope to have better glass has been my Nightforce 12-42X56. I have owned three Bushnell 6500 2 1/2-16Xs, one Leupold VX-6 4-24X52, four Swarovski z5 5-25X52s, one Minox 5-25X56, one Nikon Monarch 3 5-20X44, one Weaver V24 6-24X, and probably others I don't remember at the moment. None, including the Bushenll 6500 2 1/2-16 have glass as clear as the 4 1/2-30X except the Nightforce. Also I have compared them with all sorts of brands at the range. All of them are good enough to see 6.5mm bullet holes on cardboard at 400 yards.

One day I had a Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X50, a Leupold VX-6 4-24X52, a Minox 5-25X56, and a Swarovski z5 5-25X52 laying on sandbags aimed at a chart 127 yards away. I asked my son-in-law to look through them and tell me which one was best to him. He knelt down and looked through them for a few seconds and said, "This one," indicating the 6500. "No! I want you to adjust them to your eye and take a moment," I pleaded. He did. Then he reiterated, "Yep. It's this one," again indicating the 6500.