Bushnell Elite 4200 2.5-10x40mm Rifle Scope Review with FireFly Reticle

As a faithful Leupold customer for well over twenty five years I have never purchased a high dollar scope (relative to my pocket anyway) of any other brand. I would never consider such a foolish and senseless act. Of course I have been both praised and ridiculed for such loyalty depending on the crowd at hand.Sort of like the never ending “Ford versus Chevy” thing I grew up with. Of course I’m sticking with my Ford truck but I had been considering giving something else a try (scope wise that is) for some time.

I had been looking at a couple different brands of “higher end” scopes including the Bushnell Elite 4200’s, Burris Black Diamonds, and Zeiss Conquest’s all three of these had peaked my interest a bit. I decided to go out on a limb and give one of the aforementioned brands a closer look. After a lot of research and some careful deductive reasoning I decided to go ahead and give the Elite 4200 a run for its money. I have heard good things from friends and read several good reports on the “4200’s” from hunters and target shooters alike. These scopes are also a favorite among the members here at Savage Shooters. I have personally had some pretty good success with an inexpensive Bushnell Trophy 3-9x40 that has been mounted on everything from 22 rimfires, and 12 gauge slug guns to my hard kicking 3-1/2” magnum turkey gun and it never gave me a problem. This fact was very instrumental in my choice. So I went ahead and ordered a 2-1/2-10x40 4200 Elite with the “Firefly” reticule.

I had decided on this magnification range originally for my Colorado Elk hunting trip for use on my 300 WSM. Due to the possibility of shooting through the thick aspens and pines I was told to expect in the area we would be hunting I was a little concerned that the 4-1/2-14 VX-3 currently on my 300 WSM was a little too high in magnification. I decided to first test the 4200 atop my Mossberg 835 slug gun. This turned out to be a pretty good fit with the many mounting locations available on the cantilever style mount on the Mossy’s slug barrel. With the thick wooded areas around here the 2-1/2 power setting is perfect and the eye relief is easier to adjust for me on this setup. During the end of the restricted arms deer season in my locale the 4200 proved to be quite impressive in the late afternoon periods and well into dusk. I found that I really did not need the FireFly reticule at all as the 4200 did an excellent job of gathering light in the dusk/dawn conditions. There was a very misty morning and one downright rainy afternoon that I was out hunting with the 4200 and the “Rainguard” coating proved to be a very effective barrier against the mist and rain drops that would have normally been a real pain, another nice surprise.

The Bushnell Elite 4200 2.5-10x40mm compares quite favorably to my Leupold VX-2’s and VX-3’s in the clarity department and may very well be superior to my VX-2’s in light gathering ability. Don’t get me wrong, I am not yet ready to sell all of my Leupold’s just yet even though I have been very pleased with the 4200 from the first time I looked through it. All of that being said this is not by any means a budget priced scope and is in the same price range as a VX-3 of similar design criteria. Fit and finish is nice enough for me but was slightly behind the Leupold’s that I have in the overall finish and appearance. The threads on the turret caps were a bit gritty feeling and were not quite as positive feeling when removing or replacing. This is not really a major issue for this particular application as the turret covers will very rarely be removed since this is going on a dedicated hunting rifle.

The elevation and windage adjustments were positive and quickly had me sighted in with 3 shots. I never had one any easier and this was on a slug-gun. The excellent light gathering ability of this scope makes the FireFly reticle somewhat redundant which brings me to my second issue with the scope. Although I really cant say that during “legal” hunting hours you should ever need the FireFly, if you do decide to use it you will need to keep your flashlight handy and be ready to shine it on the ocular lens just before taking the shot because it does not last long. I was hoping for at least a good ten to fifteen minutes of “glow” duration but forget it, maybe you will get five minutes at best. It does light up nice and bright after just a few seconds and you can really see it against a dark background.

Another minor complaint is the thickness of the reticule. Due to the Firefly option this really can't be helped I guess, but in normal hunting conditions it is way thicker than what I am accustomed to from a typical duplex style hunting reticule. The actual crosshair is however fine enough for sighting in and a little informal target shooting. I did not test the tracking and or repeatability of the scope as its only function will be for hunting. I’m not concerned about any of that as long as it holds zero. So far so good in that area.

Eventually the 4200 had found its way onto my now completed Savage Custom 250 AI project. It fits very nicely on the short action receiver and due in part to the standard “windage style” and turn in mount configuration I have plenty of adjustability and was easily able to find a good eye relief setting that works well under the full range of power settings. I have not done a lot of shooting with this rig yet but I hope to finalize load development with it this summer and carry it in the deer woods for the 2009 rifle season.

Overall I am pleased with the decision to give these scopes a try. Although by no means a cheap alternative to the Leupold’s I have been accustom to, it’s nice to know first hand there are other quality choices out there. Sometimes it just makes sense to look in a different direction and I am not disappointed that I have done so in this case. My only real complaint is the short duration of the glow from the Firefly reticule. I was happy enough with the scope that I have since added two more 4200 Elite target scopes to my Varmint Rifle collection but of course that’s a different story for another day.


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