For you squirrel hunters who like a little bit more power on your squirrel gun as far as scopes go like I do will be impressed with this scope right here. This scope has a little bit of backstory for me which I"m going to get to in just a second. But for the power range, the clarity, and the price, this scope is outstanding. This scope is the Bushnell Ultra HD Legend 4-5-14 power with a 44mm bell and side focus. Although this model also comes with a standard duplex reticle, I opted to go with the mil-dot reticle version with side focus.
Now let"s go through some specs, the weight on the scope is 18.7 ounces so it"s not really a scope that I want to carry around on my gun while I"m hunting with my dogs due to weight but I will because I like the added power range. The scope is 14.7 inches long, and the eye relief is a pretty generous 3.6 inches, which is very good for a scope in this price range. Scope adjustments are a quarter inch at 100 yards and your adjustment range is fifty five minutes of angle. The scope has a rain guard HD coating, along with fully multi-coated lenses. The body is a one inch, one piece tube, so it takes one inch rings and bases. Like most all the Bushnell models, this version is water, fog, and shockproof. It has the fast focus eyepiece, which I really like as it"s nice that I don"t have to undo a screw here and back the piece out, and then and lock it down again.
So I had previously mentioned a backstory as to how I came across this scope? Well, here"s the backstory: I owned a different Legend scope at one point in time, and so old that I couldn"t even tell you how old it was. Near as I can recall, that scope cost me around $150 or so, and and mounted it on a Ruger X17 17HMR. If you are familiar with Ruger rifles, then you know only offers proprietary Ruger rings for their rifles. This was before I had started lapping rings when needed, and I was having trouble getting my groups with the HMR sighted in. I had maxed out the horizontal adjustment dial, but my groups still needed to move further to the right to get on target. Again, not thinking that the rings needed to be lapped, and out of frustration, I took out my Leatherman tool, and cranked on the windage adjustment trying to get it to move further to the right. I figured I might be able to get a few more clicks out of it, but that didn"t happen. I ended up basically just stripping the crap out of the horizontal adjustment. Honestly, I felt bad about stripping it, so I just took the scope off the gun, and put it away in the closet for a few years.
I got to thinking about that scope last year, decided that I was going to send the scope back to Bushnell with a note explaining how I broke it, and a request to repair it, with plans to pay for the repair. So I sent the scope back with the note, and sort of forgot about it. Well, a couple of weeks went by, and all of a sudden, a Bushnell box showed up on a doorstep. I was very curious about the contents because I hadn"t had any contact from Bushnell or paid anything for the repair so far. I opened the box up to find a brand new Legend Ultra HD scope that Bushnell had sent me at no cost. Even though I had clearly taken responsibility for breaking the original scope, and was willing to pay the repair, Bushnell replaced it with a newer better model. Now I"m sure there are people out there who have had bad experiences with Bushnell, but I had a really good one with them on this scope. So I received a better scope than the one I sent in, and Bushnell gained a customer for sure. Instead of mounting the new Legend scope on another 17 HMR, I decided to mount it on a .22 that I use for squirrel hunting.
According to Bushnell, they use a type of glass called "ED Prime" glass, and the clarity, brightness, and crispness of clarity on this scope is very high quality, and is glass that is typically seen on scopes in the $350 to $400 dollar range. The MSRP on this model is $399, and Bushnell is currently only offering the 4.5X14 model in two versions:
- Duplex reticle (Bushnell part number 854144)
- Mil-Dot reticle (Bushnell part number 854144MD)
This model also comes with 100% money-back guarantee, so if you don"t like the scope, Bushnell will take it back for a full refund.
So let"s take a more in-depth look at the scope reticles: The reticle crosshairs on both the standard duplex and the Mil-Dot reticle look a little thinner than reticles found on some other brands. The mil-dots on the Mil-dot reticle seem a little smaller and thinner than most mil-dot reticles. I find that the thinner crosshairs and smaller mil-dots aids and helps me when I"m squirrel hunting as thicker reticles and larger mil-dots have a tendency to cover the target or or larger than the target itself. Personally, I like the thinness of this crosshair, especially when hunting small game like squirrels or rabbits.
So far, the cheapest I"ve been able to find this scope on the web is about two hundred and fifty bucks. And for $250, I"m telling you the glass is exceptional on this scope. I had the chance to hunt with the 4.5X14 mil-dot version a little bit last year, and it functioned extremely well in the woods.
So let"s talk about some of the other features:
Side Focus - As far as I can tell, most all the Bushnell Elite series scopes are equipped with side focus (versus having the focus on the ocular bell). The side focus option was a little bit new to me as this was my first experience with one. I really like the side focus on this model as it focuses all the way down to 20 yards (which is uncommonly low on most side focus models) and goes all the way to infinity. The side focus adjustment is very smooth and easy to read. The ability to focus down to 20 yards is pretty nice, but I really prefer a scope that focuses down to 10 yards, but I can get by with something that focuses down to 20 yards. Many scope brands will only focus down to a minimum of 50 yards, but, to me, a 50 yard minimum just doesn"t adjust down far enough for my preferences.
Turret Adjustment - The turret adjustment is a quarter inch (1/4") at a hundred yards, and it"s finger adjustable, and also resettable for 0.
Fast Focus Eyepiece - As I mentioned before, the Ultra HD has a fast focus eyepiece, which I am a big fan of. I like being able to quickly adjust the eye focus and then lock it down.
Power Ring - The power ring is very smooth all the way through the power settings, from the low end of 4.5 all the way to the max power of 14. Now the 14 power is done in red, which means it"s a "true" setting for the mil-dots. This means that the when using the mil-dots for ranging and shooting purposes, the mil-dots are accurate on the 14 power setting.
So that"s a quick review of the Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 4.5-14X44SF, and it"s a fantastic scope worth every dollar you would pay for it. I am/was so satisfied with mine, and I ended up buying another 2 for other rifles I had.
UPDATE - Rumor has it that Bushnell is discontinuing the certain models in the Legend Ultra HD line, including the 4.5-14X44SF version, which is a crying shame as it"s a phenomenal deal for the money. You can still find some of this model (both the 854144 and the 854144MD) for sale below.
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To read the rest of this article, visit: http://rifle-scope-guide.com/reviewing-the-bushnell-legend-ultra-hd-4-5-14x44sf-rifle-scope__trashed/
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