Natchez has had the Bushnell Trophy 4-12 x 40 AO scope on sale for a week or two for $99.95. This is a superb deal for this very nice quality Bushnell scope. The Trophy scope normally sells in the $170.00- $200.00 range most places. The best deal I regularly see on this scope is at Optics Planet and they sell there for $150.00.
As many who have seen my posts will know, I am a big fan of Bushnell scopes for air rifle use. Bushnell has a very good range of scopes that are recommended for use on air rifles incorporating the strength and features needed for use on a spring powered rifle. I own and use 7 Bushnell scopes on some of my air rifles, including the 3-9 x 32 fixed Sportsman, 3-9 x 32 AO SportView, 4-12 x 40 AO Sportsman, and three 4-12 x 40 AO Banners. I have been a very big fan of the Banner in particular due to its moderate size and weight, and its very good optics for the price, the Banner is normally a $90.00 - $100.00 scope and I consider it a good value at this price.
I have wanted to try a 4-12 x 40 AO Trophy for quite a while, but was always put it off due to the higher cost over the Banner. I still think the Trophy is a fair value at $150.00 - $175.00.
I received my Trophy on Fri., as usual good shipping service from Natchez. The Trophy I received is the high gloss finish, although the sale price scope is listed as the matte finish. I was very pleased to see that this is one of the Japanese manufacture Trophy scopes. Most of the newer manufacture Busnell scopes are Chinese manufacture, and are quite good. Two of my Banners and my SportView scopes are Korean manufacture and are just a bit better than the Chinese scopes, not much, but there is a slight edge in build and optic quality. The Japanese Trophy is very high build quality and the optics are wonderful, very clear and bright. The AO markings are very clear and well defined. The magnification and AO focus function is very smooth, and relatively low effort.
I was pleased to find that the size of the Trophy is virtually the same as the Banner, acutally is the same in length, 12.5". The Trophy is listed as being an ounce heavier than the banner at 16 oz., and it does feel just a bit heavier, still a good weight for a 4-12 x 40 scope.
I mounted my Trophy on my HW50 in the BKL 260 D7 I have on it. I had the scope sighted in very quickly and was very pleased with the optics and function of this scope. The scope has finger tip adjustments for elevation and windage and they are low effort, smooth and positive.
One caveat I can offer is that the Trophy does seem to have a smaller range of elevation adjustment than some scopes, so if you have a rifle that has a bit of barrel droop you may find that a conventional, non-droop compensated mount may not work.
I would highly recommend the Trophy at its normal selling price, and would recommend to not to pass up this sale price if you wanted a higher quality scope at a very good price.
