Yardage Pro 4x12x42 riflescope from Bushnell

The first practical and affordable laser rangefinders started to appear in the mid `90`s and I managed to get hold of one on a trip to the states. It was a Bushnell `Yardage Pro` and about the size of a pair of binoculars.
Aimed at the hunter end of the market, it was an innovation for the shooter who no longer needed to visually estimate the range to a target. Now he had it within a yard, simply at the press of a button.

It wasn’t long before other manufacturers were coming up with their own versions, all monocular, and they started to get more compact. Leica’s LAF900 is a good example.

I remember having conversations with fellow shooters as to how long it would be before we would see a riflescope with all this technology built in. Well it took about another 5 years before Zeiss came up with the first one. Costing well over £2000, it was well out of reach for most of us mere mortals who, although serious about our shooting, weren’t that serious!

But, as with most things, technology moves on, prices come down and competition between the manufacturers results in more choice for the end user, in this case the shooter.

The Affordable Bushnell

Bushnell offer a wide range of optical products and I guess it is fair to say that they have always been aimed at the lower to middle end of the market. If you are on a budget, then Bushnell will usually have something suitable. They make some nice bits of kit and the prices vary accordingly.
This company was one of the first, if not the first to offer the hand held laser rangefinder at an affordable price, and now they offer what to some shooters is the Holy Grail. A fully integrated riflescope and laser rangefinder.

The scope itself is surprisingly compact at 13 inches long. It weighs 25oz which is a bit on the heavy side compared to a standard scope of comparable size. This is partly due to the shape of the body and of course, the battery supplying power for the laser.

The front and rear end look conventional while the main body has a square block arrangement precluding the use of conventional scope rings. The size of the objective lens is 42mm and the whole thing is finished in non-reflective matt black. It certainly looks and feels like a quality piece of kit. Only to be expected at the price of course.

Bullet drop and windage compensation are operated conventionally by turning the appropriate click adjusters mounted just forward of centre on the scope body. They feel precise and are in .25 moa increments.
ie: quarter inch @ 100yds.

Towards the rear (on top) is a compartment for the 3volt lithium battery which, according to the book supplied, will give 5000 ‘pings’ before needing replacement. Behind this is the power adjustment ring marked off from 4x up to 12x and finished in a grippy rubber material to assist movement.

There is no manual parallax adjustment and the scope is set up parallax free at 100yds. Focus is attained using Bushnell’s fast focus system which consists of an adjustable eyepiece which is turned at the rear of the scope. Once set up this should not need to be adjusted, although when using the scope to look at objects closer than 50yds some re-focusing may be necessary depending on the magnification.

On the left side of the scope body is the ranging button and before all you left-handers start complaining, provision has been made for left-handers by means of a remote infra red activating button which can be placed left or right on the forend of the rifle stock.

Just forward of the main operating button on the scope body can be seen another little protrusion that looks like a window. There is also one on the right hand side of the body; these are the receivers for the infra red remote button. It is simply a matter of pressing the button with the thumb and this will activate the laser remotely, overriding the main button on the scope body.

The remote unit comes with a strap that wraps around the stock and barrel, forward of the scope. This is something that I don’t like doing and I would be inclined to use a small Velcro patch on the stock and the back of the remote, doing away with the strap arrangement across the barrel.
Whichever way it’s done, the infra red device negates the need for a physical connection, all very neat and doing away with the need for unsightly and snag prone wiring.

Mounting Up

As mentioned before, the shape of the scope is not conventional, therefore the normal type of mounting with scope rings is a non-starter.
Bushnell have overcome this with the use of a dovetail rail on the underneath of the scope designed to accept a standard Weaver rail mount.
The scope comes with a set of mounts that simply clamp onto the Weaver mount and up onto the rail underneath the scope body.

The forward mount is designed to lock into one of several positions by means of a retaining lug on the mount whilst the rear mount can then be slid either way for the best eye relief position.

The system offers a reasonably low profile once the scope is on the rifle although the Weaver mount addition means extra scope height is added.
A good sporter stock with high comb should be adequate to achieve a good weld position for the shooters cheek. Eye relief is good at 3.5 inches with the full bore shooter in mind.

Does It Work?

Back at the business end the question is: How does it perform and how good is it optically? After all, having the best rangefinder in the World built into a scope is pointless if the scope is rubbish in the first place.

At the price of this piece of kit you would expect a good scope, and the Bushnell doesn’t disappoint. Purely as a riflescope the optics are good. The duplex reticule is marked off with mil-dots on both vertical and horizontal lines and is set in the second focal plane. This means that the reticule remains at its fixed size regardless of the magnification used.
The image appears sharp at all powers of magnification, while colours appear natural and bright right out to the edges. There was no evidence of ‘blooming’ when pointing into bright sunlight areas and it worked well into dusk showing its ability to perform well in low light, particularly when powered down to 6x and below.

On 12x maximum mag. it is possible to obtain a clear sight picture with both reticule and object crisp from about 45yds to infinity. If the power zoom is turned down to its minimum of 4x the distance can be as low as 15yds. The book states that the laser has a minimum distance of 50yds but in practice it read off ranges down to 20yds without any problems. Having said that, I can’t believe that anybody would purchase a scope like this to shoot at this sort of distance so it’s a bit academic really.

To operate, you just acquire the target, press the button on the scope body (or the remote) and the unit will power up indicated by a Y or M in the top right hand quarter of the reticule. The range can be given in Yds or Mtrs and can be switched by pressing the top part of the power button on the scope.

Press once more and it will start to estimate the distance to the target. This will bring up three horizontal bars in the left quarter of the reticule indicating that the calculation has begun. Within a couple of seconds these bars will be replaced by either the distance to target or three dashes indicating that, for one reason or another, the target distance could not be read. There are a few reasons why this would happen and they are explained in the booklet provided. The reflection, angle and of course, distance could each play a part. However, having tried it out on a variety of different surfaces at varying distances and angles, I can tell you that in almost all situations it will come up with the goods.

If wouldn’t take a brain surgeon to make it malfunction by pointing it at some ridiculously distant target, or an object which clearly has a steep deflection angle. In practice, it consistently read distances out beyond 600yds on varying objects such as walls, bushes, trees and telegraph poles, which would be considerably over the top for any sort of sporting shot at live quarry.

The scope is supposed to be capable of readouts up to 800yds but the absolute maximum that I achieved was 675yds on some distant trees.
With a good reflective target this could be increased but, hey! Who cares?
This piece of kit is aimed at the stalker and foxer, neither of which, I hope, would consider a shot at that distance.

The system also has a scan mode which makes repeated evaluations of the range as long as the button is kept depressed for more than two seconds. This is useful on moving targets and will give the shooter a better estimation of the true range.

As a precaution, I checked out the scope against my Leica 900 rangefinder and used different magnifications during the test. All readouts matched up within a couple of yards and the scope mag. made no difference to its readout accuracy.

Also thrown in with the scope is a bag full of turrets marked for different bullets and loads. One set in yards and one in meters, although I would imagine somebody using this scope would put the mil-dots to good use, instead of messing about dialling the shot in after having already acquired and ranged the target.

Just a point here: Because the reticule is set in the second focal plane, the mil-dots will only be accurate as a measuring device at a set range. This happens to be the full 12x mag on this scope. It will also affect any calculations the shooter makes when utilising the mil-dots as hold over or under points, as the image size changes in relation to the dot spacing.

Turrets corresponding to most popular calibres are there along with a CD and booklet listing which turret to use with which calibre. The booklet actually mentions the dangers of using the mounted scope purely as a rangefinder, in other words, pointing the rifle for no other reason than to check the range to some non-target object. This is where the conventional hand held rangefinder scores a hit. It is safer for general ranging work.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, where does this place Bushnell’s laser ranging scope in the marketplace?  It is a well made piece of kit offering excellent performance both optically and in its range finding capacity. Offering quick acquisition, range, and, using the mil-dots, dispatch of distant targets.

As previously mentioned, I would see it being used primarily for foxing or stalking, but the Buck Rodgers styling shape would clash with a Classic rifle and this may put some shooters off, as they opt for a more conventional shaped scope to mount on their pride and joy.

However, there is no accounting for taste and if it’s the latest technology you are after and it works well, maybe the carrot is dangling. It should be possible to re-adjust the parallax on the front lens to bring the operating limits within 15 to 65yds or so, and this would make it a formidable combination for the air rifle hunter. The wealthy air rifle hunter that is!

As the least expensive of all the laser rangefinding scopes currently available, and at one pound short of eight hundred quid, the carrot may well remain dangling for some time, but we all know that prices fall as new models appear and this will probably be true in this instance.

Many thanks to J McAvoys Gunshop of Standish for supplying the scope for review.

PRICE (RRP): £799