Bushnell scopes decoded: which line replaced the one you had

By the OpticVerdict Editorial Team.
Research-based · Updated 2026-08-19

The range in one table

Focal plane, travel and coating rows come from Bushnell’s own product pages where the retailer does not publish them. Prices, stock and owner ratings from the retailer. The “replaces” column is our reading of where each discontinued line’s buyer now lands, not a Bushnell statement. Prices verified August 18, 2026; confirm the current figure on the retailer page.

The Banner and Trophy replacement, and where most buyers land: Bushnell R3 3-9x40mm Rifle Scope, Second Focal Plane

3.7/5 our editorial score

No owner reviews on the retailer: this listing has never been rated

3-9x · 40mm · 1 in tube · SFP · DOA Quick Ballistic reticle · capped turrets · 1/4 MOA · 65 MOA travel · IPX7 · EXO Barrier · 14.6 oz

around $200 exact price on OpticsPlanet

Check price on OpticsPlanet

If you came here because your Banner died or your Trophy is gone from the shelf, this is the scope that took their place, and it is worth knowing exactly what you are getting. The R3 is the bottom rung of Bushnell's rebuilt hunting range, and the honest read is that it buys you one genuinely modern feature and nothing else you did not already have. That feature is the EXO Barrier coating, a bonded hydrophobic and oleophobic layer on the exterior glass, which is normally something you pay several hundred dollars for and which the obvious rival at this price does not offer at all. The rest is a conventional 3-9x40 on a one-inch tube: capped turrets, fixed parallax, a second focal plane reticle with drop points Bushnell calibrates out to 600 yards and wind holds to 500. Two caveats matter more than the marketing. First, the reticle only measures correctly at 9x, because in a second focal plane scope the holds scale with magnification, so dialling down to widen your view in timber silently changes what every hash mark is worth. Second, the coating claim on Bushnell's own page does not agree with Bushnell's own spec table, which we take apart below. Where this scope is genuinely good is weight and travel: 14.6 ounces keeps a light rifle balanced, and 65 MOA of adjustment is more than most one-inch tubes give you.

Pros

• EXO Barrier bonded exterior lens coating repels water, oil and dust, and Bushnell puts it on this scope at the very bottom of the range where rivals do not offer it at all
• IPX7 rated by Bushnell, which is submersion rather than splash resistance
• Light at 14.6 oz, so it will not turn a slim mountain rifle top-heavy
• 65 MOA of elevation and 65 MOA of windage, which is generous for a one-inch tube (Bushnell's own figure)
• The DOA Quick Ballistic reticle carries drop points to 600 yards and 5 mph wind holds to 500, and Bushnell offers four reticle options on this same body including a rimfire drop-zone version

Cons

• Bushnell's prose calls the optics "fully multi-coated" while Bushnell's own spec table on the same page lists "Multi-Coated". Those are different specifications, and the cheaper of the two readings is the one in the table
• The reticle holds are only true at 9x, so widening the field in timber quietly invalidates every drop point until you zoom back in
• Parallax is fixed, with no adjustable objective or side focus, which makes it a poor match for close rimfire work where the target sits inside 50 yards
• Capped turrets and 15 MOA per rotation mean this is a set-and-hold scope, not one you dial for distance
• Not one owner has reviewed this listing on the retailer, so there is no field record to test any of this against
• The retailer's price sits well above Bushnell's own, which is unusual and is worth checking before you buy (covered below)
• The DOA Quick Ballistic version described here is on backorder, so the reticle that makes this scope worth choosing is the one you cannot have today. Two other reticles on the same listing do ship, but they are different scopes to shoot: the Multi-X is a plain duplex with no drop points, and the Drop Zone-22 is calibrated for rimfire

Best for: the whitetail or general big-game hunter who zeroes at 100 yards, holds over with the reticle, and wants weather-proofing rather than turret features. Skip it if you shoot rimfire inside 50 yards, if you want to dial elevation, or if an unconditional warranty matters more to you than a coating.

Key specifications

Manufacturer	Bushnell
Magnification and objective	3-9x40mm
Tube diameter	1 in
Focal plane	Second
Reticle (carded model)	DOA Quick Ballistic; also offered as DOA QB Ext Eye Relief, DZ22BDC and Multi-X
Lens coating	Bushnell spec table: Multi-Coated. Bushnell prose: fully multi-coated. See the note below
Protective coating	EXO Barrier (Bushnell)
Field of view	37.5 ft at 3x, 13 ft at 9x, per 100 yds (Bushnell)
Eye relief	3.7 in
Elevation / windage adjustment	65 MOA / 65 MOA (Bushnell)
Click value	0.25 MOA, 15 MOA per turret rotation (Bushnell)
Turrets	Capped, elevation and windage
Sealing	IPX7 (Bushnell)
Weight	14.6 oz
Parallax	Not listed by the retailer and not listed on Bushnell's product page
MPN carded	R3-3940S11 (one of four reticle variants of the same scope, all new, no demo units)

What replaced AR Optics, and the only AR-class Bushnell left: Bushnell R5 1-6x24mm LPVO 30mm Rifle Scope, Second Focal Plane

3.6/5 our editorial score

No owner reviews on the retailer: this listing has never been rated

1-6x · 24mm · 30mm tube · SFP · DDR-2 red illuminated reticle · 1/4 MOA · 120 MOA travel · fully multi-coated · waterproof · 17.3 oz

around $250 exact price on OpticsPlanet

Check price on OpticsPlanet

This is the answer to a search that no longer has a product behind it. Bushnell's AR Optics line was the budget tactical range with bullet-drop turrets for 5.56 and .308, and at our retailer it is gone: the AR Optics category returns nothing, and the entire Bushnell AR-15 category now holds exactly one product, which is this scope. So if you are shopping an AR Optics Drop Zone, this is the current shelf. On its own terms it is a competent, unexciting low-power variable. The specification that stands out is 120 MOA of total adjustment, which is a lot of room on a 30mm tube and more than double what the R3 above gives you, and the coating here is listed by the retailer as fully multi-coated without the contradiction that dogs the R3. The reticle is a red-illuminated DDR-2 in the second focal plane, which is the conventional and defensible choice at this magnification range because a first focal plane reticle at 1x tends to shrink into invisibility. What you are not getting is any evidence. Nobody has reviewed it, the brightness-setting count is not published by either the retailer or, in the form we could verify, by Bushnell, and there is no stated battery life. At this price the segment is crowded with optics that have hundreds of owner reports behind them.

Pros

• 120 MOA of total adjustment range, which is unusually generous for a 1-6x and nearly double the R3's
• Fully multi-coated optics per the retailer's specification table, with no prose-versus-table conflict on this model
• Red illuminated DDR-2 reticle running on a common CR2032, in the second focal plane where a 1x reticle stays usable
• Aluminium body listed as waterproof, shockproof and fogproof, with 4 inches of eye relief which is forgiving for a carbine
• It is the only AR-class Bushnell the retailer still carries, so it is the whole answer to the AR Optics question rather than one of several

Cons

• Zero owner reviews, in a segment where rival LPVOs carry hundreds, so nothing here has been checked in the field by anyone but Bushnell
• Neither the retailer nor Bushnell publishes the number of brightness settings or the illumination battery life for this model, so night-vision compatibility and runtime are unknown rather than good or bad
• Second focal plane means the reticle holds are only true at 6x, the same trap as the R3
• At 17.3 oz it is heavier than several 1-6x rivals, which matters on a carbine where the optic sits high
• On backorder at the retailer with a February 2027 estimate, so this is a scope you wait for rather than mount this season

Best for: the AR-15 or modern sporting rifle owner who specifically wants to stay with Bushnell, or who wants a lot of adjustment range on a budget 1-6x. If the brand is not the point, this is the pick on this page with the least evidence behind it, and our own AR-15 and LPVO guides cover better-documented options.

Key specifications

Manufacturer	Bushnell
Magnification and objective	1-6x24mm
Tube diameter	30 mm
Focal plane	Second
Reticle	DDR-2, red illumination
Optical coating	Fully multi-coated (retailer)
Eye relief	4 in
Adjustment range	120 MOA total
Click value	0.25 MOA
Battery	CR2032 lithium
Sealing	Waterproof, fogproof, shockproof (retailer). No IP rating published
Weight	17.3 oz
Brightness settings	Not published by the retailer or on the Bushnell page we could verify
MPN carded	R5-1624S26 (single orderable model, no demo variant)

The one the shooting press actually tested, and the best Bushnell scope story: Bushnell Match Pro ED 5-30x56mm Rifle Scope, 34mm Tube, First Focal Plane

4.4/5 our editorial score

4.8/5 from 11 written reviews on OpticsPlanet, the deepest owner record of any Bushnell rifle scope we found

5-30x · 56mm · 34mm tube · FFP · illuminated DM2 0.2 mil tree reticle · ED Prime glass · Easy-Set zero stop · 2-stage rev indicator · locking turrets · 15 yd parallax · IPX7 · 32 oz

around $850 exact price on OpticsPlanet

Check price on OpticsPlanet

This is the scope that made people take Bushnell seriously in precision shooting again, and it is the only one on this page that independent testers have put numbers to. Guns & Ammo reported that the turrets tracked 100 percent over 20 mils of travel, and its tester wrote that he ran it against a thousand-dollar competitor and the Match Pro ED beat it on image quality, feel and features. That is the part worth paying for. The mechanical package is genuinely a tier above the price: a 34mm tube, locking exposed turrets, a tool-free Easy-Set zero stop, and a two-stage revolution indicator that pops up so you can feel as well as see which turn you are on. The parallax comes down to 15 yards, which is not a rounding detail but the reason this scope dominates rimfire competition, where targets sit closer than most scopes can focus. The honest counterweight is the glass, and here the owners and the press agree with each other. Outdoor Life's cons for it are a grainy image at higher magnifications and a reticle that is not visible at lower ones. One owner who does not recommend it put the same thing in hunting terms: everything about it is great except the glass, and glass is what matters in that last minute of daylight. Read those two together and the picture is consistent: mechanically above its class, optically of its class, and at 32 ounces with a busy tree reticle, not a hunting scope.

Pros

• Guns & Ammo measured the turrets tracking 100 percent over 20 mils of travel, which is the single hardest thing to verify about a scope and the thing everything else depends on
• The 15-yard minimum parallax is what makes it a rimfire competition scope rather than a centrefire scope that tolerates rimfire, and Outdoor Life lists the close-in parallax and re-zeroable turrets among its strengths
• Locking exposed turrets, a tool-free Easy-Set zero stop and a two-stage pop-up revolution indicator, all features normally found a price tier up
• ED Prime glass with Ultra Wide Band coating, fully multi-coated, on a 56mm objective and a 34mm tube for maximum adjustment room
• Illumination has 9 daylight settings plus 2 night-vision settings, and Bushnell rates the battery at 5,000 hours at the mid setting with a 6-hour auto shutoff so a forgotten scope does not drain
• The one scope on this page with a real owner record: 11 written reviews at 4.8/5, including detailed accounts of tracking and zero-stop behaviour

Cons

• Outdoor Life lists a grainy image at high magnification as a con, and an owner who does not recommend the scope reports murky low-light performance, so the glass is the honest weak point
• The reticle is hard to see at the bottom of the magnification range, per Outdoor Life, which in practice means using the illumination to make 5x usable
• 32 oz and a dense tree reticle make it a poor hunting scope, however good it is on a bench or a barricade
• Bushnell's own page advertises "30 MRAD (103 MOA) of elevation travel" in its description while its own spec table lists 29 MRAD, so the headline figure is a mil more than the table supports
• The eye box tightens noticeably at 30x, which is physics rather than a defect: a 56mm objective at 30x leaves an exit pupil under 2mm
• On backorder at the retailer with a February 2027 estimate, and owners report it has run multi-month backorders before

Best for: PRS and NRL22 competition, benchrest and long-range target work, where tracking, the zero stop and a 15-yard parallax are what you are buying. Skip it for hunting: the weight, the reticle at low power and the low-light glass all point the other way.

Key specifications

Manufacturer	Bushnell
Magnification and objective	5-30x56mm
Tube diameter	34 mm
Focal plane	First
Reticle	Illuminated DM2, 0.2 mil grid tree with floating centre dot
Glass and coating	ED Prime, Ultra Wide Band coating, fully multi-coated (Bushnell)
Elevation adjustment	29 MRAD per Bushnell's spec table; Bushnell's prose says 30 MRAD
Windage adjustment	14.5 MRAD
Click value	0.1 MRAD
Turrets	Exposed and locking, 2-stage revolution indicator, Easy-Set zero stop
Minimum parallax	15 yds, side focus
Field of view	24.5 ft at 5x, 4.1 ft at 30x, per 100 yds (Bushnell)
Eye relief	3.8 in
Illumination	9 settings plus 2 night-vision, CR2032, 5,000 hours at mid setting with a 6-hour timer (Bushnell)
Sealing	IPX7, nitrogen purged (Bushnell)
Weight	32 oz
In the box	2.5 in sunshade, 3-position power change lever, turret multi-tool (Bushnell)
MPN carded	MP53056DMI, the MRAD version (the MOA version and two factory demo units were excluded)

“Everything about it is great, except for the glass. And glass quality is what matters most during that last minute of daylight, when the big bucks slip out of the thicket to eat. Pros: sturdy; solid turrets and locking zero stop; elevation indicator; great reticle. Cons: poor glass at high magnification. Murky picture in low light.”

Gorillas Big Brutus (WY) via OpticsPlanet, the listing's only reviewer who does not recommend it

The only one you can actually buy today: Bushnell XRS3 6-36x56mm Riflescope, 34mm Tube, First Focal Plane

4.0/5 our editorial score

One review on the retailer, and its author states he had not used the scope when he wrote it

6-36x · 56mm · 34mm tube · FFP · EQL reticle · 0.1 mil clicks · 15 to 29 mil W/E travel · side focus · black anodised · 38.9 oz · 14.8 in

around $1,650 exact price on OpticsPlanet

Check price on OpticsPlanet

Everything else on this page is a scope you order and wait for. This is the exception, and that is most of why it is here: when we audited all 15 live Bushnell rifle scope offers at the retailer one by one, this was the only one in stock, with a single unit on the shelf. It is also the top of the range, an Elite Tactical-class 6-36x56 on a 34mm tube at roughly 30 percent off the list price. The specification is what you expect at this level and a couple of numbers are worth pulling out. Total travel is quoted as a range, 15 to 29 mils depending on how it sits in the rings, and the exit pupil runs from 8.5mm at the bottom of the zoom to 1.6mm at the top, which tells you plainly that 36x is a bright-daylight setting rather than a dusk one. The reticle is the EQL, a Bushnell tactical grid, in the first focal plane so the holds stay true at any magnification. Where we have to be blunt is the evidence. This listing carries a 4.0 rating from exactly one review, and that reviewer wrote in his own cons that he could not comment on the glass because he had not used it. Nine of the eleven readers who voted on it marked it unhelpful. So there is a rating on this page but no owner testimony behind it, and at this price that gap matters more than it would lower down.

Pros

• The only Bushnell rifle scope offer we found in stock at the retailer, out of 15 live offers audited individually
• Roughly 30 percent below list, the largest genuine discount on this page
• First focal plane EQL reticle with 0.1 mil clicks and side-focus parallax, so holds and dials agree at any magnification
• 34mm tube with 15 to 29 mils of windage and elevation travel at 100 yards
• Waterproof and fogproof black anodised body built for long-range and competition use

Cons

• There is effectively no owner evidence: one review, whose author states he had not used the scope, and which most readers marked unhelpful
• At 38.9 oz and 14.8 inches it is the heaviest and longest optic here by a wide margin
• The exit pupil falls to 1.6mm at 36x, so the top of the magnification range is a daylight-only setting
• The retailer publishes no optical coating specification, no zero-stop confirmation and no illumination detail for this model
• Only one unit was in stock when we checked, so the availability that makes it interesting is also fragile
• A separate Bushnell page sells a same-named XRS3 with the G5 illuminated reticle at the full list price and on backorder, so it is easy to land on the wrong, dearer listing

Best for: the long-range or competition shooter who wants the top Bushnell tier, is comfortable buying on specification rather than owner reports, and wants a scope that ships now rather than in 2027.

Key specifications

Manufacturer	Bushnell
Magnification and objective	6-36x56mm
Tube diameter	34 mm
Focal plane	First
Reticle (carded model)	EQL
Exit pupil	8.5 mm at 6x down to 1.6 mm at 36x
Field of view	18 ft at 6x, 3 ft at 36x, per 100 yds
Eye relief	4 in
Click value	0.1 MRAD
W/E travel at 100 yds	15 to 29 MRAD
Parallax	Side focus
Finish and sealing	Black anodised, waterproof, fogproof
Weight and length	38.9 oz, 14.8 in
MPN carded	BU-RS-XRS3R-ETXRS3EQL (the G4 reticle variant at a higher price was excluded, and is on backorder)

Bushnell’s own R3 page contradicts its own spec table

This is worth knowing before you compare an R3 against anything else. On Bushnell’s R3 3-9x40 product page, the description says the scope’s “fully multi-coated optics deliver crisp images in low light”, and the features list repeats it: “Fully multi-coated optics deliver bright, crisp images in low light”. Scroll down the same page to the specification block and it reads “Lens Coating: Multi-Coated”.

Those are not two ways of saying the same thing. Multi-coated means at least one air-to-glass surface carries multiple anti-reflective layers. Fully multi-coated means every air-to-glass surface does, and on a scope with a dozen such surfaces that difference compounds into real light transmission. The marketing line and the engineering line disagree, and our rule is to take the table, because that is where a manufacturer writes what it will be held to. So we treat the R3 as multi-coated, and if that matters to you, the practical consequence is that the obvious rival at this price is fully multi-coated and says so in both places.

And it happens again on the Match Pro ED

The same pattern appears one tier up, on the scope that gets the best press of anything Bushnell makes. The Match Pro ED product description states that the 34mm maintube gives it “30 MRAD (103 MOA) of elevation travel to make sure you can go the distance on the furthest of targets”. The specification table on the same page lists “Elevation Adjustment: 29 MRAD” and, in case there was any doubt about which figure you can reach, “Elevation Dial Travel Limit: 29 MRAD”.

One mil is not a rounding error on a scope bought for dialling. At 1,000 yards a mil is 36 inches, and the whole reason to buy a 34mm tube is the travel. We use 29 MRAD throughout this page. Twice in one range, in the same direction, is the useful part: on this brand, read the spec table rather than the paragraph above it.

The retailer prints a 6-hour battery life that does not exist

Working through the Match Pro ED’s specification at our retailer, one row stops you: “Battery Life: 6 hours”. For a competition scope that would be close to disqualifying. It is also wrong. Bushnell’s own specification lists battery life as 5,000 hours at the mid setting, and describes the six hours separately, as a timer that switches the illumination off so that you do not open the rifle case to a dead battery.

So the retailer has taken the auto-shutoff timer and printed it in the battery-life row, converting a feature into an apparent flaw. An owner in the same listing describes the behaviour correctly, writing that the illumination shuts off after six hours as one of the things he likes. If you were put off this scope by that row, it was a typographical accident and not a design one.

Check Bushnell’s own price, because the gap runs both ways

Bushnell sells direct, and comparing its prices against the retailer’s produced the oddest finding of this round. At the bottom of the range the retailer is above the maker: Bushnell prices the R3 3-9x40 at under $150 on its own site, and the same MPN costs more than that at the retailer. At the top of the range it runs the other way: the Match Pro ED lists at $899.95 with Bushnell and sells for around $850 at the retailer, and the XRS3 is about 30 percent under its list price.

We are not going to guess at why one model runs each way. The useful conclusion is narrow and practical: with this brand the discount is real at the top of the range and is not something to assume at the bottom, so it is worth checking the maker’s own price model by model rather than trusting the percentage-off badge.

What the Bushnell warranty actually covers

Every R3 listing leans on the Bushnell Lifetime Warranty, and the scope pages say so too. Bushnell’s warranty page puts a boundary around it that the product pages do not: if a product has an issue due to materials or workmanship, Bushnell will repair or replace it. The lifetime term is listed for riflescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, rangefinders, dot sights and telescopes alike.

That is a warranty against the product being faulty. The comparison everyone in this price bracket makes is with Vortex’s VIP warranty, which is written the other way round: it covers the product being damaged, whatever happened and whoever was at fault. Neither approach is dishonest, but they buy different things, and at the R3’s price the rival scope with the unconditional policy is the same money. If you hunt hard country and expect to fall on your rifle, weigh that above any coating spec.

Almost the entire range is on backorder

We audited all 15 live Bushnell rifle scope offers at the retailer individually, reading each product page rather than trusting the category grid, and we re-read every one of them on 18 August 2026. The picture has not improved. The R5 1-6x24 and the Match Pro ED 5-30x56 are both estimated at February 2027, a month later than when we first wrote this. The XRS3 EQL we card is still the one you can order, and its G4 sibling is still on backorder. The R3 is the one nuance worth knowing: the exact reticle variant we card is out of stock, but two other reticle versions of the same scope, at the same price, are in stock today, so the R3 is buyable even when our card says otherwise. The retailer’s own discontinued list still runs to 266 products and 593 models against the 17 products still live.

That is what a brand-wide catalogue replacement looks like from the buyer’s side, and it is the single most useful thing to know before you spend an evening comparing Bushnell scopes. If you need a scope mounted this season, buy the one that is in stock or buy another brand. If you are replacing a Banner on a rifle that is not going anywhere, an order placed now is a reasonable way to hold your place.

If you came here searching for a Banner

Search Bushnell’s own site for “banner” and it returns 11 results without a single Banner among them: R3 and R5 riflescopes, an Elite Tactical, a couple of Simmons scopes, some binoculars and trail cameras. The name that sold more budget deer scopes than almost any other is not in the maker’s catalogue any more.

Our retailer still uses it, in a way that is worth understanding. Two products there are listed as “Bushnell Banner R3” rimfire scopes with the DZ22 drop-zone reticle, and the part numbers show what they are: variants of the same R3 body sold under both names. So the Banner badge now travels on an R3 rather than on a Banner. If you want the closest thing to what you had, that is the R3 3-9x40 at the top of this page, and if your old Banner was on a .22, ask for the DZ22 reticle version of it rather than the DOA Quick Ballistic one we priced, because the parallax on these fixes at a distance that suits centrefire ranges.

How we chose these

We read every Bushnell rifle scope our retailer lists, opening each product page rather than reading the category grid, which is how we found that the last listed Banner is not actually for sale and that only one offer in the range is in stock. Every specification was then checked against Bushnell’s own product pages, and where the two disagree, both figures are printed rather than smoothed over. The mechanical claims for the Match Pro ED come from Guns & Ammo's testing and Outdoor Life's field notes rather than from us. Our scores are our opinion; owner ratings are shown attributed to the retailer that collected them, and where a rating rests on a reviewer who had not used the product, we say so. See our methodology for how we work.

Frequently asked questions

Prices, stock and specifications verified August 18, 2026. Prices move, so confirm the current figure on the retailer page before you buy. Related reading: Bushnell binoculars decoded, best budget rifle scopes, best scopes for the AR-15 and first versus second focal plane explained.