Illuminated reticle question (Bushnell Elite)

[drunktank]

I received my new Bushnell Elite LRTSi 4.5x18 tonight. Everything looked great until I turned the illumination on. I noticed at 3-power and higher that there are a few specks (like small bits of dust) at both the horizontal and vertical 2 marks. They’re glowing red along with the rest of the G2 reticle. I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to do that. And 12-18x with 8-12 power on illumination several more of the red glowing “dust” spots show up. This may be a dumb question, but this isn’t normal right? I don’t remember the Mark-4 I use to run ever having this problem.

After looking online for a while I’ve read a handful of people and even some company reps recommend tapping the scope on your shoe or a telephone book to dislodge whatever may have gotten on the lense internally. I feel like this is a poor solution for a brand new $1,500 dollar scope. I will try contacting Bushnell tomorrow on my break but just wondering if this is really an issue or if they all do that because this is the first Bushnell I’ve owned. Thanks for any insight.

[Mute]

Try the tapping thing. It generally works. I've seen it in more expensive scopes than this one. If it is still an issue, contact Bushnell.

[BigFatGuy]

They don't assemble these in a cleanroom? (technically it would be a Controlled Work Area, I guess...)

I've never bought a scope that expensive, but I'd be pissed... especially since "tapping" will just leave the offending dust floating around in your scope to come back later.

[Clodbuster]

I had a Bushnell Elite (non-illuminated) that had a speck at the corner of the recticle. Sent it in to Bushnell with a description of the issue, and they sent back a brand new one.
Also had a Sightron SIII illuminated scope with similar glowing specks. Sent it to Sightron and they disassembled and cleaned it.

[drunktank]

I was able to get through to Bushnell immediately when I called this morning (which was a complete shock as I'm used to being on perma-hold!). They were pretty helpful and insured me that considering the scope was new that it would immediately be replaced with a new one. I'm going through my vendor for replacement and Bushnell said if the vendor gave any flak about replacement then to call Bushnell back and they would make it right. So far, a big plus one to their customer service.

On a side note, I will tap the scope around when I get home tonight to see if it makes any difference since it's going back anyway.

[wpage]

Bushnell customer service is weak in my experience