Bushnell TRS 25, first impressions

[nagantguy]

Just got a great deal on one of these little Bushnell red dots, only had it about 48 hours but it was easy to mount,rock solid,very light weight, clear glass and very very little washout even with the dot set to the brightest setting.
The literature says they are centered at the factory and it should be easy to site in, first 3 shots were slightly low and right;which I expected seeing how the sight is mounted at a 45 degree angle on the right side of my rifle, I clicked until the dot covered those three shots which were all but touching and then fired 3 more shots and got an ice offset clover leaf group just below dead center . The very small size and light weight of this sight is very nice and unobtrusive even hanging off the side .
Does anyone have more experience with this sight ;how does it hold up and have you been pleased with it?
Also I'm in no way connected to Bushnell and have no financial stake in their products this review is just my initial impression on what I thought of the sight.

[Boolit_Head]

I picked up one last year as well and they are good. I ended up taking it off the rifle since I was working out some accuracy issues and the large dot did not help the situation. Other than that they are pretty solid.

[Scorpion8]

I've had one for several years, but took it off my Browning Buckmark in favor of a reflex-type optical sight. Something about the Bushnell and I just didn't work well together.

[NSB]

I had two of them and sent them both back for a refund. Both of them had an extreme amount of parallax in them. I've seen some more recent ones and they seem to have improved in that area to a great extent. They come with rubber lens covers (can't see through them) and there are no see through covers available that I'm aware of. I've owned a couple of dozen or more red dots over the last twenty-five years and shot competition with them on almost all of my guns both rimfire and centerfire. In my opinion the TRS-25 is medicore at best at the price point they are being sold at....even on a very good deal. I've seen them sold for under sixty bucks new at times. In that price range I've found the Bushnell Trophy Red/Green dot sight with multiple reticles a much better sight with little or no parallax and much better reticle choices. Also, they come with see through scope covers and poloroid filters included. Not trying to call your baby ugly or anything, but you asked and I'm giving my honest appraisal of the unit based on actual experience. It's adequate if your intentions are shooting deer sized game at reasonably close distances.

[bobthenailer]

I have two of them mounted on handguns for a few years now , so far I am satisfied with them ! I think that they are rated to stand up to the recoil of a 357 mag. for other applications I use other brands of red dot sights, costing from $50 to $550.

[Denver]

I had two of them and sent them both back for a refund. Both of them had an extreme amount of parallax in them. I've seen some more recent ones and they seem to have improved in that area to a great extent. They come with rubber lens covers (can't see through them) and there are no see through covers available that I'm aware of. I've owned a couple of dozen or more red dots over the last twenty-five years and shot competition with them on almost all of my guns both rimfire and centerfire. In my opinion the TRS-25 is medicore at best at the price point they are being sold at....even on a very good deal. I've seen them sold for under sixty bucks new at times. In that price range I've found the Bushnell Trophy Red/Green dot sight with multiple reticles a much better sight with little or no parallax and much better reticle choices. Also, they come with see through scope covers and poloroid filters included. Not trying to call your baby ugly or anything, but you asked and I'm giving my honest appraisal of the unit based on actual experience. It's adequate if your intentions are shooting deer sized game at reasonably close distances.

Thanks for your very timely report on this. I was just looking at the TRS-25 as a replacement for the TruGlo sight I had on my S&W Model 14. It died after about 50 or so rounds of factory equivalent 38 sp loads.

D

[W.R.Buchanan]

the Bushnell TRS-25 is the best bang for your Red dot buck out there. I have 6 of them and they all work perfectly.

They are worth way more than they cost and most of mine were in the <$90 range.

I have them on all my Carbines and a couple of bolt guns as well.

The parallax thing is a non issue and doesn't affect the usability of this sight one iota. if you are looking at the dot and it is not round, your eye is not in line with the sight. The parallax generated by this eye positioning amounts to less than 1" offset at 100 yards in the most extreme cases.

I have only had one of mine kill the battery and that' because I left it turned on. I carry extra batteries in all my gun cases that have these sights or any other sight that uses a battery. It's simple fix.

Unless your life depends on this sight (buy an Aim Point for $700) otherwise these are as good or better than anything out there less than $200 and for most normal usage will prove their worth.

If you go to places like Midway , Optics Planet and others and look at the reviews they generally have 500+ reviews and still have a 4.8+/5 rating. That shows that the product is pretty good.

Here's a pic of my most recent one. It has about 800 rounds fired so far and hasn't moved since I sighted it in at installation. I can hit a 9" round steel plate at 200 yards every single time off a rest with this gun and any of my other carbines as well. Maybe not the Sub 2000 but all the .223's and .308's for sure.

Kel-Tec SU16, Mini 14, AR, SCR, Kel-Tec Sub 2000, Ruger Scout, Ruger 10/22, and I have installed several of mine on other guns like a Marlin .45-70, and .44 mag and a .35-303 I'm building. They were only removed to install Lyman Receiver Sights after they were finally found and bought. All those were used and cost twice as much as the red dots

Randy

Attachment 200538

[NSB]

The parallax thing is a non issue and doesn't affect the usability of this sight one iota. if you are looking at the dot and it is not round, your eye is not in line with the sight. The parallax generated by this eye positioning amounts to less than 1" offset at 100 yards in the most extreme cases.

The dot not being round has nothing to do with your "eye being in line with the sight". If it's not round it's because you have an astigmatism in that eye. They can have parallax measured in inches at a lot closer than 100 yds and that's very, very easy to check. You simply put the sight on a table and "aim" it at something at 25 yards (or further) and then move your head. If the dot doesn't stay on the "bullseye" it has parallax. I hate to call your baby ugly, but I've been shooting competition (very successfully I might ad) for many, many years and I've owned a lot of red dots. The Bushnell TRS-25 is not a great sight at any price. I call it a "light in a tin can". See how many good competition shooters use them....none. They're for plinking at best. Yes, they'll work for the most part, but being cheap and usable doesn't make them good. Bushnell makes better products but they cost more. There are a lot of better sights out there.

[knifemaker]

I mounted a TRS-25 on my mini-30 about 9 months ago and have been very satisfied with it. Very quick to line up and shoot and holds it adjustment on a semi auto rifle. Small compact size that is hard to beat.

[Lloyd Smale]

I kind of fall in the middle of nsb and the cheerleaders here. there a good sight but far from a great one. If all you have is 75 bucks they beat a lot of the cheap imports hands down. Ive got 3 of them all sit on 22s. I wouldn't bother with one on an ar15 or any center fire gun. Yes they might hold up but those guns are either used for hunting or might be called on to protect my family and I just don't trust ANY cheap sight for those purposes. But to roll beer cans with a 22 there just fine. One other big drawback to them in my opinion is no auto shut down. Forget to shut it off (which I do all the time) and when you grab it and need it to work the battery is dead. Worth it to me to step up to something like a vortex just for that reason. None of them hold a candle to an aimpoint but an aimpoint no doubt should be much better because you can buy 10 trs25s for what one aimpoint cost. Its money well spent when something is going bump in the middle of the night though.

[W.R.Buchanan]

The dot not being round has nothing to do with your "eye being in line with the sight". If it's not round it's because you have an astigmatism in that eye. They can have parallax measured in inches at a lot closer than 100 yds and that's very, very easy to check. You simply put the sight on a table and "aim" it at something at 25 yards (or further) and then move your head. If the dot doesn't stay on the "bullseye" it has parallax. I hate to call your baby ugly, but I've been shooting competition (very successfully I might ad) for many, many years and I've owned a lot of red dots. The Bushnell TRS-25 is not a great sight at any price. I call it a "light in a tin can". See how many good competition shooters use them....none. They're for plinking at best. Yes, they'll work for the most part, but being cheap and usable doesn't make them good. Bushnell makes better products but they cost more. There are a lot of better sights out there.

We've had this discussion several times, I will agree that there are some better sights out there, but not for $90. And for the vast majority of users this sight will perform well.

Like I said the "reviews" on this product are excellent and that is coming from hundreds of users from many different retailers. So they must be doing something right.

Mine have all performed perfectly and my SU16 and Mini 14 have thousands of rounds thru them and the sights have never moved or had any problem whatsoever.

Your Parallax problem doesn't seem to affect me at all as on a rifle your head has to be pretty much in the same place everytime (Cheek Weld) I can see, and have tried your method of exposing it before, and it does result in a large offset, however I can't duplicate this issue on a rifle so for me it doesn't exist.

I have never heard anyone else complain about this problem.

As soon as one of mine cacks, maybe I'll change my mind. So far so good and I recommend these to so many people it's crazy. Nobody has complained back to me that I sold them on BS. Everybody is happy.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

Lloyd: the auto shut off is a problem. The simple fix came from Nut-n-Fancy on Youtube. You get a white paint marker and put a big white line on the dial in line with the zero on the dial. You also put a big mark on the base where off is.

This makes it much easier to see if it is turned on, and it really does help you to remember to turn it off.

Vortex makes this really neato little battery carrier that hooks on to a Pic rail. $5.

Randy

[nagantguy]

Well ran mine hard all weekend,at the gun club and out on the back 40, didn't so much try to break it as just put it through its paces and from 1 -11 from dirt foods at 5 feet to man size silhouettes at roughly 109 yards no complaints so far . W.R. I will for sure get one of those little battery carriers!!! Actually 3 or 4.

[Lloyd Smale]

that's a good idea.

Lloyd: the auto shut off is a problem. The simple fix came from Nut-n-Fancy on Youtube. You get a white paint marker and put a big white line on the dial in line with the zero on the dial. You also put a big mark on the base where off is.

This makes it much easier to see if it is turned on, and it really does help you to remember to turn it off.

Vortex makes this really neato little battery carrier that hooks on to a Pic rail. $5.

Randy

[Texas by God]

the Bushnell TRS-25 is the best bang for your Red dot buck out there. I have 6 of them and they all work perfectly.

They are worth way more than they cost and most of mine were in the <$90 range.

I have them on all my Carbines and a couple of bolt guns as well.

The parallax thing is a non issue and doesn't affect the usability of this sight one iota. if you are looking at the dot and it is not round, your eye is not in line with the sight. The parallax generated by this eye positioning amounts to less than 1" offset at 100 yards in the most extreme cases.

I have only had one of mine kill the battery and that' because I left it turned on. I carry extra batteries in all my gun cases that have these sights or any other sight that uses a battery. It's simple fix.

Unless your life depends on this sight (buy an Aim Point for $700) otherwise these are as good or better than anything out there less than $200 and for most normal usage will prove their worth.

If you go to places like Midway , Optics Planet and others and look at the reviews they generally have 500+ reviews and still have a 4.8+/5 rating. That shows that the product is pretty good.

Here's a pic of my most recent one. It has about 800 rounds fired so far and hasn't moved since I sighted it in at installation. I can hit a 9" round steel plate at 200 yards every single time off a rest with this gun and any of my other carbines as well. Maybe not the Sub 2000 but all the .223's and .308's for sure.

Kel-Tec SU16, Mini 14, AR, SCR, Kel-Tec Sub 2000, Ruger Scout, Ruger 10/22, and I have installed several of mine on other guns like a Marlin .45-70, and .44 mag and a .35-303 I'm building. They were only removed to install Lyman Receiver Sights after they were finally found and bought. All those were used and cost twice as much as the red dots

Randy

Attachment 200538

I like that carbine. I read of those in American Rifleman but haven't seen one yet. An ergonomic AR- what a concept!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[W.R.Buchanan]

TBG: it is basically AR from the mag well forward and Rem 1100 to the back

The gun handles like a dream and is a joy to shoot. Took some additions to get the Manual of Arms down, but with an Ambi Mag Release and a Larger Bolt Catch it runs great and I can do everything I can do with an AR,,, easier.

The gun points in like a shotgun. Best option for our state out there and something that people in other states should look at just because it works so well.

The TRS 25 is a natural fit on this gun just as it has been on all my other carbines. Mini14 Kel-Tec SU16CA, AR, Kel-Tec Sub 2000, Gunsite Scout.

Randy