seems like Bushnell is buying Millet optics.

http://www.downrange.tv/artman2/publish/industry/287.shtml

Thanks for the heads-up, Pepper. It has become a great challenge to keep up with who owns whom and which brands are (or will become) identical due to common ownership.

A few years ago everyone thought that Bushnell "owned" Bausch & Lomb. The truth is that there has been no Bausch & Lomb for many years -- all that Bushell owed was the right to the use of name for a limited line of sports optics. When that right expired Bushnell simply swapped the Bushnell brand for the Bausch & Lomb brand and went right on marketing the same products. Bushnell never made or marketed contact lenses or cleaning solution .

I just wonder if the Millet quality will get any better? I have one of their buck silver scopes on my 45/70 clarity isnt bad but could be better and it handles the recoil quite well.
I have a Bushnell 3200 on my 300WSM it has served its purpose quite well also.

The Millett line of scopes will probably evolve, as stock on hand is used up, into something different (not necessarily "better" or "worse") from what it currently is. Bushnell will bid its future scope production among the various Asian manufacturers and will typically execute several contracts for several different scope lines, some of which will be labeled "Bushnell", some "Millett", some "Simmons", and some whatever other proprietary brands they are marketing.

Millett's in-house manufacturing capacity has always been limited to sights and mounts, so far as I know. This production will continue in Millett's facilities until such time as Bushnell determines that these products can be made by an overseas producer for less money.

Incidentally, I have no idea (but doubt) whether Dave Bushnell is still living, but I'm assuming he hasn't had any interest in the Bushnell name in a long time now. Dave was the first to market serviceable Asian-made (Japanese, at the time) hunting scopes to the American public. They were priced competitively with Weaver, and I find it somewhat surprising that they succeeded in cracking the American market against such stiff competition. Bushnell's advertising was pretty good and if you didn't look closely at the tiny import stamp on the scopes you would have thought that with their American name they were American- made.

Shortly after Dave Bushnell pioneered the marketing of Asian optics, everybody and his dog started importing scopes under their own name and selling them at unheard of low prices. Some of them were actually pretty decent scopes, at least in the fixed power models.