Just want to make everyone aware of issues w/ the Burris Thermal BTS50

Just want to make you guys aware and be aware, of Burris Thermal optics in their BTS-50 & BTC-50. From early Dec 21' to last week, I've bought 4 Burris thermals and returned all but the last one, which I will be doing on Monday. 3 were BTS-50's and one was a BTC "Clip on". All 4 have had issues. The issues with 2 of the 3 BTS-50s were glass that has a lot of imperfections, spots and fish eyes. The clip on had the same issues. The other BTS-50 actually had glass that was very clear, but upon finishing the site in process the reticle was off center to the left by a ratio of 35-40%! I've subsequently sent all units back to Optics Planet. I've been seriously shooting and reloading for the last 10 years and own numerous Vortex, Nightforce, and Primary arms scopes and not once had any issues with the glass in any of my scopes. I did have one issue with a Vortex not holding zero and that scope went back. Burris is using cheap CHINA glass in these units. There's no other reason for having 4 scopes and 3 of them having crappy glass. I've yet to see any review videos on these thermal scopes except on a couple YT channels and what Burris puts out on YT. To me that's telling because in the gun community when there's something great, everyone's doing videos and reviews! There is one other video on this scope on YT but it's not a thorough review and really just someone shooting yotes. Unfortunately this is my only experience with Burris and likely, the last. If you buy one, take the time to look carefully at the glass. On a quick look the glass can appear to be clear but taking time to look at it more carefully can yield more information about clarity. I've got the last BTS-50 still here and already have an RMA for return, but I'm not going to waste my time taking it back out. It's worse than the images of the first scope below.

You get what you pay for!

Just curious - what was the cost on those units?

Well that sucks. I mounted and zeroed one for my boss on a Christensen MPR 300 win mag (apparently Scheels has good salesman) and everything went well. I thought the picture was a little better than my Super Hogster. Beyond that the Hogster has alot more useful features. I'd blame optics planet haha they suck

Coyote Shadow Tracker said:

You get what you pay for

Click to expand...

Coyote Shadow Tracker said:

You get what you pay for!

Click to expand...

Well not everyone has 8k fkg dollars to get a Trijicon. And they don't care about the civilian market because they're too busy sucking the gov tit. At least some companies are trying to supply and care about the rest of us.

Varmint Hunter said:

Just curious - what was the cost on those units?

Click to expand...

When not on sale or promtion, $3,200.

Sykes said:

Well that sucks. I mounted and zeroed one for my boss on a Christensen MPR 300 win mag (apparently Scheels has good salesman) and everything went well. I thought the picture was a little better than my Super Hogster. Beyond that the Hogster has alot more useful features. I'd blame optics planet haha they suck

Click to expand...

I don't see how OP could have anything to do with the clarity of a scope. I've bought 3 NF scopes from them. Glass was great.

Coyote Shadow Tracker said:

You get what you pay for!

Click to expand...

Sometimes less----never more!

I have a Burris bts 50 and I don't have any of the problems you're having. I bought mine back in November and it's been a great unit, cost was 3k. I do know the reticle not being in center when your gun is zeroed but it's not drastic for me, it's off more when it's set up for my 6.5 Grendel vs the 22 or 223. Burris does have a pretty good warranty on their rifle scopes. Have you reached out to Burris directly? What have they said?

Thought I should chime in after several years of mine. I got one when they first came out the scope and clip on. My scope had been great. In fact bang for your buck it is probably the best. Easy to use much easier than my pulsar. After some time off of using them it always take a bit to remember how to navigate them but the Burris is so simple and fast to remember.
Just thought I would balance out a review. Maybe op just has bad luck or possibly an axe to grind. Either way my experience with mine has been very good. I would buy another with zero hesitation.

I have the BTH35 (handheld scanner) and it's worked pretty well for my needs and especially for the $800 I spent when these were being cleared out last year.

Not sure what is really being said about "glass quality" - with a thermal, you're looking at a digital screen. The clarity is more a function of your thermal sensor resolution. The burris units are 400 resolution if I remember correctly. Huge difference when looking through my Burris and then my iRay Rico 640.

When sighting in a thermal, you have to remember it's a digital reticle. It will not be centered when finished sighting in.

Blkrflguy said:

Well not everyone has 8k fkg dollars to get a Trijicon. And they don't care about the civilian market because they're too busy sucking the gov tit. At least some companies are trying to supply and care about the rest of us.

Click to expand...

I had to send my Trijicon back to the factory right after buying it. It would not zero. So, price doesn't ensure perfection. Trijicon did not seem to care too much that I paid several thousand dollars and their thermal was unusable right out of the box. They did get it fixed in the end.

I have a Burris BTS-50 mounted on my Sig Saur Cross in 6.5 Creedmoor. I have been hunting for 40 years, and reloading for 18 years. I reload in order to achieve maximum accuracy, and it pays off (800 yard elk and pronghorn kills). I have also guided elk hunts on private land for a billionaire (for his family and friends), so I am an experienced and proven hunter and marksman. I now own a ranch in Texas, with whitetails, wild hogs, coyotes, and all kinds of varmints. I bought the 6.5 Creedmoor with the Burris BTS-50 thermal for wild hog hunting, because they come out at night. I also have a Pulsar hand-held ($4,600) which I bought years before the Burris scope. I was and still am impressed with the Pulsar, and use it all the time, but when I checked out the Burris in Cabelas, I was impressed by the functionality and image quality, so I thought I would give it a try (at half the cost of a Pulsar). I frankly use both all the time, at the same time, on the same game animals, and I always switch to the Burris for better ID. For example, with the pulsar, on the same animal, at the same range, at the same time, I wasn't able to see the tail and other features, but could with the Burris. I have killed dozens of wild hogs with it, numerous varmints, and one white tail (early morning, legal light). My hog gun consistently shoots 1/2 MOA, shooting Hornady 143 grain ELD-X with RE-15 powder (37.9 grains), using WLR primers. I have steel gongs set up at 100, 200, 300, and 400 yards, and when the sun has heated them up enough to be detectable with the Burris, I consistently gong them. And family and friends do as well. Now for the "bad". Today, while testing a new bullet (because I have had a hard time finding the 143 grain ELD-X, and have two boxes of 140 grain ELD-Match), the rotary knob you use to change magnification, and push in to get to the easy-to-use functions, got sloppy/loose, and now I can't push it in for the functions (contrast, colors, zero, everything). THAT SUCKS! I can't see a way to take it apart to tighten it up, so I may have to send it back to Burris. Still shoots great and is deadly accurate, but I wanted to change the zero for the 140 grain bullet. If anyone else has experienced this issue with the knob, please advise.