Hands-On: Burris Fullfield II Review [3-9x40mm]

It’s never too early to start thinking about hunting season, and for hunters who are looking for some quality glass, chances are you’ve been eyeing the Burris Fullfield line. The purpose of this review article is to go over all the aspects of the Burris Fullfield II rifle scope. The Fullfield II rifle scope line has three scopes, the Burris Fullfield II 3-9x40mm, the 4.5-14x42, and the 6.5-20x50.

There are some differences between each of the models and we’ll go over how they affect a hunter or competition shooter, but across the spectrum of the Fullfield II rifle scope line the comparison of features and quality is pretty close. The real question is: is the Fullfield II scope a good buy for you?

Review Summary - If You’re Short on Time

Like with any scope, you can’t know for sure whether the Fullfield II riflescopes are the perfect fit for you until you’ve actually held the models in your hand and done some shooting with them. That said, as long as you get the scope that has the right magnification range for the hunting or target shooting that you do, the Fullfield II riflescopes are a popular and premium traditional hunting riflescope.

I would recommend this scope for people to use as a hunting scope most of the time. The Burris Fullfield II 3-9x40 rifle scopes are designed very much for a hunting rifle and not so much for people looking for protection or pest control around the farm. If you are doing long-range target shooting, then these Burris scopes are a good bet.

Burris offers their forever warranty for all the scopes that the company makes, and the lifetime warranty speaks to the high quality control and attention to detail that makes these scopes such great optics.

Should You Buy This Scope?

Short answer: maybe. This is a great scope for hunting, but it won't have the same image quality as a more expensive scope from a more premium scope competitor. If you're already a fan of Burris Fullfield, then this is a great one to choose. 

The field of precision riflescopes is dense, and the upside of this is that each manufacturer has to hold themselves to high standards consistently, though it does make shopping for a scope with the right zoom like walking through a field of brambles. 

To learn more about whether a Fullfield II scope will be the right scope for you, continue reading the rest of the review. 

Review Of The Burris Fullfield II Line of Scopes

What Is The Burris Fullfield II Scope Designed For?

This Burris rifle scope is designed for big game hunting, especially long range hunting. The Burris Fullfield II 3-9x40mm scope magnification is designed for distances between 100 yards and 200 yards and even further depending on your skills and preferences, and the 6.5-20x50mm magnification is intended for a distance 500 yards or beyond. 

Burris rifle scopes have been around for a long time, with the first Fullfield scopes being released by Burris nearly 50 years ago in 1975. If that's not enough years ago for you, I'm not sure what would be. Fullfield is the flagship of it's product line, so if you've had a bad experience with a Burris in the past, it was likely one of their cheaper, entry-level options.

These are not designed to be one of those cheaper optics. If you're looking for the cheapest option on the market, then these will not be the options for you, but if you're looking for great quality and clarity at a competitive price, then these are great to look at. They are designed to take the kick from hunting calibers, so while you can certainly put one on an AR-15 or other rifle chambered in .223, there are probably cheaper options for that. 

Is It Good? Why?

The quality at the price point that Burris Fullfield scopes offer is hard to beat. The reticle choices like the ballistic plex reticle, regular plex reticle, and the ballistic mil-dot reticle lend themselves well to bull’s eye accuracy and precision at all levels of zoom. You’ve got good brightness and clarity, and the objective lens diameter is large on each model.

For the shooter with a powerful cartridge and high-energy bullet, the size and power of this optic, the choice of reticles, and the special design to prevent fogging make it a great choice. For a shooter using smaller cartridges, you still have the magnification, accuracy, and windage and elevation adjustment to hit your target as far out as the round's velocity can hold.

That said, there's no such thing as the one perfect swiss-army-knife scope that does everything better than any other scope. These will not be good for short range, CQB type usage, and you would need to get the 20x model if you want to do long precision shooting. 

What’s In The Package

This scope does not come with anything besides the scope itself. You’ll find no lens caps, no lens cloth, no rings for mounting or any of the other equipment that some rifle scopes ship with. The upside of this is that you can use the rings you prefer and won’t have useless rings sitting around somewhere. 

Design and Features

Basic Functionality

Elevation and windage adjustments are .25 MOA, so people or hunters looking for .1 MIL adjustments for elevation and windage will need to find this level of quality elsewhere. The adjustment knobs are capped to maintain their quality in various conditions. 

These turrets are designed with hunting conditions in mind. When the shooter is hunting mule deer or other big game, adjustments need to be made quietly, and the capped turrets are protected from dirt until you need them. There are good arguments for tactical, exposed turrets, but Burris Fullfield has gone the capped route.

The double spring tension assembly keeps your scope from losing zero even after hundreds of hits of recoil, even if you are shooting a high-caliber bullet.

Hi-Lume Coating & Glass

At the risk of sounding like a Burris Fullfield salesman, the Fullfield II riflescopes’ high grade optical glass provides excellent brightness and clarity, even in low-light. You’ll get an image with high clarity, especially with Burris Fullfield proprietary Hi-Lume coating that helps reduce glare and improve light transmission. 

The objective lens diameter goes from 40mm on the 3-9x magnification model to 50mm on the 6.5-20x magnification model. For all three scopes, the objective is large enough to let in plenty of light. You can get better light transmission than the high grade optical glass provides with the Hi-Lume coating, but you’ll pay more money for a Leupold or something else to get it. 

The glass gives you a decent range for when you need wide or tight field of view. Burris has designed these Fullfield scopes for more than just one purpose. A lot of manufacturers try to design scopes for more than one purpose and end up not doing great at any of them, but these scopes have done a good job, although you do have to select just one of the three scopes available. 

Reticle Design

The basic reticle that the Fullfield II riflescopes offer is the plex reticle. It’s a simple duplex reticle with no frills. Most people opt for the ballistic plex reticle, which adds three small, simple lines underneath the center of the reticle to help compensate for a hold. The ballistic plex reticle is not as cluttered as a BDC ladder or other reticles, but is still effective.

If you want to compensate for wind drift, though, the ballistic plex reticle won’t help with that, and you may want to look at the Ballistic Mil-Dot reticle scope. The Mil-dot reticle has dots on both sides of both axes of the duplex to help you quickly compensate for bullet drop and wind without having to take the time to use a knob or two for your guesswork. 

Hunting and Long Range Performance

The Fullfield II riflescopes are designed to withstand the recoil from most bullet calibers that a hunter may use. All the Fullfield II scope models have a 1-inch tube diameter, which could be considered one of the cons, especially on the 6.5-20x model, but for the most part the durability, reliability, and light transmission all have great reviews.

With the warranty Burris offers, you should be able to go through hundreds of rounds with even the Fullfield II 3-9x40 scope mounted on your gun and even if the spring tension assembly doesn’t keep it in good shape, you can always reach out to the company for the warranty.

For long distance shooting, it’s important to know that the Fullfield II 3-9x40 scope does not have parallax adjustment. If you want to adjust for parallax you’ll need to look at the Fullfield II 4.5-14x scope power at minimum. Something to consider is that the power ring turns the entire eyepiece of these scopes. Burris lists this as a feature as it helps keep the inside of the riflescope nitrogen-filled.

Since there are many scopes that have a power ring that turns independently of the eyepiece, this doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, and seems like it might introduce issues while using these scopes. 

Considering that your field of view will get narrower as you zoom in, and also that with practice you can use a 9x scope to make shots from 300-400 yards if you're hunting big game, the higher magnification options become less appealing, unless you want to be able to adjust parallax using the objective. The 3-9x is missing parallax, while the other two models have it.

Want to know more about long range scopes? Check out our guide on best long range scopes.

How Do These Compare?

The 3-9x compares very favorably with other optics in this price range. The image quality is excellent, hunters have the durability they need for hunting big game, and the 3-9x gives you enough power to easily make 100-yards and beyond. Ratings and reviews are good and its low weight and small size make it great for any shooter.

The other two options are also very high quality, but the price jumps enough with those that people may want to look at other options before pulling the trigger. When it comes to seeing your target clearly with reduced glare through a scope that can handle the recoil from hunting rifles like the Fullfields mark II can, especially at long distances, these are hard to beat.

Pros:

• Nitrogen filled to prevent fogging

• Choice of wide field of view or narrow

• Three strong choices of reticle, including ballistic plex

• Exit pupil, eye relief, and reviews are all in a good range

• Target acquisition is fast

Cons:

• Cannot adjust parallax on 3-9x40mm

• Power ring turns entire eyepiece

• Light weight feels flimsy

• Higher magnification models significantly more expensive

Premium Alternative

1. Leupold VX-3HD 3.5-10x40mm

If you’re a hunter looking for a rifle scope and you have a bit more money to spend on something with a lot of quality, the Leupold VX-3HD is something you should consider. There’s a lot of similarities here with the Fullfield II scope, but some key differences. 

There’s a throw lever on the power ring, for one, and in addition to the DiamondCoat 2 on all the lenses, the 3HD has Leupold’s Xtended Twilight Lens System for insane low light performance. Eye relief is comfortable, and the aluminum construction keeps the weight and size nice and light, just like the Burris Fullfield II Riflescope.

Field of view is close, but you’ll get a bit further with the 10x than the 3-9x. The reticle is simple for fast target acquisition and all in all this is a fantastic scope to consider, whether as a rifle scope or spotting scope.

Closing Thoughts & Summary

The ballistic plex is a great balance between "too much" and "not enough. If you don't like the ballistic plex, there are other reticles you can choose from. This Burris Fullfield II Riflescope line has great reviews, and compared to other rifle scopes in its class, this scope line from Burris is a strong contender for your dollars. 

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