Burris Eliminator 6: Revolutionary Rangefinding Riflescope Review

If you have been fortunate enough to be blessed with several decades of hunting seasons under your belt, you have more than your share of “the one that got away” encounters. In my early years of hunting P.T. or Pre Technology, simply guessing the distances to the animal was oftentimes the most difficult task. Just judging 150-300 yards was challenging enough and often led to more opportunities slipping away when the shot fell short in the dirt. When early rangefinders arrived on the scene, those missed opportunities became far and few between inside reasonable hunting distances. We became so effective with our new technological advancements that many times the most common missed opportunities came from us not having enough time to get an accurate range and then get behind the rifle. We are talking, seconds... not minutes.

The time it takes to range an animal with a handheld rangefinder, and then get behind the rifle to acquire the target can be some of the most hectic experiences and oftentimes create just enough of a disconnect that the animal can slip away without a shot fired, despite it being well within the shooter's effective range. Having another person to help spot and range the animal is a huge advantage at times, but not always a possibility if you hunt solo (or if your hunting partner is down and out with the Rona). Technology has brought us the ability to incorporate a laser rangefinder into a riflescope in the last 14 years when Burris first released the Eliminator scope back in 2010. The latest Eliminator 6 is the pinnacle of years of testing and developing new technology to improve the interaction between the hunter and his rifle optic.

I have had the opportunity to shoot several of the previous versions of the Burris Eliminator Laser rangefinding scope as well as its competitor's versions. The newest model, the Eliminator 6 has really taken a modern turn to a sleek and simpler approach to helping the user set up the rifle optic and get it dialed in, making for one of the easiest scopes to use despite all its technology. I unboxed my scope and set it up on my PROOF Research 300 Win Mag in a matter of minutes. The Burris XTR Signature Rings made for a straightforward attachment that eliminates any potential misalignment issues between the scope rail, rings and rifle tube with its built-in inserts to help create 100-percent ring contact with the scope tube. This makes mounting the rifle optic pretty straight forward and with simple tools such as a gun vise, torque wrench, and bits, you can tackle mounting your own optics at home.

Rifle Optic and Ring Installation

The Burris XTR Signature Rings come in a variety of ring diameters, and heights, and include 0-40 MOA of cant inserts to create the perfect setup for your favorite rifle and optic. I selected 34mm rings in a 1.50’ with the 0 MOA inserts for my setup as my rifle had a 20 MOA rail mounted. This ring height gives me a comfortable cheek weld on the rifle stock allowing me to keep my head in a natural upright position without having to crush my cheek down and look through the top of my eye to view through the optic. Any fine tuning I would need to do for fit, I could do through the adjustable cheekpiece on my rifle stock.

Before torquing the optic into place, I placed a machinist level atop the bare vertical turret with the cap removed. This is the most accurate place to place a level on the optic for leveling to the rifle. The rifle must be secured in a vise with the rail of the receiver leveled left and right to do this step properly. Once the turret showed level to the rifle and after a few checks for eye relief, I locked all the screws down and torqued to 45-inch pounds on the cross bolts and 20-inch pounds on the top ring screws.

Bluetooth Burris Connect App

Following the Burris manual is very simple for the rifle scope configuration and battery installation is as easy as it gets. After everything was mounted and ready, I downloaded the Burris Connect App on my smartphone in order to enter a ballistic profile for the rifle I intended to use for testing. I chose the 300 Win Mag as my cartridge, as I have extensive experience with the cartridge and know the data needed with several loads for my rifle inside 700 yards so it would really allow me to test the system for accuracy on a known cartridge and rifle. I selected the Factory Load for testing as the Hornady Precision Hunter with the 200 gr ELDX bullet at 2,860fps and a handload of Peterson 300 Win Mag Long Brass with a 215M Primer, 79.5 gr of H1000 with a 181 gr Hammer Hunter bullet traveling at 3,170fps. The Long brass is a special offering from Peterson to fill the chamber fully with the varying dimensions of belted magnums, this really helps maintain excellent accuracy and increase brass life.

The Burris Connect App is very easy to navigate and enter the required data for your rifle. All you need to enter is the bullet type, muzzle velocity, G1/G7 BC and bullet weight. You can select popular bullets from a Factory Ammunition Library or enter your bullet if you can't find it in the library. After all your bullet info is updated, you can “Request Environmental Data” under the Environmental Conditions tab to update your current conditions based on local weather stations to you. This includes a separate tab for wind direction and speed to give the proper hold-off in the reticle once you establish the proper zero on the rifle optic and range a target. The app syncs your developed rifle, cartridge and atmospheric to the rifle optic anywhere you need it and gives an accurate bullet flight prediction within reasonable and ethical hunting distances.

After the App is downloaded and synced to your rifle optic the fun begins at the range! The rifle optic zeroes like any other rifle optic through two turrets located on top and on the right of the scope. The turrets are ⅛ MOA per click and allow you to get an absolute zero on the optic. Ensuring your optic is zeroed perfectly on the target is vital for accurate data downrange as even the slightest zero left, right, high or low at 100 yards will be exponentially increased at distance. I found zeroing the optic very simple and after a few shots, I took two, 3 shot groups on a 1” dot and got a beautiful cluster group slightly high but showed the rifle optic was securely held in place and ready for some long-range shooting. After a final zero adjustment, I began ranging targets out to 600 yds and making a first round impact on 12” plates keeping the impacts centered up ensuring the solver was giving accurate data for both projectiles.

Feature Rich Optic

The Eliminator 6 utilizes their X177 reticle to give accurate hold overs and aiming points through the illuminated reticle in a heads-up display. Simply press the large “laser” button on the left side turret knob, which adjusts parallax in the optic, to range the target using the center of the reticle just like you're aiming a traditional rifle reticle. When a proper range is acquired a distance will appear to the target and a small red dot will appear below the aiming point showing where you need to hold for your rifle based on your ballistics and atmospherics. To “sweeten the pot” so to speak, Burris provided a wireless remote that can be attached to the rifle stock to allow ranging without moving your hand up to the rifle optic. I found the ideal placement to be on my rifle stock just above my rear bag where my support hand can easily hit the range button while behind the rifle and maintaining my natural shooting position. This makes it extremely efficient to get set up on the target, build a position, range the target accurately and take a shot in a matter of seconds, completely eliminating the back and forth between a handheld rangefinder, ballistic solver and rifle turret. This equates to a shortened reaction time when a target of opportunity arises in the field giving you a huge advantage when you have trained with the system and have the concept wired.

Another feature I really enjoyed is the built-in anti-cant or digital “level” inside the heads-up display once you activate the rangefinder. This is a visible line with a slight downward “V” in the center of the line. If the rifle is canted to either side, a small round dot will appear showing you the rifle is not level. Simply adjusting the rifle left or right according to the dot, will move the dot to the center of the “v” notch notifying you the rifle is leveled. If you follow the steps to setting up the rifle optic properly you can set your rifle up on the bipod atop a shooting bench and place the level back on top of the vertical turret. With the level still in place showing level, you connect the app to the scope under the Level Settings by selecting the “Zero Scope Level” Hit “OK” when it asks to confirm the optic is level. This will set the internal level and remove the need for an external level on the rifle optic.

Don’t Be Afraid of Technology

At first glance, this may seem “high tech” for many shooters reading into all the steps needed to accurately set up the rifle optic, but in reality, it's no different than any traditional optic needed to be mounted, leveled and set up properly. The only difference is the added step of the Bluetooth app linked to your smartphone, which in all honesty is about the simplest app function of all the phone-based rifle optics I have yet tested. Once you take the time to get it all set up correctly the first time, it does not need the phone linked up to use the rangefinder for each shot. The start of each range session, you link up the phone to the optic to update the environmental conditions and wind, then you're good to go until they change and the day gets hotter or colder by 10 degrees, you gain or lose a 1,000ft of elevation and so on. Either way with a handheld rangefinder or ballistic calculator you'll need to update environmental conditions throughout the day so it's not adding more steps, just consolidating everything to a single device.

Throughout my testing, I was able to maintain a very acceptable level of accuracy shooting at the range every morning without updating my environmentals every day as the elevation did not change and the temperatures were within 5-10 degrees every morning. I was able to stretch my optic out to around 700 yards and maintain very acceptable accuracy for vital hits on big game with my selected projectile. Keep in mind the reticle is a second focal plane and maintains the same size throughout the power range so you can't back out and gain reticle like a first focal plane optic widely used for long-range shooting in competition.

Wrap Up

Just like any optical system there are gives and takes when it comes to glass clarity and coatings when a laser comes into play. Having looked through many of the previous Burris Eliminator Scopes, I can say the glass quality has steadily improved over the years and this is the best glass yet in my opinion based on image quality, color and edge-to-edge clarity. The glass offers ample brightness and image quality for just about any hunting situation within legal shooting light conditions.

When you add a laser to an optical system such as a rifle scope, you have to change the coatings slightly to allow the laser the proper transmission through the lens and back to get a reading. This is why most laser rangefinding optics typically are not as clear or bright as non-laser rangefinding optics, so to compare the optic to a non-rangefinding optic is not a fair comparison for glass quality. As technology keeps improving, this gap in glass quality gets smaller between the two optics types and the Burris Eliminator 6 is a testament to the advancements in this area. It combines a top-tier laser rangefinding system into a sleek rifle optic to give the user an unmatched solution at its price point and even punched above its weight class for features not found in many rifle scopes. Throughout my testing, the Burris Eliminator 6 and Burris XTR Signature Rings held zero perfectly and proved to be a viable option for hunting big game anywhere in the world. I look forward to hunting this fall running the Burris Eliminator 6 for the upcoming elk season here in Montana as I have no doubt it will help notch some tags as well as smash its fair share of suspicious rocks on distant ridges during the mid-day doldrums.

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