Burris's 2-7X 26mm Short Mag is both extremely lightweight and compact. It complemented the author's CZ 527 carbine nicely and performed well in the field.

Burris (Dept. ST, 331 E. 8th St., Greeley, CO 80631; 970-356-1670; www.burris.optics) made a huge splash at the 2005 S.H.O.T. Show in Las Vegas when the company announced that it would be introducing a line of Tactical scopes mid-year. I had a chance to handle a number of prototypes at the show and was impressed by what I saw. The scopes are good looking and well thought out, and I eagerly await the chance to use them afield. In the meantime, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the company itself and the sport optics it is best known for.

Burris bears the name of its founder, Don J. Burris, who formed the company in 1971 after leaving Redfield. During 12 years of product design and management there, Burris had achieved some notable successes. He developed Redfield's first constantly centered nonmagnifying reticle, a feature shooters pretty much take for granted today. Redfield's Accu-Range scope, which saw use with both civilian hunters and Marine snipers in Vietnam, was his design. He also developed an internally adjustable target scope to replace the older designs with external adjustments like the Unertl.

The American dream is to have your own company and to work for yourself. Burris succeeded in doing this, and his fledgling company got off the ground by producing rings, bases, and open sights for the first four years. It wasn't long, though, before he was back designing and producing optics. His company's first optic was a riflescope called the Fullfield, which he began to market in 1975. Success quickly grew the line to seven models. In 1979 four models of mini scopes (now referred to as Compact) were added along with two long eye relief handgun scopes (2X and 3X). One year later Burris became the first domestic optics manufacturer to offer riflescopes with multicoated lenses.

Things took off for Burris, and the firm continued to make noteworthy riflescopes and handgun optics introductions on a regular basis. After spending much of his life devoted to improving sports optics, Don Burris passed away in 1988. Despite the loss, his company continued to prosper and expand. In 1991 Burris entered the spotting scope market by introducing three fixed-power models: 20X 50mm, 24X 60mm, and 30X 60mm. That same year Burris also introduced a scope for hunter-class benchrest competition that went on to be used to win the 1992 Nationals. In 1992 Burris expanded out to offer a complete line of sports optics, and it introduced four models of binoculars. The firm followed this up by introducing the Posi-Lock in 1993. This simple design eliminates backlash and binding adjustments from affecting the scope's zero. One of my favorite reticles, the Ballistic Plex, was introduced in 2000. Simple in nature, it's designed to provide holdover marks for rapid engagement of targets at various distances without having to touch the elevation knob.

Current Innovations
Burris has an interesting history, but the company also has a lot to offer to avid sportsmen today. To give readers a quick look at some of those products, I selected three very different models of riflescopes to test here in Maine. From Burris's new Short Mag line I picked the 2-7X 26mm, from the Signature Select line I chose the 4-16X 44mm, and from the Euro Diamond line I selected the 3-12X 50mm. These three very different models will give readers a good look at the type of riflescope Burris is building today.

In recent years there has been a noticeable move towards ever-lighter hunting rifles. And these in turn are often chambered for not only traditional hunting cartridges but also the new Short Magnums. The result is a very light yet hard-hitting big-game rifle. Burris noted this trend and responded with the Short Mag line of hunting scopes. These are designed to be very lightweight and also extremely short and compact. After all, it makes no sense to mount a hulking piece of glass on an ultralightweight rifle.