Weaver says the same thing. They have to say this. Sort of. What these companies are concerned about is folks going around buying broken scopes and sending them in for an exchange.
But relax. If you simply send in the scope without mention of where/when you bought it, they'll honor the warranty.
Think about it: Many of the Bushnells which carry the lifetime warranty don't even have a serial number. They won't be able to tell whether you bought it new and registered it or not. How could you even register a scope with no serial number? You couldn't.
As for the scopes which do have SN's, I've never heard of a scope maker with a lifetime warranty on their product nit-picking this issue.
You could also claim you got the scope for a gift and there is no receipt.
Weaver claims the same deal (warranty only to original purchaser). When I dropped my rifle a couple years ago on the CONCRETE FLOOR OF MY GARAGE /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif my beloved Weaver Grand Slam got bent. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif I sent it in with a note explaining I had dropped the rifle and wondered about an estimate for fixing the scope. Twelve days later, UPS came with a brand new Grand Slam--no questions asked. They never asked for a receipt, they never asked if I was the original owner--nothing. Just great customer service.
I've gotten a couple Bushnell scopes replaced in recent years (I bought them broken! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif ) and they didn't ask any questions either--they didn't even write back to demand the ten dollar fee which I never include... They just shipped out a new scope. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Dan