Scope sighting questions…
So, I’ve been tinkering around today getting my scope roughly sighted in and I now have a couple of questions.
1: At roughly 10 feet the pellet impact was hitting about an inch to the left of my aim point. I adjusted the scope so that it was hitting where I was aiming, but when I moved the target back to about 35 feet the pellets were hitting about two inches to the left. Why is that?
2: At 10 feet I ran out of vertical adjustment, but at 35 feet it was hitting dead center. I’m assuming that when I move the target to say, 35 Yards I will have to adjust the scope downwards and will no longer be at the limit of my Up-Down Clicks?
Thank you, and sorry for my nub-nub questions!
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what about a laser sight?? do they work like they do on a handgun??
just point the laser on the “critter” & that will be the point of impact ??? ❓
I obviously don’t have much experience with mil dot scopes. I would
never shoot anything at 12 feet with a .308.
Some of these squirrels are a trip. They sit there and dare me to shoot them at such close range. My Benjiman 392 has its sights mounted right on the barrel. It shoots to the point of aim from zero to 35 yards! I’m spoiled. But I also enjoy a challenge.
Measure the distance between the center of the scope and the center of the barrel. Then on your target mark two dots one above another with that distance between them. You want the crosshairs on the top dot and to hit close or slightly above the bottom dot. That way when you go from 10 feet to 30 yards or whatever you wont get any nasty surprises.
Steve, I think all mil dot’s come that way.
Gee I’m glad that you brought up the subject.
I have my SS zeroed for 17 yards and all is well at that distance. However, I need to shoot 10 to 15 feet sometimes. I know that is close, but that is my rat, and sometimes squirrel distance. (I love it when the squirrels sit 12 feet away and laugh at me, thinking that I can’t climb trees). I’m not sure, but I think that the scope is just too high above the axis of the bore.
Is there a mil dot scope that has dots from top to bottom?
My short term answer, (and short range answer), is to use a laser. I am working on that now. (It’s a Big 5 special).
Exactly: that’s the stage that I’m at now. I was just confused about the huge swing to the left when I moved back 25 feet from the first test shots, and was also wondering whether the pellet will likely hit particularly high at 35 Yards, etc. That kind of thing.
The idea behind BB’s method is just to get the scope roughly shooting in the right direction to avoid the problem you ran into in the warehouse where you dont hit the target and dont have much idea what direction you need or even worse.. damage something. You dont need it to be dead on, just in the same ballpark. Once your hitting towards the center of the paper/target then you just move it out and increase your distance.
Just remember, whatever error there is at 10 feet, is going to be magnfied as you move further out so while you dont need to be dead on, it does need to be towards the center of the paper before you move out.
If your off just 5mm to the right at 10 feet you might not notice, but if you try shooting something at 30 yards, which is 9x further its going to be 9 x 5mm which is more than an inch.
I’ve never had to sight in a rifle before, or at least not one worth a damn, so I was following Tom Gaylord’s article on PyramidAir. It basically states to shoot at the target at about 10 feet to make sure that it’s going roughly where you want it, and then to make general adjustments, which is what I did, before moving back to a more reasonable distance. I only have 35 or so feet of shootable space in my Basement without moving a lot of stuff around, so that is where I am at the moment. When I tried to scope in my Condor back in the UK I started off at 40 Yards inside a warehouse, and that was an exercise in futility as the scope was so far off that at that range it was missing a 4-feet by 4-feet square target, so I figured that BB’s method might make better sense.
I can see the impact being off at 35 feet even if its right at 10 feet just because its a longer distance so any slight difference you might not notice at 10 feet would be magnified and noticable at 35.
If you zeroed it at 35 feet and moved it to 10 and the windage adustment was off then thats not normal, but the way you described it should just be small amounts getting bigger with distance.
I try and zero my scope’s windage at about 50 yards at least and then mov in to my usual sighting distance of 35 yards or so for the elevation.
10 feet is awfully close, I wouldnt expect any of my guns to be able to zero properly at such a short distance as the LOS and the bore of the barrel are trying to come to a point too close to the gun…. the further out the target the LOS and the bore of the gun move to be more parralel so you need less adjustment.
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In theory, that’s how they work. But I have read several posts here where people have trouble with the laser units retaining their zero. A sighting device that is not repeatable and consistant is worthless. But someone gave me this one and I figure why not try it out for a while. Sometimes things work you while they don’t work for someone else. Also, tenacity is impostant. Many good guns have been traded or sold off because the owner didn’t have the patients, or the faith to work with them.
But yes, they are supposed to be point and shoot devices just like the firearm versions.