At the range this evening I was just trying to make sure I had a good feel for my rifle with the deer season approaching. I shot a shot at 100 yards and was on level with bullseye but about .75” or so to the right. Because I’ve shot this gun a fair bit this summer I just dialed it 0.2 mil to the left. I shot again and the next shot was about an inch lower and about 1/2 an inch further to the right (I had just adjusted it to go left). Obviously not enough shooting to really draw any conclusions and i figured I would just count it as a clean bore first shot.
I used an app to calculate the elevation adjustment for 200 yards and shot it 3 times without any further adjustments. The app said to adjust 0.6 mill for 200, but my three shots were 3.5” low and still about 1.5” to the right. Since I was running out of daylight, I thought I would adjust the scope according to those shots and give it one more. For 3.5” I dialed 0.5 mils and for the 1.5” I dialed 0.2 mils (remember, this is at 200 yards). I took the last shot and it was 3” high and still 1.5” to the right. I have to say that’s pretty frustrating…the 3 shots I took without any scope adjustments at 200 yards were maybe an inch apart. Seems like the cross hairs are not moving. Advice? In the picture you can see the 3 shots at 200 yards.
I guess my biggest question, having not used the dials on scopes all that much in the past, does it sound like a scope issue? It’s almost like the second time I adjusted the elevation it finally moved…and moved the whole 1.1 mil I dialed total. It also seems like the horizontal adjustment isn’t moving.
It’s not an expensive scope - it’s an Athlon 6-24x 50 if I remember correctly.
Woah… this is crazy. If what you’re saying is correct, then the scope was dialed but didn’t adjust.
I have only had this happen to me once. And what scope was it? An Athlon 6-24! Same scope as you. I generally consider Athlon stuff to be quite good but that’s a problem.
I would shoot with it dialed for 400 yards and hit, then dial for 600 and it would still be shooting for 400. We’d mess with the turret a bit going up and down and it’d snap back into place and work.
So it sounds like a scope issue, but will they honor the warranty? My guess is it won’t repeat this issue if I send it to them (at least that’s how it is when I take my car in for repair…it never does the same thing for the mechanic!).
Well I’m pretty sure I tightened to a spec (just not sure which one). I talked to a gunsmith and he suggested backing off the screws and then retightening to 18 ft-lbs. I’m going to give that a try and see what happens. Does that sound tight enough?
That’s the maximum that some scope companies recommend like swarovski. However others recommend 25 inch pounds. Need to check with your specific scope manufacturer. It’s usually listed somewhere in the instructions
I’m pretty certain I would have torqued to manufacturer specs, but when I went to get the screws out they required much more torque to break them loose. I think I used the blue lock tite though.
Maybe I’ll check this Athlon scope with the 18 in-lbs and see if that solves the problem. It’s just interesting that this scope worked fine earlier in the year and it’s just now all of a sudden these issues have popped up. Of course must be the deer hunting effect!
Be careful with the use of loctite. The vortex people did this on a podcast and talk about how it acts as a lubricant when it’s wet and you’re actually going to apply more torque than you think you are based upon your torque wrench.
Never seen anyone confuse inch pounds and foot pounds before and screw something on a gun up
Just to be clear, I screwed up the text, not the gun. I use a wheeler torque driver and just didn’t pay attention to the measure of force being used.
That said, finally took it out to the range today. I dialed the scope back down to approximate zero at 100 yards and took a shot. The impact was about 4 inches to the right and maybe and inch low. Seemed reasonable considering I had just retorqued the screws. I adjusted the scope to try to get it towards bullseye…next 3 shots weren’t on the paper and I actually couldn’t find where I had hit. Think I’m going to send this scope in for service…
