How to set up your scope 101

[goalie]

After reading the targets thread, I thought some people could use this. I'm all for paying your dues and stuff, but ammo is too damn expensive nowdays to sight-in with more than 4 rounds.....

HOW TO SET UP A SCOPE!
This is the only way to do it...

First, screw the eyepiece out (CCW) all the way, until it stops.
If you wear glasses, put them on.
Hold the scope up and look OVER the scope at the sky, and relax your eyes. Then move the scope in front of your eye.
The reticle should look fuzzy
Turn the eyepiece in 1/2 turn, and do the same thing again. You will have to do for a while before the reticle starts to look better. When you start getting close, then turn the eyepiece 1/4 turn each time.
Do this until the reticle is fully sharp and fully BLACK immediately when you look through the scope.
Than back off one turn and do it again to make sure you are in the same place.
Then LOCK the ring on the eyepiece, and leave it alone forever!

Second.
Set the scope down on something solid, where it can see something at a long distance... half a mile of longer is good.
It can be on the rifle, and rested in sand bags at the range... but pick something at least 1000 yds away... even further if possible.
If the scope has an "AO" Adjustable objective, then set it for infinity, and look at the distant object, and move your head from one side to the other, or up and down if you prefer.
If the reticle seems to move, there is parallax.
Change the distance setting and try again... if you are very careful, you can move your eye, and adjust the distance at the same time, seeing which direction gets better.
With front objective adjustments, you can turn them either way without worry... BUT with side adjustment scopes, like the MK4-M3, the M3-LR, or the other LR family of scopes, the adjustment must ALWAYS be made from the infinity end of the dial. Turn the adjustment all the way until it stops (past infinity), and then start turning it in a little at a time, until there is no parallax. If you "overshoot" the proper setting, you can't just turn back a little, you must go back to stop at the end of the dial, and start over again.

While "AO"s dials are locked in place, and if the indicated distance doesn't match the real distance, there's nothing you can do about it... the side focus dials are not locked in place.
Once you have found the setting for infinity on the side focus models, then (CAREFULLY) loosen the screws, and set the dial so that little sideways infinity symbol is lined up with the hash mark, so it is calibrated. You can also make little marks or put on a paper tape for other ranges instead of using the round dots that don't match any range.

Now you can set it to infinity, but remember that you MUST turn the dial all the way past infinity to the stop, EVERY TIME before going from a close range to a longer range.
If you are set for 500 yds, you can go directly to 100 yds, but if you are set for 100 and want to set it to 500, you MUST go all the way back to the stop, and then go to 500.

This is because there is a fair amount of backlash (aka SLOP) in this wheel linkage to the focusing cell, so you can set it only from one direction to make sure the slop is always on one side. The other problem with it is, even if you decided that you wanted to calibrate from the other end... the recoil will push the cell back. SO you must ALWAYS set these dials from the infinity end of their scales.

To make it easy to not have to remember... I always start from the end stop, when I change range, no matter which direction I'm going in... it adds about 0.023 seconds!
---
Now... you gots a friend that says to set up a scope a different way???... he don't know doodly-squat about scopes.

The guy at the range said to do it a different way... he don't know either.

You know some guy who's in the Marines says to use your eyepiece to correct parallax... he doesn't know about optics either.

You got a friend that shoots benchrest and says something different... he don't know crapola!

This is the way, the only way, there is no other way.

You wanna "debate it", then go play golf, cuz you're wasting my time!

'lito (gettin' grumpy in my old age!)"

[TC95GT]

Good info. Thanks

[westberg]

I knew it wasn't me it was that damn scope thingy with all of those knobs, why don't they put iron sights on rifles.......

[Stradawhovious]

I smell an hour with a rifle this evening, then a range trip in the near future.

[Bessy]

First, screw the eyepiece out (CCW) all the way, until it stops.
If you wear glasses, put them on.
Hold the scope up and look OVER the scope at the sky, and relax your eyes. Then move the scope in front of your eye.
The reticle should look fuzzy
Turn the eyepiece in 1/2 turn, and do the same thing again. You will have to do for a while before the reticle starts to look better. When you start getting close, then turn the eyepiece 1/4 turn each time.
Do this until the reticle is fully sharp and fully BLACK immediately when you look through the scope.
Than back off one turn and do it again to make sure you are in the same place.
Then LOCK the ring on the eyepiece, and leave it alone forever!

Most useful thing I've read all day. I retract my previous comments about throwing you into mount doom.
Thank you.

[goalie]

Most useful thing I've read all day. I retract my previous comments about throwing you into mount doom.
Thank you.

Mt Doom isn't snowy and cold this time of year, is it????

[David]

You know, I think I'm going to take my rifle/scope down to Bill's on Friday and finally pop its cherry. I can't believe I've had it for months and never fired the thing. 50 yards won't do much but at least I can verify that the thing works.

Thanks for the inspiration!

[hammAR]

I knew it wasn't me it was that damn scope thingy with all of those knobs, why don't they put iron sights on rifles.......

Not true there finger pointer....
did you not read the part that says...If you wear glasses, put them on..............
OH, you didn't have your glasses on so you probably missed that part anyhow....

[westberg]

There still was all of those knobs, I will try with my glasses on next time.

[goalie]

First, screw the eyepiece out (CCW) all the way, until it stops.
If you wear glasses, put them on.
Hold the scope up and look OVER the scope at the sky, and relax your eyes. Then move the scope in front of your eye.
The reticle should look fuzzy
Turn the eyepiece in 1/2 turn, and do the same thing again. You will have to do for a while before the reticle starts to look better. When you start getting close, then turn the eyepiece 1/4 turn each time.
Do this until the reticle is fully sharp and fully BLACK immediately when you look through the scope.
Than back off one turn and do it again to make sure you are in the same place.
Then LOCK the ring on the eyepiece, and leave it alone forever!

Most useful thing I've read all day. I retract my previous comments about throwing you into mount doom.
Thank you.

Actually, I would point out for reference that, if your eyesight changes significantly, you may have to re-focus the reticles on your scopes due to that change. This, of course, doesn't apply to someone who gets new glasses that result in the same corrected vision as they had before, as the net = no change with the new glasses.....

Anyhow, you get the point. Forever is a long time.

[David]

Maybe a lot of you guys know this already, but using scopes (except for the dot or fixed-power variety) is sort of a new thing to me. The manual for my scope had an interesting tip in it. It said if you don't know the distance to a target, you can get a rough estimation by turning the parallax knob until the image is at its clearest point, and then read the distance setting indicated on the parallax turret. Voila! I wonder how well that works? Lots of other methods, too, but I thought that was pretty slick.

[hammAR]

Might work for TSA or the Coast Guard.......................

[goalie]

Maybe a lot of you guys know this already, but using scopes (except for the dot or fixed-power variety) is sort of a new thing to me. The manual for my scope had an interesting tip in it. It said if you don't know the distance to a target, you can get a rough estimation by turning the parallax knob until the image is at its clearest point, and then read the distance setting indicated on the parallax turret. Voila! I wonder how well that works? Lots of other methods, too, but I thought that was pretty slick.

The scope you bought might actually be good enough to do that with. Most are not. Heck, most are not calibrated anywhere near accurately enough to have the number on the turret correct for more than one distance. You could always go to a 1k yard palma range and mark your turrets yourself I guess, but I think using a ranging reticle like a mil-dot or MP-R2 (or the one in your scope) would be easier and quicker once you know what you're doing.

[RAGGED]

Now you can set it to infinity, but remember that you MUST turn the dial all the way past infinity to the stop, EVERY TIME before going from a close range to a longer range.
If you are set for 500 yds, you can go directly to 100 yds, but if you are set for 100 and want to set it to 500, you MUST go all the way back to the stop, and then go to 500.

This is because there is a fair amount of backlash (aka SLOP) in this wheel linkage to the focusing cell, so you can set it only from one direction to make sure the slop is always on one side. The other problem with it is, even if you decided that you wanted to calibrate from the other end... the recoil will push the cell back. SO you must ALWAYS set these dials from the infinity end of their scales.

This all makes sense to me from a mechanical point of view but I find myself wondering why if it is so important Nightforce doesn't outline it in their manual under the Parallax adjustment section. Seems odd they would leave that out of a section that is completly devoted to the topic.

At any rate great stuff, thanx for posting! (some of these fellas need all the help they can get )



And Goalie, when are we going to see your target posted!

[Stradawhovious]

And Goalie, when are we going to see your target posted!

I would bet you it looks something like this.......

Shot at 1000yds. Offhand. High wind. Midnight in December during a New Moon. Iron sights.