Golden Eagle focus/parallax issues?

[spudgun]

Maybe my old eyes are playing tricks on me but I'm going to ask the questions anyway.

New Vortex GE, 15-60X52.

It appears that when on the 600 yd range and looking at the targets, they will go out of focus and then come back in focus without adjusting the parallax. My power setting was 40X.

At first I thought maybe mirage from the barrel was causing this but the temps were in the 30 deg range and barrel temps were 104 deg. Then i thought maybe my eyes were going bad.

New pair of glasses so my vision is right on.

Anyone have this issue?

I don't see it on my Vortex PST II scope at 24 power.

 

[JEFFPPC]

Turn the GE to 24x and see if it goes away. If it does, might be the temp difference plus. 24 to 40 power difference is what your seeing.

 

[Ranger188]

This ^^^
You'd be surprised how barrel heat will pop up and cause mirage issues.
Remember, it's not just the outside temp. the difference between the two
can also affect it.
Also the higher the power, the more mirage you'll notice.

 

[spudgun]

Turn the GE to 24x and see if it goes away. If it does, might be the temp difference plus. 24 to 40 power difference is what your seeing.

Good point, didn't think of trying that...

Also the GE came with a apature that fits on the end of the scope. It has a smaller diameter view hole.

Do you know that this is for?

The user manual does not even mention it in the book.

 

[Ranger188]

It reduces the amount of light coming in and depending on your eyesight and
conditions, might help you focus on the target better. (long story short)
Try it in different conditions and see if it helps or not.

 

[BoydAllen]

Next time you are at the range, carry something with you that you can quickly throw over the barrel, not to shoot, but just to see if it is barrel mirage. A piece of corrugated cardboard will work just fine, or an old bath towel. When you see what you described, cover the barrel and then look again. As the other poster said, mirage is about difference in temperature. If there is some breeze, it will blow it away so you do not have barrel mirage, and when it stops for a bit you will.

 

[spudgun]

It reduces the amount of light coming in and depending on your eyesight and
conditions, might help you focus on the target better. (long story short)
Try it in different conditions and see if it helps or not.

Thanks.

I thought maybe it helped reduce mirage.

 

[Devin Wiggett]

Put a mirage shield on the barrel and try it.
You will get barrel mirage with any temperature variant regardless of the ambient temps.

 

[wkdickinson]

Good point, didn't think of trying that...

Also the GE came with a apature that fits on the end of the scope. It has a smaller diameter view hole.

Do you know that this is for?

The user manual does not even mention it in the book.

The "apature" plate works like "stopping" down the lense on a camera to increase "depth of field".

 

[mchees1]

Maybe my old eyes are playing tricks on me but I'm going to ask the questions anyway.

New Vortex GE, 15-60X52.

It appears that when on the 600 yd range and looking at the targets, they will go out of focus and then come back in focus without adjusting the parallax. My power setting was 40X.

At first I thought maybe mirage from the barrel was causing this but the temps were in the 30 deg range and barrel temps were 104 deg. Then i thought maybe my eyes were going bad.

New pair of glasses so my vision is right on.

Anyone have this issue?

I don't see it on my Vortex PST II scope at 24 power.

This happens to me every time I shoot. It is just what my eyes do. If I use eye drops and blink a lot it helps. I also will look to the side of the scope at other things on the range and then go back to the scope. The longer my shooting session is the worse the problem gets. My Optometrist is a shooter and he says it is very common for the eye to do this when shooting through optics. My guess is that it is not the scope. Unless this is the only scope this happens with. I am 63 and I don't recall this being a problem even 10 years ago. Getting older just sucks!

 

[JEFFPPC]

The "apature" plate works like "stopping" down the lense on a camera to increase "depth of field".

Worthless........Just my observation..........confirmed by quite a few others I know who have tried it. However, one friend thinks it's great. So, you have to try it and see if it does anything for you.

 

[sunnyfisher]

I have a golden eagle that went out of focus when a shot was fired.
Vortex had me send it back and they decided that the paralox housing was damaged and sent me a new one that has performed well ever since.
they advised me on the ring torque which i torqued properly with a torque wrench that was checked with another torque wrench.
They also said that I should not have used loctite and that could have caused the damage.
Since then I haven't used loctite on scope rings.
I like vortex optics and love the ecr reticle.
They do back up their products, for what it's worth.

 

[Dryfly24]

I have a golden eagle that went out of focus when a shot was fired.
Vortex had me send it back and they decided that the paralox housing was damaged and sent me a new one that has performed well ever since.
they advised me on the ring torque which i torqued properly with a torque wrench that was checked with another torque wrench.
They also said that I should not have used loctite and that could have caused the damage.
Since then I haven't used loctite on scope rings.
I like vortex optics and love the ecr reticle.
They do back up their products, for what it's worth.

what did they advise for torque settings? I don’t go above 20 psi normally. And usually closer to 18.

 

[sunnyfisher]

what did they advise for torque settings? I don’t go above 20 psi normally. And usually closer to 18.

15-18 inch lbs which is what I used with the original scope and I would typically stop in the 16-17 inch lb range and I used loctite which the Vortex rep said I should not do.
Vortex apparently does not recommend the use of a thread locking substance they say it lubricates the screws and results in too much compression on the tube, unless I missed that it is not in any of their literature, I have always used a thread locker, this is the first time it has been an issue.
When I installed the new scope I did not use loctite and stopped at about 15 inch lbs.
The original scope was mounted on a 308 Winchester and when I got the new one I mounted it on the same rifle for a short time than switched to a 6 Dasher, a lot less recoil now.

 

[rebs]

Spudgun
do you by chance have cataracts or floaters in your eyes ?

 

[Dryfly24]

I never use loctite on rings. Did that once a long time ago when I was a young lad. Learned my lesson and never did it again. Not necessary anyway.

 

[Rick300]

This happens to me every time I shoot. It is just what my eyes do. If I use eye drops and blink a lot it helps. I also will look to the side of the scope at other things on the range and then go back to the scope. The longer my shooting session is the worse the problem gets. My Optometrist is a shooter and he says it is very common for the eye to do this when shooting through optics. My guess is that it is not the scope. Unless this is the only scope this happens with. I am 63 and I don't recall this being a problem even 10 years ago. Getting older just sucks!

EXACTLY the same for me

 

[spudgun]

Well, I'm happy to say it is a mirage.

Went to the range this morning and noticed that when my barrel temps went above 100 degrees (air temp was 44) the phasing in and out of focus started. I draped a towel over the barrel and noticed that it would go away.

Removed the towel and it came back again.

So today I made some mirage shields out of some blinds I had laying around.

Will go to the range again and see if it works..

Thanks for the input guys.

A lot of info floating around on this forum..

 

[Ranger188]

Glad you found the problem.
For light mirage, I have a strip of 2 inch wide paper that I tape just under my scope to the barrel
and at the end. Helps if your not doing much shooting in light winds. (cheap too)
Remember, any weight add to the barrel could cause the harmonics to change slightly.
If you see a POI change with the blinds installed, then you might have to adjust and either use it all the time or
remember the adjustment difference.

 

[spudgun]

Glad you found the problem.
For light mirage, I have a strip of 2 inch wide paper that I tape just under my scope to the barrel
and at the end. Helps if your not doing much shooting in light winds. (cheap too)
Remember, any weight add to the barrel could cause the harmonics to change slightly.
If you see a POI change with the blinds installed, then you might have to adjust and either use it all the time or
remember the adjustment difference.

Thanks for the tip. These blinds I used are lightweight plastic and 1" wide.

They may not be wide enough to do the job (I notice much wider ones at the 600 yd matches) but it's a start.