Reticle movement

[Garrison smith]

Starting to fry fire a lot more. Saying so I have always dry fired at home inside. Minimum power on my scopes on a certain rifle while I am practicing. Seems good I am comfortable confident with no reticle movement. Now I set up prone or even on a bench. Let’s say bipod and rear bag setup. Looking at 100 yards. With more magnification. Let’s say a 20 magnification. I dry fire and I can see reticle movement at 100 yards go up around 1 inch. There is no left to right movement. And it’s consistant. I’m on target get settled dry fire and rifle will go up 1 inch every time @100 yds. Now is this just vibration settling the rear bag? Or is this something with my setup I can improve on. Just a general question I am super happy with my rifles accuracy.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Something is not packed enough

 

[prwhite]

If parallax not optimized, especially at higher magnification, any movement of your eye from the perfect center of the exit pupil will appear as reticle motion on target. Even firing pin fall can cause some motion.
To add, perfect focus is not always perfect parallax adjustment.

 

[Gargoyle]

Natural point of aim?

 

[Toms]

Starting to fry fire a lot more. Saying so I have always dry fired at home inside. Minimum power on my scopes on a certain rifle while I am practicing. Seems good I am comfortable confident with no reticle movement. Now I set up prone or even on a bench. Let’s say bipod and rear bag setup. Looking at 100 yards. With more magnification. Let’s say a 20 magnification. I dry fire and I can see reticle movement at 100 yards go up around 1 inch. There is no left to right movement. And it’s consistant. I’m on target get settled dry fire and rifle will go up 1 inch every time @100 yds. Now is this just vibration settling the rear bag? Or is this something with my setup I can improve on. Just a general question I am super happy with my rifles accuracy.

That shows you are definitely following through. Not a bad thing.

 

[RegionRat]

Bipod and rear bag may or may not give you a straight recoil even from just dry fire.

Experimenting with the bag as Dusty is getting at is important.

If the bipod arcs, or if the rear stock where it is resting on the bag is not a straight line bag rider, then there is a curved tilt to the motion.

If your technique is repeatable it will still work for bipod shooting.

Getting a position on a bipod and rear bag to work in a very straight line such as in a good bench rest or like an F-Class rest, is not easy.

 

[jackieschmidt]

How well does the Rifle, (and you), actually shoot.
I think you might be chasing a rabbit down a hole.

 

[Garrison smith]

How well does the Rifle, (and you), actually shoot.
I think you might be chasing a rabbit down a hole.

I personally can shoot dots at 100 if the stars align. I consider myself a 1/2 Moa or greater shooter consistently.

 

[Garrison smith]

Bipod and rear bag may or may not give you a straight recoil even from just dry fire.

Experimenting with the bag as Dusty is getting at is important.

If the bipod arcs, or if the rear stock where it is resting on the bag is not a straight line bag rider, then there is a curved tilt to the motion.

If your technique is repeatable it will still work for bipod shooting.

Getting a position on a bipod and rear bag to work in a very straight line such as in a good bench rest or like an F-Class rest, is not easy.

Well my stocks are defiantly not straight on the bottom. They’re slopped like a typical hunting stock. Maybe that has something to do with it also. Again this may be a rabbit hole that doesn’t matter.

 

[jelenko]

In benchrest, it's ok if the reticle moves when dry firing?
In sling shooting, we don't want that reticle moving at all. But, then, the rifle is being held fairly tightly.

 

[RegionRat]

Well my stocks are defiantly not straight on the bottom. They’re slopped like a typical hunting stock. Maybe that has something to do with it also. Again this may be a rabbit hole that doesn’t matter.

I am sure you can learn to work with a regular stock and squeeze bag to get to the 1/2 MOA level.

For prairie dog shooting, I don't use a straight rear bag in order to change elevation faster.

 

[M-61]

To add, perfect focus is not always perfect parallax adjustment.

Focus and parallax are not the same thing.
Perfect focus is not related to parallax nor is parallax related to focus.
Perfect focus is achieved say by aiming at a white wall in your house. Do not spend more than 3 seconds looking to see if the reticle is in focus. If not look away, look again and turn your focus ring. Check focus again. If it’s good your done until your eyes change (maybe years…maybe never)
If it’s not in focus keep trying until it is being careful to look only briefly as your eyes will try to correct.
Parallax in an adjustable parallax scope is charged with range. The numbers on the knob are meaningless and unnecessary. Parallax adjuster is NOT a range finder.
If your scope has no parallax adjustment…. generally all such scopes are parallax free at about 100-150 yards.