Kyle Schultz
Gold $$ Contributor
With competition season pretty much over, I pulled several of my scopes off their rifles to be tested for reticle jump. Today, I tested a Valdada 36X, a Nightforce 12-42X56 BR, and a Nightforce 15-55X52 Competition. I utilized one of the original Hood scope checkers. It's set up for dovetail mounts. The only dovetail rifle I have is a 30BR so it provided the jolt. I normally have the Valdada 36X mounted on the 30BR so it already has dovetail rings. I bought a dovetail to picatinny adaptor from Kelbly's to use for the other scope/ring combinations. Testing done at 100 yards.
Because the Valdada 36X is so light, I mounted it as the outboard scope and the heavier Nightforce (and eventually March) scopes mounted on the picatinny adaptor directly on the centerline of the rifle. Here's a picture of the NF Competition and Valdada 36X side-by-side. It's a tight fit.
I started by testing the Valdada 36 against the NF Benchrest. I did this because I did not have a frozen scope to use as a reference and these 2 scopes have universal reputations as being very stable. The idea being if these 2 scopes tracked each other than I would use the Valdada as my reference scope going forward.
I fired a total of 3 shots; checking between shots. As hoped and expected, there was no discernable reticle difference between the two scopes. This also convinced me that my testing setup was sound. Next I substituted the NF Competition for the NF Benchrest and tested with the Valdada 36X now serving as the control scope.
After the first shot, the NF Competition reticle jumped vertically about 0.1". After the second shot, the reticle was 0.2" up and 0.1" right. After third shot, reticle was 0.25" up and 0.2" right. Fourth shot was unchanged from third. After the fifth and final shot, the NF reticle was 0.3" up and 0.2" right.
At this point, I decided to re-torque the cap screws and retest. Recommended torque values can be hard to find. I utilize rings from several suppliers; Nightforce, Seekins, Kelbly, and Badgar Ordnance. 15 in-lbs is a typical value but there is a wide range. Kelbly for instance is as low as 12 in-lbs while the NF Xtreme rings are as high as 25 in-lbs. As the rings in this test are the NF Xtreme, I re-torqued to just shy of 25 in-lbs.
I repeated the testing sequence after spinning the elevation and windage knobs several MOA back and forth and then zeroing up the NF Competition with the Valdada control scope. Upon firing, there now was NO discernable reticle shift observed for the NF Competition scope. Fired a total of 3 shots; checking after each shot for any movement.
I spun the knobs again and after zeroing up, ran a third test. Total of 3 shots. Again, I observed no discernable shift in the Nightforce Competition reticle.
So what's the moral of the story? Prior to the this testing, I was convinced the reticle was moving in my Nightforce Competition scope. I still believe there was movement but I now must conclude that perhaps the issue was with the scope rings and not with the scope itself.
I'm not going to presumptuously extrapolate my testing and resulting conclusions to anyone else's experience with their NF Competition scopes. I am going to be much more careful about rechecking the scope ring screws. I'm also going to consider using blue Loctite on the screws. I've read differing opinions about this practice and need to do more thinking before taking that step.
Hope this discussion has been of benefit to the community. Good luck!
Because the Valdada 36X is so light, I mounted it as the outboard scope and the heavier Nightforce (and eventually March) scopes mounted on the picatinny adaptor directly on the centerline of the rifle. Here's a picture of the NF Competition and Valdada 36X side-by-side. It's a tight fit.
I started by testing the Valdada 36 against the NF Benchrest. I did this because I did not have a frozen scope to use as a reference and these 2 scopes have universal reputations as being very stable. The idea being if these 2 scopes tracked each other than I would use the Valdada as my reference scope going forward.
I fired a total of 3 shots; checking between shots. As hoped and expected, there was no discernable reticle difference between the two scopes. This also convinced me that my testing setup was sound. Next I substituted the NF Competition for the NF Benchrest and tested with the Valdada 36X now serving as the control scope.
After the first shot, the NF Competition reticle jumped vertically about 0.1". After the second shot, the reticle was 0.2" up and 0.1" right. After third shot, reticle was 0.25" up and 0.2" right. Fourth shot was unchanged from third. After the fifth and final shot, the NF reticle was 0.3" up and 0.2" right.
At this point, I decided to re-torque the cap screws and retest. Recommended torque values can be hard to find. I utilize rings from several suppliers; Nightforce, Seekins, Kelbly, and Badgar Ordnance. 15 in-lbs is a typical value but there is a wide range. Kelbly for instance is as low as 12 in-lbs while the NF Xtreme rings are as high as 25 in-lbs. As the rings in this test are the NF Xtreme, I re-torqued to just shy of 25 in-lbs.
I repeated the testing sequence after spinning the elevation and windage knobs several MOA back and forth and then zeroing up the NF Competition with the Valdada control scope. Upon firing, there now was NO discernable reticle shift observed for the NF Competition scope. Fired a total of 3 shots; checking after each shot for any movement.
I spun the knobs again and after zeroing up, ran a third test. Total of 3 shots. Again, I observed no discernable shift in the Nightforce Competition reticle.
So what's the moral of the story? Prior to the this testing, I was convinced the reticle was moving in my Nightforce Competition scope. I still believe there was movement but I now must conclude that perhaps the issue was with the scope rings and not with the scope itself.
I'm not going to presumptuously extrapolate my testing and resulting conclusions to anyone else's experience with their NF Competition scopes. I am going to be much more careful about rechecking the scope ring screws. I'm also going to consider using blue Loctite on the screws. I've read differing opinions about this practice and need to do more thinking before taking that step.
Hope this discussion has been of benefit to the community. Good luck!
