is it me? it's the scope, right?

[Jay Christopherson]

I'm wondering if I'm going crazy or if maybe my eye's are going bad.

I have a March 5-50x56 scope. At 100 yards, with the side focus at '100', the focus is perfect and the reticle is perfectly focused as well. No parallax. Ditto for 200 yards. This is at 40X-ish power.

At 600 yards, if I dial down the scope to 20X, the clarity is perfect. Perfect focus, no parallax, etc, etc... if I dial the scope up to 40X+ (really, starting at 30X+), things start to get pretty blurry. If I dial the side focus down to 300 or so, the target comes back in to focus, but I start to detect some parallax.

It's driving me nuts. I've always had 20/20 vision (although it's been 5 years since I've checked) and I've never had issues like this with a scope.

As I see it, there are two possible issues - one, my eyesight needs to get checked. Two, something about the focus setup is off.

But, if two is true, why is the focus great at 20X, but not at 40X, without changing the side focus setting?

I've tried this in different conditions, so it's definitely not a mirage issue.

 

[Dave T]

God is paying you back for that hoarding trick you pulled on us a few months back, remember that one? You had me all fired up.
Dave T

 

[Jay Christopherson]

God is paying you back for that hoarding trick you pulled on us a few months back, remember that one? You had me all fired up.
Dave T

lol. Karma. It never fails.

 

[M-61]

Don't know if this helps:
http://www.6mmbr.com/parallax.html

Section on rotating parallax knob to infinity and coming back from there. There was much more that has been posted but I can not find it.

 

[Keith Glasscock]

Is that modifier disc on or off?

 

[Jay Christopherson]

Is that modifier disc on or off?

I've been using it on. Good question though. I'll try with it off. I've always used the disc on my other March scope without issue, but that was a 10-60x52.

 

[hogpatrol]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you're over 40, there's a good shot your eyeballs are going south. With a five year gap, I'd suggest scheduling an appointment with an opthamologist. I'm not a doctor but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. ;D

 

[gary0529]

Re:hogpatrols reply----

I am a doctor (though you better have 4 legs and bark-)
Yes, the lenses do change as we age and it is not uncommon to have early lenticular changes by the mid-40's. That and along with other aging changes that occur I would best advise an appt. with an ophthalmologist not an optician - please, no hate mail from them it is just I had one miss a retinal tear that cost me some acuity in one eye.

Once the eyes are either confirmed or removed from the list of possibilities you can go about getting that very nice scope checked out.

Gary

 

[MrMajestic]

;D, been there/done that! Make sure you get impact rated glasses! ;D

 

[Medic505]

Hey Jay, welcome to the world of bifocals.

 

[Raythemanroe]

Maybe you sold the wrong scope.



Ray

 

[Jay Christopherson]

Maybe you sold the wrong scope.



Ray

lol. That may be so. Even with the difficulty, the scope has still tracked impeccably and it hasn't (so far as I can tell) affected my scores. Better to address sooner rather than later though.

 

[Syncrowave]

Dealing with some similar issues myself with a scope by another (top-tier) manufacturer.

1. I would definitely get my eyes checked if I were you, especially if you're over 40. My eyes went to heck the year I turned 40.

2. You might also want to talk to the fella at http://www.bulzeyepro.com/competition-boosters-factory.php ... he definitely opened my eyes to a few issues, not sure whether what he told me is true, but it definitely gave me reason to pause...

 

[falconpilot]

Jay,

I too this day have the same problem with my 10x60. I love the scope, but the dang focus has always driven me nuts and is the only single thing about the scope that I don't like. I've been shooting it for over 5 years and have learned to live with it. Every time I change the power setting, I have to refocus the scope. I don't think its my eyes because my NF Comp doesn't do this..

Jim

 

[Jay Christopherson]

Jay,

I too this day have the same problem with my 10x60. I love the scope, but the dang focus has always driven me nuts and is the only single thing about the scope that I don't like. I've been shooting it for over 5 years and have learned to live with it. Every time I change the power setting, I have to refocus the scope. I don't think its my eyes because my NF Comp doesn't do this..

Jim

This is an interesting reply - interesting because I've owned three March scopes now. A 2.5-25x42 (still have it), and 10-60x52 (sold it), and now the 5-50x56. I never had an issue like this with the first two, only the latter. I have a few things to try in the meantime, but if it continues through the end of the match season for me, I may send it to Deon in November to ask them to check it.

FWIW, I pulled out my 2.5-25x42 and it seems fine. Of course, it tops out at 25X and the 5-50 is fine at that power. It's when I run it over 30X that the image starts to suffer.

 

[dickn52]

Might be that annealer too......

 

[letronshootit]

Let someone else look through it and see if they have the same issues, it worked on my wife's scope. Different lookers, turned out to be just parallax adjustment. You still should get your eyes checked.

 

[Raythemanroe]

I have no problem checking it out for ya. Just mail it to me and I'll give it a run down over the rest of the season



Ray

 

[Jay Christopherson]

After falconpilot's reply, I got to thinking that there must be an explanation that doesn't involve the sudden deterioration of my eyes.

I received an email from someone who would know, recommending that I try focusing the ocular at high power (40x - 50x), rather than at low power, and then taking it to the range. In addition, I sent an email to Deon, just to see if this was something they had seen before. Deon responded overnight and I'm going to post their email (edited for brevity) here. Keep in mind that Deon is a Japanese company...

Thank you for selecting March scopes.

We understand what is happening on your scope. Let us explain details.

March scopes have high magnification in compact body.
The focus depth at high mag become shallow and at low mag become deep.
Deep focus depth ---- It has wider range of focal point. So it seems like getting visually in focus anywhere in that range.
Shallow focus depth ---- It has only smaller range of focal point. So when focus changes even a little the view through scope gets blurred.

....

If you set the focus at low mag and use the scope at long range with high and low mag, you might get burred at high mag. Because it is easy to get focus at low mag but it is actually not proper focus point.
So set the focus at high mag. You can get the proper focus point at high mag and it works properly and clearly at low mag and back to high mag as well.

The issue of focus depth is known as optical basic and noticeable especially high mag scopes. And the problem on your March sounds like the same. We hope this can help to solve the problem and make your good success with March.

This is basically the same thing I was told in the separate email I received and it sounds like it will address my issue. I'm shooting a club match today, so I'm going to refocus the ocular at high power and then give it a try. I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[Raythemanroe]

Makes sense