parallax on hunting scopes

[Froggie the Gremlin]

I've shot for a long time, and my long range gun has a Leupold 12x with a parallax adjustment that works OK.

It's been a while since I bought a scope. I'm thinking of getting a hunting scope in the 3-10 x 50mm range (like a Vortex Viper or Zeiss Conquest), and with all the advances in scopes lately, they still don't have parallax adjustments for a tube like that.

What's up? Don't they think we care?

Can anyone enlighten me on that?

 

[fredhorace77]

actually I don't want it on my hunting scopes. 1 less thing I have to fool with. and if I remember correctly the Leupold does come with parallax adjustment

 

[LHSmith]

I'd say the demand just isn't there by the consumer. Leupold used to make their 3.5 x10 Vari-3 with an AO....they even had the same in a compact model. The 6x scopes for Hunter BR have been discontinued by Burris and Leupold, those had AO's. Parallax adjustment for HBR is an absolute must.....if you attempt to shoot score w/o an AO scope on a proven rifle your scores will indeed suffer. The average shooter using a scope under 12x will never notice the difference. Target, competition, and varmint scopes require higher magnification and such, the need to fine tune the optics becomes more apparent. My problem with AO scopes is that the yardage markings are never correct.

 

[tuck2]

Big game rifles when used for most shots over 100 Yds dont need a parallax adjustment scope . Most are set at 150 Yds and as the distance increases there is little shift in the cross hairs . Set up targets at 100, 200, and 300 Yds with a fixed scope and one can check the shift of the cross hairs. But for small game and varmint rifles AO scopes are handy to have. My pellet rifles where shots are within 10 to 40 yards have AO scopes on them. My 10-22 T has a Burris 6 X AO scope on it because most shots with it are between 25 and 80 yards. I set up targets at 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 Yds to see the amount of cross hair shift with the Burris 6 X scope when set st 50 Yds. At 20 and 80 Yds the shift was greater than the size of a prairie dog pups head. All of my center fire varmint rifles have 14 X and up to 20 X AO scopes on them because I shoot at small varmints and can use the extra accuracy of the AO scope.

 

[Froggie the Gremlin]

Thanks guys.

Maybe I'm a nit-picker, but as a land surveyor, I know that errors are additive. So the more you can diminish, the better.

My .338 WM is good for 3/4 MOA, some of which is me I'm sure. But I can't see disregarding parallax, as tuck2 points out, it can make the difference sometimes.

For those that don't care to deal with it (myself sometimes, like a body shot on an elk at 200 yds), you can ignore it then. But you still have the option for a thread shot at 300+.

It's been some time, but I've spent a lot of time at the bench checking this out; enough to know that the AO markings on my 12x Leupold need their own calibration,which I've done. If you want to hit blackbirds at 250 yards, you need to do that.

 

[LHSmith]

You can greatly eliminate the parallax issue with any scope by backing away from the eye piece (ocular end) until you get a black ring around the image (called vignetting) and centering the FOV in the black halo. This might be counter-productive as it alters your normal shooting form...you would have to practice to see if is indeed more accurate.

 

[holstil]

Turn the power down for close shots. You'll be GTG. The parallax should be minimal if there is any at low mag.

Jim

 

[Bulseyetom]

I really love the side focus Zeiss 4.5-14 scopes. I might not adjust at 6x in my hunting mode but at the range using 14x it is really nice to eliminate the parallax when trying to fine tune a load. I had a 3.5-10 Leupold Mark 4 but the side focus had lash and you had to go to infinity and start over if you went past the point where parallax was eliminated. I have 4 Zeis scope with sf and none have the lash problem. Tom