Sticky windage adjustment

[Trapper243]

I had to re sight my 223 the other day. New barrel. I got lucky as I was only 2 MOA high and 1.5 MOA left. I made the adjustments but the windage did not move, until the 5th shot and then it moved all at once. Next group was right where it should have been. I don't know why it stuck or hung up, but I am wondering if I should just send it back under warranty or wait to see what it does the next time it is used. These are capped turrets with coin slots, so it is not like it is adjusted a lot. Any common reason why the internals would get stuck? Heat, dirt?

 

[BoydAllen]

I would try "exercising" your turrets. Turn them to their limits, top to bottom, left to right a number of times, then put them back to as near as you can to where they were when your rifle was sighted in, then see how they respond.

 

[Trapper243]

Thanks. I will try that.

 

[Lapua40X]

... I don't know why it stuck or hung up, but I am wondering if I should just send it back under warranty or wait to see what it does the next time it is used. ... reason why the internals would get stuck? Heat, dirt?

First I agree with BoydAllen that, for now, you could try exercising the turrets to see if you can get things to loosen up. But during a period where you might not need the scope I'd recommend sending it in under warranty. In my experience, once a scope begins to show signs of failure it can't be relied upon for continuous accurate adjustment. Making a sight adjustment and hoping that the input was properly registered takes a lot of the fun out of shooting.
Your scope, if it's of any quality at all, should be sealed against the elements so unless it's been abused I would doubt that dirt infiltrated the mechanics. But a technician needs to disassemble it to find out what's actually wrong and fix it.
What scope are you using?

 

[LHSmith]

I have noticed that this problem frequently crops up when a shooter brings an older BR rig to a match that hasn't been used for quite a long time (years).
+1 on the responses......and I always dry-fire (non-rimfire) after making adjustments - even on new scopes.

 

[Trapper243]

It is an old Nightforce varmint scope.