Scope Parallax adjustment is nearly always on the top of that "undecided" list. So, to help you narrow down your options we've put together some how-to's and tips to inform you of whether or not parallax adjustment is for you. Plus, these tips will help you master the art of parallax adjustments if you decide a scope with this feature is for you.
What is Rifle Scope Parallax? Do you want the jargon-filled, complicated, and incomprehensible twaddle or do you want it straight in layman's terms? Since we're hunters, not pedagogues, let's go over parallax in the simplest way possible. Parallax is the apparent movement, swimming, or cross hair travel when you move your head and eyes in a different position. This occurs when the image is not in focus or is not on the same optical plane as the reticle.
For you, it's to get that darn cross hair to sit still and stay on target so you can make your shot where you want it to go. For the scope, it's to get the image you're seeing to be on the same focal plane as the reticle. This means, making sure that light rays cross, refract, and fall precisely on the reticle focal plane. Since I promised this should be as easy to understand as possible. Let's quickly go over some basic rifle scope lens anatomy.
Firstly, there are four lens assemblies in a rifle scope. From front to back, you have the objective lens, focus lens, magnifying lens, and lastly the ocular lens. The position of the lens in the rifle scope are important. Secondly, the erector tube houses the reticle. Now that I've got you up to speed on your internal anatomy , let's uncover why you may have never heard of or dealt with parallax until now.
Unless you're a precision shooter, long distance hunter, or a very close varmint hunter or pellet gun enthusiast, you may not have noticed parallax issues. And, parallax may not have presented too much of a problem for your style shooting. The truth is, for big game hunters sticking to normal hunting distances, say between 75 to yards, parallax isn't going to present any problems for you.
Let's delve into a few reasons why that is. All rifle scopes without a parallax adjustment feature are going to be factory-set to be parallax free at a specific distance.
At that set distance you can move your head and eyes all over the place and the cross hairs won't move in relation to the target. If you're hunting between the distances mentioned above, you're probably more than likely using a X40 rifle scope or something with lower power. With these magnifications and distances, parallax shouldn't ever present a problem. Parallax provides a very small and slim margin of error, if it's even noticed at all, at these distances. Rifle scopes with less than 10X magnification typically won't have a parallax adjustment, for example LPVO low power variable optics such as scopes for an AR Rifle scopes with more than 10X magnification should almost always have a parallax adjustment.
These rifle scopes are aimed towards the long range distance hunter. For more info on long range hunting scopes , take a sneak peak at our long range rifle scope reviews. If you're a reflex or red dot sight kinda guy, then you can safely say that you've never experienced parallax at all. They're what you would call "parallax free" devices at all distances.
This is because reflex sights have little to no magnification abilities we'll come back to magnification and parallax later. Now that we've got the foundation laid to understanding parallax, I'm going to take you through the meat of this article.
Here, we'll get into how to use your parallax adjustment feature, how to get rid of parallax even if you opt for a fixed objective rifle scope, and why you would want to adjust for parallax. Focusing a rifle scope is a one time adjustment that shouldn't be done again unless someone else used your scope. It's like getting back in the drivers seat after someone borrowed your car - you need to adjust the mirrors, the seat position, and perhaps even the steering wheel and pedal heights.
Once you've got the most comfortable and most practical position behind the wheel, you shouldn't have to adjust any of those components again. The goal of focusing is to get the reticle focused for your set of eyes.
There's no way you can adjust for parallax and get dead on if the foundation hasn't been cemented in. These features include adjustable objectives and side focus and we are going to give you some tips to using both of those in the next section.
We will also offer up some tips to eliminating parallax with a fixed objective. Let's get into the 27 tips! TIP 1. The top surface of the AO will be marked with distances as references for you to aid in correcting parallax.
TIP 2. These distances will be marked in yards or meters. If you have this is called parallax, the cross hairs are not opticly on the same plain as your target. Difficult concept I know, the same concept works for a survey instrument.
Bacicly inaccuracies occure due to improper parallax adjustment. Properly adjusted cross hairs will not move on your target while moving your head slightly on the stock if parallax is adjusted properly. Now for some of what DAA spoke about. Various scope manufacturers in non-AO scopes adjust to a parallax free conditions at certain distances, most center fire rifle scopes are set at yards or a little more but never more than yards rim fire scopes are around 50 yards.
This is the distance where most of us shoot. With very little variation this setting works very well especially if you have really good consistent mounting technique. The big bennifit in this type of scope is simplicity, you simply can't have youe scope set wrong. Well then why a parallax adjustment? It can be assumed that the higher powered scopes will be used at extended range where accuracy is much more important.
In this case a parallax adjustment is important. Lots and lots of people think that a AO adjustment is there for to focus the scope and indeed you will find that focus is part of the equation, but the most important part of the equation is adjusting parallax out of your scope. As a matter of face your scope may not be at its sharpest image adjustment when the parallax is properly adjusted.
Parallax is important for pin point accurate long range shooting. Now remove the bench from the equation and back track a little, off the bench and in the field it is the focusing factor that will get you in trouble most of the time with an AO scope. You are at the bench, the scope poweer is set at 14x, you are focused and parallax free on that yard target and things are going better than expected so you jump up and run out to the field for a little calling. You sit down and absolutely fool a coyote almost into your lap, a 20 yard dead coyote so you draw down on the coyote to shoot but instead of the coyote you see nothing but hair, lots and lots of very very fuzzy hair, you have absolutely no idea if you are looking at your coyote or a dead tree.
Then comes in the "Fiddle Factor" that we've all talked about. You've got to fiddle with your scope, not only turn the power down to a reasonable level but to adjust the focus AO ring so you have a clue as to what your looking at. Too much fiddling around and the coyote wanders off laughing at you. I've only very, very rarely had occasion to use the AO on a scope while coyote hunting. And it's always been when taking a very long range, very deliberate, very calculated shot.
But, by the same token, I've never, ever, not once had the parallax adjustment hurt my chances of killing a coyote. Even if it were accidentally set for infinity, and a coyote popped up at 20 feet, it wouldn't make any difference - you'd still be able to obtain a useable sight picture and get the job done. The more common, more likely scenario of having parallax AO set for - yards, and a coyote that needs killing inside 50 yards, it just doesn't matter.
It's happened to me a handful of times. There are three main advantages: The target is in-focus, being in-focus will eliminate parallax movement of the point of aim when the shooter shifts the eye position , and the range information on the focus knob can be used for better aiming.
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Be sure that your scope is mounted properly. Know your rifle. There are actually two optical systems in a rifle scope. The objective front lens focuses the target image on the reticle cross-hairs ; the eyepiece rear lens focuses the eye on the reticle.
Most eyepieces have a lock ring. Unscrew the lock ring a turn or two so that the eyepiece can be screwed in and out. Aim at the target. The adjustable objective rifle scope comes into play at long distance, generally greater than yards or meters.
See if an adjustment needs to be made by checking for parallax error. If you move your eye across the eyepiece slightly left and right, the reticule should remain on target. If the reticule shifts and is no longer on target as your eye moves, the objective lens of the scope needs adjustment. Turn the adjustment for the objective lens on the scope until the reticule remains on target even as you shift your eye back and forth across the eyepiece.
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