How to zero a scope

[Grim Reaper 1]

PS Erk,

 

My rifle is a .177 - these can go a bit further than the 22 rifles, as your's is 22, you might be more comfortable if you zero at say, 25-30 yards?

 

Just a thought that i forgot to mention in my post. Another thing to remeber is that 22 rifles have a little bit more of a pronounced (or exaggerated) curve in their trajectories than a .177 rifle. .177 rifles tend to have a flatter trajectory than a 22.

 

So, to summarize, 22 rifles have more of a punch, slightly more of a trajectory curve, and can be less accurate than .177 rifles; whereas .177 rifles have a flatter trajectory curve, but can get out a little further, and are better on the accuracy front than 22's.

 

Hope this also is helpful?

 

Regards,

Grim.

Edited August 17, 2008 by Grim Reaper

[marshall298 0]

good that mate

[Grim Reaper 1]

good that mate

 

 

Thanks for your input Marshall, i hope you find it to be of help to you mate.

 

 

 

Regards,

Grim.

[zofo 0]

Hi Grim,

 

Great article and great knowledge ! so I hope you can help me. I’ve not been into air rifles long but I have a slight problem. I have previously zero’d my rifle and scope but it took a knock ( ok it was resting up against a tree and it feel to the ground!) and now I can not zero the scope, I need to move the cross hairs further to the right but the turret is fully out and will not let me make anymore adjustment to the right, can you help ?

[Grim Reaper 1]

Hi Grim,

 

Great article and great knowledge ! so I hope you can help me. I’ve not been into air rifles long but I have a slight problem. I have previously zero’d my rifle and scope but it took a knock ( ok it was resting up against a tree and it feel to the ground!) and now I can not zero the scope, I need to move the cross hairs further to the right but the turret is fully out and will not let me make anymore adjustment to the right, can you help ?

 

 

First of all Zofo, welcome to THL - I hope you enjoy your stay here, as well as the deep and wide knowledge base that is to be found here!

 

Well, unfortunately, it seems you have found out the hard way (same as us all i think!) that the strongest position for an air rifle to be in is on the ground, layed on it's side! Don't worry, you are not alone in this unhappy mistake bud.

 

Ok, so after the fall, you find you can't adjust the scope any more? It could mean that the internals of the scope may have become mis-alligned? If the following proceedures are not sorting the problem out, then i would think that mis-allignment of the internal mechanisms is what the problem would be? Only option there is to take the scope bac k to where you bought it and see if they can help you out in any way.

 

 

Anyway, onto the subject in hand . . . . Mechanically centering the cross hairs:

 

What you need to do is to 'mechanically' centre the cross hairs. To do this turn a turret to its full amount in one direction, and then slowly turn it back the other way, until it stops (count the clicks all the way and note the total number) Now, take the total number of clicks, and halve it - that gives you the number of clicks to move the turret to get it roughly centered in that plane (there are two planes or axis - elevation [up and down] and windage [left and right]. Once you have done this for one axis, you simply repeat the same process for the other axis. This is known as mechanically centering the cross hairs - next stage is to 'optically' centre the cross hairs.

 

What I do to optically centre my scope (it sounds complicated but isn't really that hard to do, if you take your time and don't try to hurry things) is this:

 

What to do is take the turret caps off and rest the scope on a sound surface, or a purpose made scope bench - such as the one i made below.

 

ScopeBench.

 

Pick an object (a stone, or something small like a grape) in the distance say, at the bottom of your garden etc., put the cross hair centre on this object, and slowly rotate the scope with your fingers a full 360 degrees whilst looking through the crosshairs at the object - the object of the excersise is to note where the cross hair centre is moving in relation to the object. Once you have discovered where the cross hair goes in relation to the object, you should then know which of the two turrets need to adjusted in which direction. The result you are looking to be getting is such that when you slowly rotate the scope around with your fingers (while looking through the scope) is for the cross hair centre to be continually resting on the object for the whole 360 degrees of rotation. If this is the end result that you obtain, then your scope is now optically centered.

 

I hope this is helpful to you, if not, then i will try to make it a bit better?

 

 

Regards,

Grim.

Edited August 23, 2008 by Grim Reaper

[zofo 0]

Hi Grim,

 

Great article and great knowledge ! so I hope you can help me. I’ve not been into air rifles long but I have a slight problem. I have previously zero’d my rifle and scope but it took a knock ( ok it was resting up against a tree and it feel to the ground!) and now I can not zero the scope, I need to move the cross hairs further to the right but the turret is fully out and will not let me make anymore adjustment to the right, can you help ?

 

 

First of all Zofo, welcome to THL - I hope you enjoy your stay here, as well as the deep and wide knowledge base that is to be found here!

 

Well, unfortunately, it seems you have found out the hard way (same as us all i think!) that the strongest position for an air rifle to be in is on the ground, layed on it's side! Don't worry, you are not alone in this unhappy mistake bud.

 

Ok, so after the fall, you find you can't adjust the scope any more? It could mean that the internals of the scope may have become mis-alligned? If the following proceedures are not sorting the problem out, then i would think that mis-allignment of the internal mechanisms is what the problem would be? Only option there is to take the scope bac k to where you bought it and see if they can help you out in any way.

 

 

Anyway, onto the subject in hand . . . . Mechanically centering the cross hairs:

 

What you need to do is to 'mechanically' centre the cross hairs. To do this turn a turret to its full amount in one direction, and then slowly turn it back the other way, until it stops (count the clicks all the way and note the total number) Now, take the total number of clicks, and halve it - that gives you the number of clicks to move the turret to get it roughly centered in that plane (there are two planes or axis - elevation [up and down] and windage [left and right]. Once you have done this for one axis, you simply repeat the same process for the other axis. This is known as mechanically centering the cross hairs - next stage is to 'optically' centre the cross hairs.

 

What I do to optically centre my scope (it sounds complicated but isn't really that hard to do, if you take your time and don't try to hurry things) is this:

 

What to do is take the turret caps off and rest the scope on a sound surface, or a purpose made scope bench - such as the one i made below.

 

ScopeBench.

 

Pick an object (a stone, or something small like a grape) in the distance say, at the bottom of your garden etc., put the cross hair centre on this object, and slowly rotate the scope with your fingers a full 360 degrees whilst looking through the crosshairs at the object - the object of the excersise is to note where the cross hair centre is moving in relation to the object. Once you have discovered where the cross hair goes in relation to the object, you should then know which of the two turrets need to adjusted in which direction. The result you are looking to be getting is such that when you slowly rotate the scope around with your fingers (while looking through the scope) is for the cross hair centre to be continually resting on the object for the whole 360 degrees of rotation. If this is the end result that you obtain, then your scope is now optically centered.

 

I hope this is helpful to you, if not, then i will try to make it a bit better?

 

 

Regards,

Grim.

 

Grim,

 

thanks very much for the info. i will try it out over the next week.

 

What a great forum !

 

thanks again

[TheRabbitMan 0]

Grim,

 

As an air-gunner myself you made your point very well, very clear and understandable.

 

thanks

 

TheRabbitMan

[Grim Reaper 1]

Grim,

 

As an air-gunner myself you made your point very well, very clear and understandable.

 

thanks

 

TheRabbitMan

 

 

RabbitMan,

 

I thank you!

 

 

Regards,

Grim.

[shootfirst 0]

Many thanks Grim,I will try it you way, zeroing is not my thing your way makes it look simple thanks again

Zeroing your ‘scope

 

This is my guide to how I do it, if you want to follow my method - please fell free. If you do not want to, then please feel equally as free. I am choosing to post this as i feel it may be of use to you guys.

 

Ok, well here we go . . . . .

 

The first thing I do when I want to zero a scope to my rifle is to initially set the rifle with the Harris pod and my self made butt rest attached (see below),

 

 

up at 5 yards from my target (which is in front of my backstop), I then fire 5 shots. I adjust the turrets after each shot windage first, elevation second, until the centre of my cross hairs are spot on to the pellet's point of impact. Once this has been achieved, I move to the next step.

 

This step is the same as above, but I increase the range by 5 yards so now the rifle is 10 yards from target. After achieving zero at each stage, I simply increase the distance between rifle and target by 5 yards. My own preferred zero range for my rifle/'scope set up is 35 yards.

 

I know you will have read this far and be thinking "why does he the zero at such small increases of distance from the target each time?" . . . . . the answer is that I have found I prefer this way to zero because if you were to have a misaligned scope, or any occurence of 'crossover' (for instance if you had say, tightened up the scope rings to tightly) then any misalignment will become evident much more earlier on in the zeroing session, you see?

 

As an aside, the screws on scope mounts should only EVER be tightened to finger tight any tighter and you will risk irrepairably damaging your scope body. Similarly, the scope ring mounts should, ideally, be placed on your rifle's dovetails so they are as far apart from where the scope's saddle (the bit where the turrets sit) is, as this will also help to negate the scope mounts damaging the turrets delicate inside adjusters as well.

 

Anyway, back to the subject . . .

 

Once I have achieved my zero, I generally choose to set my turret caps to indicate 'zero' on them. I do this by slackening off the turret screws that hold the caps in place, and turning the caps until the '0' is in line with the scope's index mark and then nipping the screws to finger tight. If I then choose to make a turret setting change, I can easily revert to the zero mark again by aligning the turret cap '0' with the scope index mark.

 

I tend to zero at 35 yards as this is my comfort zone when I am hunting, with this in mind, if a close range shot suddenly presents itself, (lets assume at 15 yards) I can then use a little bit of hold under and be sure of getting the shot where I need it to be. This enables me to take a closer (or a shot that is slightly beyond my zero) without having to alter the turret settings. As you may have guessed, on a personal level, I prefer not to have to fanny around altering my turrest for wind/elevation each time a target presents. itself. I find it much simpler to hold over or under, as the case may be.

 

Anyway people, I hope this helps you out in zeroing your scopes?

 

 

Best regards to all,

Grim.

[rabbit_killer 2]

as always grim great read!!

 

i understood it fine now thats saying somink lol

 

hows ya boy getting on anyhow??

[Jef66 0]

Thanks muchly Grim.

 

Mounted and zeroed my first scope a coupla days ago using your guide and its driving nails like a champ now

 

 

One question tho. I got a 3-9x50 scope, does the zero hold true at different magnifications, if not whats the best way to achieve a reliable zero on a variable zoom scope ??

[rabbit_killer 2]

i always zoom right in zero it in

and when you zoom out it should be spot on still!!

[Grim Reaper 1]

RK old bean!

 

The lad is going great guns thanks mate

 

I find too that zeroing in using highest mag is a good way of getting the zero spot bollock 'on', and also as you say, when you down mag/zoom out, the zero seems to hold true (if its a reputable scope). If, on the other hand, the scope is a bastood make, then you may well get some problems along the way?

 

Hope this helps you guys out a bit?

 

 

Cheers,

Grim.

Edited October 1, 2008 by Grim Reaper

[Grim Reaper 1]

Thanks muchly Grim.

 

Mounted and zeroed my first scope a coupla days ago using your guide and its driving nails like a champ now

 

 

One question tho. I got a 3-9x50 scope, does the zero hold true at different magnifications, if not whats the best way to achieve a reliable zero on a variable zoom scope ??

 

 

Damn fine to hear you got that result mate

 

With regards to your question, i would zoom right in, and then zero the scope in. Once zero is achieved, if the scope is a good and reputable make, then the zero should hold true. If its a cheap & nasty barstood make, then i reckon you can expect a few probs along the way, like?

 

 

 

All the very best (and thanks for posting your results back here ),

Grim.

Edited October 1, 2008 by Grim Reaper

[Jef66 0]

thanks for the advice Grim an RK. Spot on gents

 

Zeroed at 20 and 30 yards. Started on 9x then fired test groups at 6x and 3x at both ranges. Scope held true zero perfectly I'm more than happy with it [Hawke 3-9x50 IR nite eye]