Originally Posted by
Robinhood
I used to compete in FTR. There was this engineer guy, he had a nice custom rifle and a NF ATCR sitting on top. Me, a Savage 16 action with a criterion 308 and a Choate stock.(don't laugh, it got me high master at 300 and 600 and master at 1000). I am stomping this guy at every match. Afterwards a bunch of us would go and get a burger or something and do a little bonding. One time I ask him to meet me at the range on a Saturday. I loaded up some 175 FGMM loads and we got together. After a round of shooting at 300 I asked to shoot his rifle. The focus was off and the parallax wasn't close. I asked him If I could adjust it to work for me. He said sure..you gotta ask right. I focused the ocular lens and then adjusted the parallax. He asked why I was going through that process and I told him that I thought his scope wasn't adjusted correctly for him and I wanted to prove it. I proceeded to shoot the smallest 308 5 shot group of my life at 300(3/4). A little education and I never beat him again. If you know this good for you it has no value. Most long range shooters perform this with every new scope. So for the benefit of the people who are new or don't know.....here we go. Aim the scope reticle at something with no features ie... the sky, broad side of a barn, something that will not distract the eye. Focus the ocular lens until the reticle has the sharpest lines, and any dots are perfectly symmetrical etc... If your eyes get tired, take a break then go back and do it again. This is critical. You will never need to adjust this again with the exception of your eyes change Get a known target distance(exact distance is optimal). A white target with 1 inch squares or small dot works well. Dial that distance in on the knob. Now look at the target. Without influencing your rifle/scope(you need a sturdy bench and keep your body parts from touching anything), move your head up and down, left to right. Does the reticle move on the target? Is the target clear? Probably no to both questions. Reticle stability is the most critical and what we are going for if small groups are the goal. Now adjust the parallax knob until the reticle does not move any amount on the target. the scope should be clear. Anytime you change distance, it is all about getting clarity with the p. knob, then fine tuning it until until the cross-hairs don't move. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ......................... For some reason it clumped several paragraphs together. Don't know why.