TROUBLESHOOTING SCOPE ISSUES

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] with all of this talk lately about scope with paper thin tubes and plastic turrets just breaking or malfunctioning if you look at them wrong I want to explore the other side of this issue and that's that people often falsely accuse scopes of being bad when they're not yep you guessed it Scopes are often the victims of false accusations I've had countless of people bring Scopes to me over the years that you know claiming that it won't hold zero it has a Wandering zero the turrets won't dial properly or the reticle is screwed up on it but much of the time the scope turns out to be fine and the real problem is underneath or behind the scope in this video I'll show you the most common issues people have with an otherwise mechanically sound scope I'll also show you how to go through the process of elimination and how to correct most issues that Scopes have after watching this video you should be able to determine if the issues the scope the Rings the bases the rifle or you if you're having issues with accuracy or maybe reliability the first thing you need to do is isolate the problem as either the rifle or the scope and to do this is very easy all you really need to do is remove the suspect scope and replace it with a second scope that's known to work properly if the second scope works great you know your issue was in the scope all along if your second scope has the same exact problem as your first scope then the issue is probably not with your scope I've seen rings that were attached wrong or not fully seated into the grooves on the bases I've seen scope bases that were loose or just poorly machined or incorrectly installed or were just the wrong basis for the rifle actually seen that um I've seen rifles where the receiver isn't in line with the bore I know that sounds weird but uh you know I've seen that issue actually quite often um I've also seen receivers with incorrectly drilled screw holes or uneven mating surfaces on the top of the receiver you know installing a good second scope is a good way to isolate your issue as being a scope issue or a rifle issue so what I do is I shoot precise 10 shot groups with each scope and study the shot dispersion and uh I'll elaborate more on this process later on in this video out of the box a new scope should actually be broken in a little you know this isn't as complicated as breaking in a new engine or breaking in a new Barrel or even breaking in a new set of ketri boots all you need to do is to put some motion in the erector spring to settle it and spread some of the factory assembly lubricant around a little bit so before you mount your scope it's good to spin the turrets you know halfway or more in either direction to move the erector around and kind of settle the spring in there in fact it's good to move this a bunch of times before you actually even put it on the on the rifle you know next it's good to move around the magnification ring uh diopter assembly and the uh the focus knob you know all the way in both Direction a whole bunch of times to properly spread out that factory lubricant in there and to uh settle all of the components in the scope into place most Scopes settle in after you do this you know initial Breakin procedure so if you mount your scope right out of the box zero it with a few rounds then your zero changes you know it's usually because that scope needed a little bit of Breakin before you installed it on the rifle because I have old eyes that just don't Focus as fast as they used to I can instantly tell when a reticle is out of focus but young young people with young eyes usually can't tell if a reticle is out of focus you know young eyes really can't do this efficiently because their eyes Focus so fast so younger people are usually unaware that their scope is even adjusted wrong you know then you know eventually they start having headache or eye fatigue issues all rifle scopes have an adjustment ring an adjustment ring on the ocular known as a DI opter the purpose of this is to bring the reticle into Focus for your eyes and this setting will be different for each individual's uh eye prescription so in order to do this you adjust the diopter ring all the way out you turn the magnification all the way up you turn the focus knob if you have one on your scope all the way to infinity and you point the scope at a blank wall or cloudless sky or a white sheet of paper and you're going to look through the reticle for 1 second at a time and then take it off you know and as you do that adjust the diopter in over and over until the reticle comes into perfect focus and once this happens this is basically your permanent diopter setting for your eyes until your vision eventually gets worse the first thing I always suspect when people are claiming that their scope all of the sudden has really bad shot dispersion is Parallax erir you know I can't count how many times I've had people say this rifle isn't accurate anymore you know then I get behind their scope adjust for Parallax and shoot an amazing group you know I'm not going to give you a lecture about Parallax just be mindful that you won't shoot tiny groups with a lot of Parallax erir in the scope and regardless of what the experts try to tell you online Parallax air is actually a bigger problem at closer ranges than it is at extremely long ranges to check for Parallax all you need to do is get behind the scope and move your head slightly without moving the rifle and if the Crosshair moves in relation to the Target you have Parallax there and that's not good you know uh when you have a high magnification scope with a parallax knob on it it's really easy to deal with Parallax but never trust the numbers on one of these uh side Focus knobs or a parallax Focus knob you know always dial Parallax using your eyes not the numbers on the scope and of course if you have a scope without Parallax adjustment maybe it's a fixed Parallax scope fixed at like 100 or 150 yards you know those Scopes when you start getting out past about 250 yards um you know you or or or even a a really close shot on those you're probably going to have to use scope Shadow to uh remove Parallax a out of the scope and you can look up how to do that but uh there's even a technique to take most of the Parallax out of a fixed Parallax scope if you dial your turrets but the reticle doesn't move or you know if if if it gets really hard to turn your turrets or you zero your scope and then all of a sudden have a huge impact shift the problem might be that the erector assembly is bound up inside the tube because you maxed out travel this is common on Scopes that have been used and reused on several different rifles when this happens the first thing you should do is return your scope to what's called optical center and all this requires is really a small mirror you know back in the day we used to uh make these little v-notch Jigs and put our Scopes in them and spin them around and adjust to try to find optical center but uh some genius out there found out that it's just as easy to do it with a uh with a small glass mirror and to op to optically Center your scope all you need need to do is place the objective on the mirror with a good light source overhead and turn your scope magnification down to the lowest setting and that lowest setting will make kind of uh everything easier to see in the scope and when you look into your scope you'll see two sets of crosshairs so adjust your windage and and elevation until both the crosshairs kind of line up when you do this your scope will be very close to being optically centered and you can then install it on your rifle now if you optically Center your scope and you still have to adjust your turret to maximum in order to zero it you probably have a receiver to bore alignment issue and this could be a simple as a loose or maybe poorly machined uh uh scope Rail and that's an easy fix but it can also be misaligned screw holes on the receiver or maybe you have a uh an issue with the how the top of the receiver is machined and if this is the case you'll have to return your rifle under warranty or you'll end up taking it to a gunsmith but sometimes your Barrel is bent or installed at an angle or the receiver face isn't square if this is the case your rifle either needs a new Barrel or machine work done to the receiver to bring everything back into alignment and this used to be a big problem with Remington 700s in the late 199 90 s if uh the rifle shoots good even the though the bore is slightly misaligned or the receiver screw holes are just slightly off you know some people get those rings with uh with windage adjustment in them or they use the uh the bur signature rings that have the little uh MOA shims that you put inside the the Rings but neither of those in my opinion are good options but people do it anyways when a rifle scope slips in the Rings there's three possible issues that can cause that the first issue might be clamping Force as the mass of an object increases so does its inertia so heavier Scopes need more clamping Force than lighter Scopes clamping force can be achieved basically through more uh torque on the screws or from wider rings with more screws on them just be careful not to exert too much force too much clamping force and distort the scope tube it's real important if especially if uh you watched one of the videos I uploaded a couple of weeks ago about doing that the second issue might be that the scope rings are not gripping enough surface area of the scope because your rings need to be lapped you know sometimes rings have even quality rings have little microscopic high or low spots in them that can cause issues you know trust me lapping scop rings does solve a lot of issues and many expensive scope rings need to be lapped contrary to popular belief and lastly you might have oil or grease on your rings or on your scope tubes acting as a lubricant so and this will also cause the scope to slip within the Rings so always properly degrease rings and uh the scope tubes before you install your rings and scope sometimes you'll have rifle scope issues like maybe a magnification adjustment issues or Parallax issues that magically go away every time you to remove your scope or loosen up your rings this means that your rings are flexing out the scope tube every time you tighten them down here's an experiment for that get a laser Bor site install it in your rifle and zero your rifle to that dot and when you do this you need to make sure that the rifle is clamped down tight in a vice or some type of structure so it won't move at all so after you put this in a vice and zero the reticle to the dot and the bors site what you're going to do is loosen up your rear uh ring word attaches to the base right there so if you do that and your reticle moves off the dot if your reticle moves off zero you have either a misaligned base or your rings are out of whack or maybe your receiver is not lined up with the boore if it's just slightly misaligned lapping the Rings can often bring everything back true and take the stress off your scope but if it's too bad you might need new bases or at worst your receiver might be warped or have misaligned screw holes if you properly set the diopter on a scope that has adjustable Parallax and you can't get rid of The Parallax your scope probably is bad if you adjust your magnification ring and nothing happens your scope is probably bad if your reticle is obviously crooked your scope is probably bad and all those things are really self-explanatory and and those things are really easy so let's get into some scope issues that actually take some work to figure out if you suspect scope tracking issues I'll usually do a tall Target test but more importantly I'll do a turret tracking test as well in my opinion a turret tracking test is good because it takes a lot of the shooting errors out of the equation when you're testing out a scope but it's a comp licated test to set up you'll need a perfectly stable device that locks your scope down so it doesn't move at all while you're adjusting I use a uh iron Vie clamped to the table with a pick rail in the Jaws and uh this type of gunsmith Vice has a ball head on it so I could kind of move it around and adjust it to lock it in right there and you'll also need the proper Moa or Mil Dot targets to use for the test and you'll have to measure exactly from the center of the turret to this target with a long tape measure you can't use you know your standard uh laser range finder on it it's not accurate enough you actually need to tape out the distance on it and of course you need to make sure this target is perfectly level but this will let you know how well your turs track and Return To Zero the next test for when you suspect your scope is having wandering zero or shot dispersion issues is to get a good second scope to compare the suspect scope to you're going to carefully shoot 10 shot groups with the same rifle using both Scopes in order to do this you need to have a perfect shooting technique a precise shooting res rest or bipod a really good rear bag and all of the skill sets necessary to shoot tiny groups shooting off of sandbags or 2x4s will not give you Precision here if you don't have the equipment or skill to shoot precise groups have someone else do this test for you but basically what you do is you carefully shoot 10 shot groups with both Scopes and let the barrel cool between shots you aren't really looking for Flyers here you're looking at shot dispersion if the group wanders there's usually an issue with the scope if the group dispersion is noticeably larger with the suspect scope than it is with the control scope there's usually an issue as well you know erector assemblies kind of float around inside this tube right here and often deviate office zero due to bad springs turret issues or even a lack of internal pressure sometimes taking everything apart and remounting your scope from the bases up can solve issues this is especially true if you let some crackhead at a gun shop Mount your scope for you if you watched my video titled don't destroy your scope you saw that over torqued rings can easily deform the tubes on some Scopes you know especially if the screws have uh oil or a thread Locker on them you know but sometimes you get lucky and over torqued Rings don't actually destroy your scope it just binds up the internals in the scope a little bit and often just loosening up the Rings uh degreasing them lapping them and install reinstalling them to proper torque specs will fix the issue and sometimes you get lucky like that also you know maybe the Rings weren't seated fully forward in the rail you know uh uh that's often a problem or maybe you know your base was loose or one of the Cruis in the base was bottoming out in the action often going back to square one and doing a full reinstall is the right thing to do and I find that most of the time this actually fixes a lot of issues the last problem with trying to shoot a highly precise group is a problem that most people don't want to hear and I know a lot of people on this channel aren't going to want to hear this but most people simply don't know how or aren't properly equipped to shoot small groups with a rifle hate to say that but it's true and when that happens the ammo the rifle and ultimately the scope usually gets the blame for it you know I understand practical accuracy in the field and practicing from field positions I'm a huge proponent of that but when you're zeroing a rifle doing load development or testing out scope function accuracy From the Bench is actually extremely important and most people aren't capable of doing that also shooting from different positions or using different rests or even putting pressure on the rifle different ways will cause impact shifts and these impact shifts are also usually blamed on the scope I mean for instance uh if you're shooting off of a bag versus a bipod you're probably going to have a little bit of a different point of aim point of impact um also a bag like this you know that people go down to Walmart or something and buy is never going to be as precise as shooting off of a system like this but even if you have a system like this you know if uh if I'm shooting a uh flat profile uh Target or tactical rifle and I put it into this round bag right here it's not going to shoot very precisely I need a flat bag for that and conversely if I try to shoot a rounded frontend lightweight hunting rifle on this uh flat base right here I'm also probably not going to shoot very precise groups you know then you get into rear bags which if you're not using a really good heavy rabid rear bag you're probably also not shooting very precise groups so you know all of this comes into play um and to add to this you need to have good shooting technique I mean I mean you need to know how to shoot at a free recoil with a lighter and you could do that with a lighter recoiling cartridge but some of the big heavy kickers and a lightweight hunting rifle you're going to have to kind of hold that stock and control that a little bit but you got to be repeatable and consistent with that hold and odor to get good groups um you know trigger control um getting behind the scope taking Parallax out you know there's a lot of technique involved also with shooting good groups and most people don't possess that knowledge or skills but many years ago I uh I had a guy complaining to me that is Garen didn't shoot worth a [ __ ] you know he'd zero it perfectly and then it would shoot like crap during competitions well what I found out was that he zeroed that M1 Garand Off the Bench then shot groups prone using a sling for tension and that caused him to shoot four or five Ines to the left every time so people do similar things like this all the time and immediately blame it on the scope I've definitely had my share of bad or broken Scopes over the years and people who claim the opposite probably haven't been hunting for very long a scope is a complicated machine with small moving parts and fragile glass inside of it so fully trusting any scope is kind of stupid you know they're all prone to failure like any machine is but quite honestly in my experience the human machine is more prone to failure you know I'm sure you noticed that my last two videos put some Scopes in kind of a bad light but in this video I actually came came to their defense you'll only experience a Optics roller coaster ride like that on desert dog Outdoors well I hope you enjoyed this video about troubleshooting rifle scope issues you can reach me with any questions or comments at Desert dog Outdoors gmail.com thank you for watching and as always good [Music] hunting [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Desert Dog Outdoors

Views: 6,407

Keywords: scope problems, scope tracking, scope tracking issue, scope won't zero, scope erector, rifle scope issues, broken scope, scope doesn't work, how a scope works, troubleshooting scope, wandering zero scope, scope losing zero, scope optical zero, scope optical center, optical center mirror, scope turret problem, broken scope turret, scope slipping, scope moving in rings, scope rings not holding, bad scope, bad rings, lapping scope rings, lapping rings, scope ring, dioper

Id: 0AhDu5-3G4A

Length: 26min 34sec (1594 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 12 2023