How to Adjust A Rifle Scope

Is shooting your passion? Whether you are a novice or an expert in handling a scoped rifle, there are some adjustments that you may not be aware of that can improve the effectiveness of your rifle scope. Rifle scopes come in different varieties; the type of shooting determines the rifle scope you will need. It is essential to note that rifles vary regardless of whether they have been made by the same manufacturer and are one serial number apart. This means that two different rifles cannot have the same scope and cannot produce matching results. Therefore, have you ever tried adjusting a rifle scope and failed? Well, do not fret; in this article, we shall discuss the effective tips on how to adjust a rifle scope.

Scope Adjustments - How to Adjust a Rifle Scope

To achieve easy targeting and maximize your eye relief, you should first understand a few things.You should follow three techniques for you to operate your rifle and understand how to adjust a rifle scope. These techniques include: Fix the right eye relief, ensure that the reticle scope is equal, and then fine-tune the eye-piece for a sharp focus. Before you leave home in your truck and go out for shooting, ensure that you have a calibrated rifle and a sheet of paper.

The most preferred size is A4; draw a 15-centimeter vertical line, then attach it to a target board far from a wall, which is 12cm thick. Once this is done, place a stool on top of a table at a distance of about 10 meters from your target. Use a sandbag, pallet or a cushion bed to rest the front part of your weapon.  In case you need to make adjustments on your bullet's impact, consider changing your elevation adjustments to meet your aiming scope.  When you shoot at different distances from where you zeroed in your scope, the bullet's point of impact will be lower or higher than your aiming point. The one on top of your scope is referred to as the elevation turret. You can hit the left and right targets by altering your windage adjustments.

If you are wondering how to adjust the rifle scope up and down, then just know that the up and down targets can be achieved by making scope adjustments on the elevation turret. The main reason for this phenomenon is because bullets fall immediately after they leave your rifle. Therefore, an elevation adjustment will ensure that the bullet reaches the target.

Windage Adjustments - Adjusting Rifle Scope to the Left or Right

The work of windage adjustment is to adjust the bullet impact to the left and right. It is important to note that the windage adjustment is found on the rifle's left side. If you want to make adjustments to your rifle, you should first zoom and focus on the rifle's scope maximum limit until your image is clear and crisp.

Before you take the first shot, zoom your scope to 4 times magnification, and then proceed to take your first shot right in the middle of the vertical line. You will get a clear indication of the distance your shots are once you fire two more shots as long as your windage and elevation turrets have been appropriately adjusted. It is easy to determine the vertical line's average divergence to both the left and right sides. When adjusting rifle scope, keep in mind the wind can easily alter a bullet's path in flight because wind direction often changes; thus, you should ensure you readjust your scope each time and move your windage turret back to the default of zero. You can apply similar tricks for most scopes to determine if the bullet's impact is on the left or right before altering your windage turret.

The other trick to keep in mind is turning your windage knobs out or away from you will move the bullet to the left, and shifting the windage turret towards you will move your bullet to the right. You can set your elevation turret and windage turret back to zero when you are done shooting.

How to set the scope and parallax adjustments

When shooting, you may find yourself lifting your head each time before making your shot. This is a clear indication that the scope of your rifle is not of the right height. If you want to know how to set the scope either up or down, turn the turret, this will alter the elevation adjustment.

First, you should close your eyes, then open them and look through the scope of your reticle. If you can see through it, then you are good to go; if not, then you should either raise or lower your head as you make adjustments to your elevation and windage turrets. Adjust the rifle scope up and down until you find one perfect adjustment that will not make your neck fatigued when shooting. Parallax deviation, on the other hand, refers to the eye movement that brings about a deviation when looking through the eyepiece of the rifle scope. When such a deviation arises, you should adjust the reticle, which often slides and moves from your target.

On many occasions, the barrel orientation changes when you need to move your rifle scope, thus altering the bullet's path. This means you will automatically miss hitting the dead center of your target. If you want to solve this problem, focus your eye on the reticle, and adjust the target focus. The adjustment turret will move the focal point of your image to be in one line with the rifle's reticle.

A Step by Step guide on how to modify a rifle scope

As a rifle shooter, if you want to alter the rifle scope direction, you need to be aware of the surefire guidelines. When purchasing a rifle, it comes with a user manual that outlines the dos and the don'ts. The Riflescope is a gadget connected to the rifle that helps you scope adjust the line to the target and show you the reticle pointer, and you are now ready to shoot and hit the target at the center. 

Understand the basics

The Riflescope won't make sense to you until you understand the bullet trajectory. The bullet usually does not travel in a straight line; instead, it travels in a curve path. Therefore, you need to aim the muzzle a little upward by making an elevation adjustment for you to take advantage of your Riflescope. Before you can adjust your scope, you need several tools to help you set up the adjustment scope. These tools include a small screwdriver, Torx wrenches, and the gun vice.

A stable platform for the working of this equipment is also required. As a ranger, you can have a couple of sandbags, or if you are willing to invest, you can purchase a commercial rifle rest, which is way better than the sandbags. If you are a participant in the amazon program designed to provide discounts through the associates program an-affiliate, then you are one lucky person. You will get one of the commercial rifle rests at a discounted price due to the bonuses you get through the program an-affiliate advertising. A level and stable platform are essential to the entire process of sighting to adjusting the rifle scopes.

Visually align the target with the bore axis of a rifle barrel

 Now it is time to use the famous boresight technique to visually get your rifle barrel visually aligned on the target paper. This primary phase involves setting up your Riflescope to 25 to 45 yards on the targeting paper. Choose a suitable resting scope to ensure that you spread out in the perfect adjustment.

Again, strive to preserve the same form of ammunition that you use for the field's scope. Start modifying and making adjustments to them with all your necessary equipment. It is critically important to have the perfect boresight for your firearm. The right bore sighting helps in aligning up the rifle barrel, and in case you want to restore the scope of the initial adjustments of your rifle, then the laser bore sighter will come in handy. However, before you take the shooting step, make sure that you have the following things in place. Ensure that you are using the same kind of ammunition you usually use during hunting. Different ammunition has different impacts and varied results.

Make sure you are consistent with the type of ammo you use. Set a standard shooting scope range by making proper adjustments to your target location. Put your shooting range scope to 25 yards; however, you can fine-tune or adjust the scope of your shooting by making an elevation adjustment for the long-range. You can use a stable position while shooting and avoid the edges for proper balancing so as to help you focus on the sighting. It would help if you also avoided muscle support to ensure maximum accuracy. 

Adjust the Crosshair

Adjusting the crosshair at this phase is essential because it allows you to fine-tune the scope setting for the direct alignment of the scope line with the target. While you move the knobs, the crosshair aligns itself with the target pointing the bullet to 25 yards or more of the target scope. Shooting at a longer range can magnify the error; thus, you should ensure that you place the crosshair at the top dead center.

There is no question that you must appropriately set the target using the correct adjustments. So how can you fix the target if the lenses are not correctly set? You fix this by ensuring the rings are correctly placed and perfectly tightened; thus, the erector tube mobility is within the scope. The right tightening adjustment helps to prevent unpredictable motions, in particular when the rifle recoils. On the contrary, stop excessive tightening of this part since the old erector's spring will crush.

Fine-tuning before the test  

From our previous step and examination, we recommended that you work with the standard 25 yards. At 25 yards, a bullet's impact will change by 2 inches when using an 8 MOA adjustment. Now it is high time to maximize the rifle’s long-range and set it up to 1 MOA of about 2 inches at 200 yards.

We suggest that you go with the bulls-eye process to fire those huge yards of distance, which will calculate the distance from the middle of your group. You need to note that the four clicks are equivalent to (1MOA) at 100 yards, not less than that. If you want to see the rifle 200 yards (2 MOA) away, make sure you have two clicks (1/4 MOA scope). If you have plans for hunting up to 1 MOA in 1 inch at 100 yards in the short-range, you should understand that the modification mechanism that allows various bullet types does not always give you a hard time.

If you do this at 200 yards(2 MOA), although again, different rifles and ammunition will act differently, you will not notice the same thing at 100 yards, which is why we say you go up to 100 yards(1 MOA) at the beginning.

Test a few shots

 Make your Moa adjustment and fire at your target not far from 100 yards out. It is necessary to ensure that your rifle's live firing capabilities are usable, and this course of lever-action would focus on the three-round sets. You may need to remain in a stable and relaxed position to remove human error in your scope. Start by firing the first shots and rest for a moment, then repeat the same process. Now make sure that the scope is set at the highest magnification for sharp images. Once you complete shooting for 100 yards, you make an adjustment to the 200 yards mark per click.

Make the Final Adjustments

In case you encounter riflescopes with two dials. One position at the top while the second situated at the side. Turn the dial knobs on the side to adjust your scope to zero. Use the top knob to move the crosshair either up or down as you set your rifle aim to be inline. If you want to perfect your rifle scope adjustment direction, move the sight of the scope away from the target. Adjust your scope and move it to the right of the area and repeat the same adjustment again and again so that you can achieve a perfect scope adjustments work. Use the small adjustment knobs to make a little but significant change while hitting your target.

Precautionary measures 

It would help if you took the following precautionary measures while adjusting your rifle scope: Modifying the Parallax, a clear and crispy erectile is necessary when you want a sight down the scope. You need to change the parallax turret to some degree and the rotation of your head and eyes during the targeting process.

Modifying the elevation adjustments, as you would need to shoot many of them to correct the settings, keep enough bullets with you. Don't use multiple brands of ammunition or concurrently adjust the windage and elevation. Stay loose and chill off at shooting times without moving the rifle scope and afterward make three shots on the scope per click. Regardless, on specific scopes, the reticle will increase in size proportionately to the image scope, while in different extensions, the reticle remains exactly the same size all through the enhancement cycle. 

Modifying the elevation

The reticle is changed by the First central plane rifle scopes (FFP) to the focal point of the objective picture. This implies that any of the graduated markings on the reticle can be utilized to quantify the picture amplification scope. Tragically, the reticle extension may be excessively slight or thick, in this way changing the picture's degree at the outrageous amplification ranges. The second central plane (SFP) rifle scope changes the reticle with the image center. In any case, the reticle stays as before.

A reticle of a consistent size can be both acceptable and awful as issues consistently emerge when utilizing an ungraduated reticle. A perfect example is when perusing your MOA marks on your reticle, the outcome will be incorrect.  You don't need to stress over not seeing your reticle scopes in low light or your reticle scopes at low power. You can regularly take shots better at lower amplification scopes of your rifles’ reticle scopes.

Gun storage

Once you are done with your gun, you should store it safely in a room out of the reach of children. Most people have gun racks where they store a variety of guns on them. You can either purchase a gun rack or plan out DIY projects to save on costs. If you search for a substantial rifle rack, you should plan out a project to construct a full-sized cabinet. Building on your own can be challenging, but it will be worth it in the end. A gun cabinet is often big enough to hold more ammo, guns, and accessories.

A good example is the Allens cabinet; you can find the pictures of this cabinet on Pinterest. This cabinet has multiple storage spaces and parts such as a long gun storage compartment, drawers, underneath door compartments, and a long shelf space. Creating a gun cabinet as this will require that you have advanced woodworking skills. The best part is that adjustments can be made to your cabinet to suit your needs. A good gun cabinet has various storage zones, and in most countries, a gun rack is allowed in both your car and home. You can carry your gun in your vehicle as long as you have a permit.

Conclusion

If you have proper knowledge about the rifle's scope ins and outs, you can judge the windage, elevation, and parallax. Also, setting up a rifle scope by yourself is a vital skill for a shooter.  Always take the necessary precautions when handling your rifle scope and practice more often to sharpen your skill.

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