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I was talking with a gun smith today about my gun. I told him that my gun at 5.5 power at 200 yards lays them right in the bullseye but when i turn it up to 16.5 to fine tune some things i am about 2.5inches high and 1.5 inches right with very incosistent groups. He told me that he thinks i have a paralax issue. Has anybody else had this issue and if so how they fixed it? I was told to steady the gun on the target and nod your head up and down and see if the crosshairs move and if they do then i need to adjust the bell on the end of my gun so it doesn't do that and then mark it and leave it.

Sounds like another excuse for all those coyotes you miss

I knew that was coming

nothing like a good kick to the nuts lol!!!

lyonch wrote:I was talking with a gun smith today about my gun. I told him that my gun at 5.5 power at 200 yards lays them right in the bullseye but when i turn it up to 16.5 to fine tune some things i am about 2.5inches high and 1.5 inches right with very incosistent groups. He told me that he thinks i have a paralax issue. Has anybody else had this issue and if so how they fixed it? I was told to steady the gun on the target and nod your head up and down and see if the crosshairs move and if they do then i need to adjust the bell on the end of my gun so it doesn't do that and then mark it and leave it.

Parallax: an apparent change in the position of cross hairs as viewed through a telescope, when the focusing is imperfect.


Well, most high power rifle scopes are parallax free out to 200 yards, rim fire scopes are set for 50 yards. When you sight in your gun set it on the highest power that you will be using in the field. All of my guns are sighted in at the highest power setting, all of my varmint scopes are 4 X 12 Leupolds. If you have an Adjustable Objective End on your scope you can turn it to compensate for any paralax out to infinite with graduated marks typically from 50-500 yards with the final setting marked infinite. If you have a non-adjustable objective end it will be parallax free out to 200 yards and you will have to dope the changes with the increased yardage. With practice this is not to tough to do. A good quality scope should not have the cross hairs move with any movement of your head. But the impact of the bullet can change if you mount the gun different with each shot.

Norman Johnson has done a few articles in the Varmint Hunter explaining his scope testing. He has scope mounts mounted to a permanent shooting bench and has them siting in on the target. He goes on to check for repeatable clicks, parralax, adjusting power. He has said some of the higher end scopes still will not hold the same zero from high to low end on the power adjustment. It has to do with the way the scope is made. You could be bending the scope if the bedding is bad or the rings are not aligned perfectly. Try a pair of Burris Zee rings and see if its the mounts or the scope. I am sure Nikon has good customer sevice. I'd send it back if it fails.

lyonch wrote:I was talking with a gun smith today about my gun. I told him that my gun at 5.5 power at 200 yards lays them right in the bullseye but when i turn it up to 16.5 to fine tune some things i am about 2.5inches high and 1.5 inches right with very incosistent groups. He told me that he thinks i have a paralax issue. Has anybody else had this issue and if so how they fixed it? I was told to steady the gun on the target and nod your head up and down and see if the crosshairs move and if they do then i need to adjust the bell on the end of my gun so it doesn't do that and then mark it and leave it.

I was thinking about this question again today and pretty sure you must be mounting the gun different with the higher power setting. As the power goes up you may be moving your head closer to the ocular lense to get full field view with out the black ring. When you turn the power up, adjust the obective end until the object you are shooting at becomes clearest to you. Once you have it in focus it should be paralax free. Once the scope is paralax free, how you mount the scope should not move the cross hairs. With paralax the cross hairs want to follow your head position on the stock.

If you move youre head side to side and the cross hairs don't move off target then thats not the problem. What couldbe causeing the point of impact change is the Variable power setting. I have a 4-14x with Var. reticle and zeroing the reticle for a certain cartridge is done by turning power setting up or down and then leaveing it at that setting when useing the Varmint reticle for long range shooting..T/A

I suggest you shoot it at one power setting at 100 yds and use same setting and see if there is a change..

I think you could be right jamie that i move my head closer in on a higher power. When i checked for the parrallax issue this is what i did. I put the vise on the bench and was about 100 yards out. i put it on the lowest power and then adjusted the bell to get the least amount of crosshair movement when i moved my head side to side. then i turned the power up to the max power and the crosshairs were moving all over the place and i had to readjust the focus on the end of the scope to better the cross hairs moving. then i turned it back to the lowest power and had to readjust the focus again. then i left it where it was good for the low power setting and backed it up to 200 yards. then checked it on the lowest power setting without touching the focus and the cross hairs were moving. then i readjusted that and did the same thing i did at a 100 yards. If i need to constantly adjus that bell on the end while hunting will really tick me off. i was going to put my scope from my 30-06 on it and check to see if there is a difference. that scope is a 2.5-8 leupold vari x III. the one i have now is a nikon monarch UCC 5.5-16.5.

Well I think you should be able to adjust the focus of the crosshairs with the ocular lens and the focus of the object with the objective lense.