Scope Zero Technique

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mister12ax7

mister12ax7

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May 10, 2015
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ARIZONA, United States
I was watching American Airgunner with Jim Chapman, Tom Gaylord and a rep from Pyramid Air. They had a round table discussion on scopes.
They all agreed that zeroing a scope at it's highest magnification would guarantee all the other settings would be zeroed too. They said zeroing at
​a lower setting, would only guarantee that, that setting is dead on and not higher settings. Has anyone ever heard this before and is it true?
 
I suppose at higher setting its easier to be more precise with how well you are able to aim ..... But as far as the other I'm calling BS , no disrespect to those guys .
Many budget ( cheap ) scopes have a changing Point of Impact when the magnification is changed. It sucks , but its a fact . If you have a variable power scope that does this and wish to continue using it I would recommend choosing a power setting you can live with and just leave it there . 
PS its not always cheap scopes that do this , but it happens less as retail price goes up . I read recently somewhere that moving POI with mag changes is a thing of the past and no longer applies .... Really ??? ... Well my only guess is whoever stated that hasn't used very many scopes ')
 
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LOL......I can verify that my 5-15x50 Hawke Panorama WILL shift the poi simply by zeroing at 15 power and then reducing the power to 11x. Upstairs in my "man attic" I focused and zero'd my gun at 15x, then I reduced the power to 11x (no 12x etching on that power ring) and shot a few more groups that had shifted. I don't know if the poi shifting issue is due to focusing the AO or adjusting the power ring but a shift is there.

I agree with Joe that such "non shifting claims" are BS and not the general rule, however when I owned a 4-16x40 Bushnell Elite 4200 years ago I could shoot a HFT match with the scope set at 12x and then reduce the power to 6x for a squirrel hunt with no poi shifting, but then, even over a decade ago that Elite 4200 (was discontinued years ago) cost more $$ than my new Hawke Panorama which cost about $280.

I just did a test with my 4-12x50 Hawke AirMax AO by shooting a few 5 shot "bucket and sticks" groups upstairs at 18 yards, one at 12x, one at 9x, and one at 6x. Other than the groups being larger at the lower magnifications with the Airmax (AO, not side focus) there wasn't a significant poi shift so I guess some of the lower price scopes will maintain a satisfactory zero when I'm shooting "bucket and sticks".........
2lBSdRVl.jpg

Kinda makes me want to return my Panorama to Hawke for a "look see" but the Panorama poi shifting isn't a big issue since I only use one power setting for all my shooting and the Panorama is holding zero just fine. 
 
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"nced"LOL......I can verify that my 5-15x50 Hawke Panorama WILL shift the poi simply by zeroing at 15 power and then reducing the power to 11x. Upstairs in my "man attic" I focused and zero'd my gun at 15x, then I reduced the power to 11x (no 12x etching on that power ring) and shot a few more groups that had shifted. I don't know if the poi shifting issue is due to focusing the AO or adjusting the power ring but a shift is there.

I agree with Joe that such "non shifting claims" are BS and not the general rule, however when I owned a 4-16x40 Bushnell Elite 4200 years ago I could shoot a HFT match with the scope set at 12x and then reduce the power to 6x for a squirrel hunt with no poi shifting, but then, even over a decade ago that Elite 4200 (was discontinued years ago) cost more $$ than my new Hawke Panorama which cost about $280.

I just did a test with my 4-12x50 Hawke AirMax AO by shooting a few 5 shot "bucket and sticks" groups upstairs at 18 yards, one at 12x, one at 9x, and one at 6x. Other than the groups being larger at the lower magnifications with the Airmax (AO, not side focus) there wasn't a significant poi shift so I guess some of the lower price scopes will maintain a satisfactory zero when I'm shooting "bucket and sticks".........
2lBSdRVl.jpg

Kinda makes me want to return my Panorama to Hawke for a "look see" but the Panorama poi shifting isn't a big issue since I only use one power setting for all my shooting and the Panorama is holding zero just fine.
Click to expand...
Interesting test. Do you have the pic with the Panorame shift POI? Wich range are your shots?
 
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Sorry, I currently have my Hawke AirMax mounted and R9 for this simple test at 18 yards.

With the Panorama the poi shift was noticeable at only 18 yards when changing to power ring from 15x to 11x. It's a bit of a hassle to swap out scopes and mounts since the AirMax is mounted in Weaver mounts set on a Weaver to dovetail adapter and the Panorama is mounted on a one piece dovetail mount.

You do have a good point however so I'll "swap scopes" and shoot a couple more groups at 18 yards with the panorama and post a scan of the target.
 
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I was mistaken about my 5-15x50 Hawke Panorama shifting the poi when changing the power ring! I just shot (3) 5 shot groups upstairs at 18 yards "from bucket and sticks", one at 15x, one at 11x and one at 5x so here is the scan.........
8MxjcUth.jpg

I have noticed poi shifting when changing power in the past (perhaps a mounting issue) but it's obvious that this doesn't happen this time with my Panorama. While my "bucket and sticks" groups aren't "PCP quality" they do show consistency at only 18 yards.

LOL....now I'm glad that I didn't call Hawke customer service. Anywhoo, I do believe that my two hawk scopes maintain the poi when changing the power.

Sorry for the bad input!!!!!!!!!!
 
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I have done a lot of testing when mounting scopes with a grid boresighter and can tell you that I've seen some real issues with some of the optics I have. Change the mag. or parallax and you can watch what happens or will happen to your zero before you even go to the range. If the windage adj. is not mechanically close to center, that can also affect your zero. Have you ever adjusted the magnification and felt/heard just a tiny "click" while adjusting it? Man you do not want to watch the reticle through a grid boresighter when that happens. It can be depressing.
 
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A few years ago I had a 4-12x40 Hawke Airmax that shifted the poi simply by focusing the thing at 18 yards, then moving up to 10 yards and re-focusing before shooting a few more shots..........
Hu6jeOfl.jpg

Funny thing is that the two groups should have been "stacked" when shooting at 18 and 10 yards if aimed at the same bull but as you can see the poi shift was "on the horizontal". I returned the scope to Hawke under warranty along with a few extra $$ and upgraded to a Panorama of similar specs. Funny thing is that the Panorama was a good scope that didn't shift the poi with focusing but it would focus sharply no closer than 12 yards at 12x even though there was a 10 yard etching on the AO. Sold that 4-12x40 Panorama to a fellow that wasn't concerned about a sharp 10 yard focus.

Anywhoo.....both my newer 4-12x50 Hawke Airmax AO and 5-15x50 Hawke Panorama will focus sharply down to 10 yards at max magnification and neither will shift the poi simply by focusing that I can detect with my shooting skills.
 
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