How to find "optical zero" on your scope

So how can you use this same principle when your scope doesn't have the illuminated reticle? Great tutorial though. I'm glad there are people smarter than me out there so I'm not fumbling around in the dark.

Do you mean max zoom min zoom? please answer thanks

Thanks again

I will futz with this when my S7 gets here to mount in my Discovery Adapter. As others stated, once you start changing the reticles to zero the rifle you have drifted off from 'optical zero.' But if you make note where the turrents had to go or what they are at OZ, then you will know how far off that is.

Never really understood the need to optically center a scope. When you zero your scope at the range, it doesn't matter where you've first set the "optical" zero" - POI zero is zero regardless of the starting point. Just spin the turrets somewhere close to their mid point, aim, shoot and adjust.

Or or am I missing something?

Thanks for the fine tutorial!

I've always used my bathroom mirror for optically zeroing my scopes but I never thought of using the illuminated reticle........LOL, works a treat! I've found that it's also useful to turn the focus to infinity as well as turning the scope power mo minimum for the adjustment.

A bit of caution however that the reflection in the mirror is also dependent on the squareness of the front of the AO. I have one cheap UTG SWAT Compact scope which has a built in sun shade and the front at the objective lens isn't flat. I can slide the plastic flip up sun shade which will give me a flat surface for resting on the mirror, however there is no guarantee that this front surface is square with the optical centerline.


Anywhoo, after centering the reticle (I use the count clicks divide by two for the Accushot) I simply bend my R9 and HW95 barrel till the poi is within about 1" (or less) of the aim point at 30 yards and then use the turrets for the fine adjustments. The main reason I set my scopes to "optical center" is to provide robust erector spring tension with both elevation and windage since I only shoot recoiling piston guns.
My barrel bender.........

You guys have me in a fog here,. Optical zero is that where your pellet leaves the barrel and is right on with the scope,?
I put my scopes on the gun level them and sight them in at 30 yards, What's optical zero, Dead on out the barrel?
Mike

"Tominco"

"DellaDog"Never really understood the need to optically center a scope. When you zero your scope at the range, it doesn't matter where you've first set the "optical" zero" - POI zero is zero regardless of the starting point. Just spin the turrets somewhere close to their mid point, aim, shoot and adjust.

Or or am I missing something?

Click to expand...

I think your referring to mounting a scope with standard fixed scope rings. As I stated in the video, this is for those people that have adjustable scope rings.
If you can adjust your rings to move your scope to your poi zero, then, this would come in handy. You would find optical zero, adjust scope mounts to poi zero, and fine tune with just a few clicks. 

I've had low end scopes maxed out on the elevation turret and still not line up with my poi. When they were maxed out like that I noticed how blurry they would get and distort the picture. 
Tom

Click to expand...

Ah, thank you. 

Perhaps I can help a bit. If a scope is adjusted so a turret is near "maximum adjustment" the erector spring can be loose on one side and tight on the other which allows the whole erector assembly to "float around" with each shot when mounted to a recoiling springer. In addition to having a floating poi this contributes to the thrashing around of the erector assembly which in turn can cause the internal components to "rattle loose". Perhaps these sketches will help........

This is a "copy and paste" from an Airguns Of Arizona BLOG..........

"Now, before we go any further, please notice this one key point: the erector section of the scope is a tube, and it lives within the outer chassis of the scope, which is also a tube. So the erector is a tube within a tube – got that?The picture below shows an internal view of the scope as it comes from the factory with the outer chassis and the erector tube in perfect alignment, and the elevation turret and the windage turret are adjusted equally.

Okay, now let’s look at some ways folks get into trouble with scope adjustment. The picture below shows a scope that has been adjusted too far left. The erector tube is pinned against the wall of the outer chassis, and, as a result, the elevation adjustment is severely limited because there is no room for the erector tube to travel.

The picture below shows a scope that has been adjusted too far down and right, pinning the erector tube against the erector spring, the windage turret, and the outer chassis. Again, windage adjustment is very limited since there is little room for the erector tube to move.

Finally, below is a scope that has been adjusted too far up and right, and the erector spring has lost contact with the erector tube to support it. When this happens, the reticle free floats, and you will have point of impact issues. Mike tells me this is the most common of scope mounting issues.

So, how do you avoid these problems? First, don’t use up all of the adjustment in any direction with either the elevation or windage turret. Second, if you find yourself using up all of the adjustment, get yourself an adjustable mount. Put the scope back in optical center, then use the adjustments on the mount to get you pretty close to where you want to be zeroed, and use the elevation and windage adjustments on the scope to do the fine tuning."

If there are poi issues then a couple solutions have been suggested........
1. Buy, use, and then do the tedious adjustment procedure of centering the scope (been there, done that, gave up years ago).
2. If possible (not possible with some shrouded barrels) bend the barrel as needed. I've been bending my HW barrels for decades and once set there is no concern for adjustment screws working loose causing the scope mount adjustment shifting with time (been there, done that).

"Divide the number of clicks by 2. Turn the turret back that many clicks."
That's how I centered the reticle of my UTG scope with the built "un-round" front lens housing since I can't get it to sit flat on a mirror.
When I did the "count clicks divide by two" (pretty tedious with a 30mm scope tube) with my 3-12x44 Optisan Viper or the 3-12x50 Aeon the result was the same as lining up the reticle with a reflection in a mirror within a few clicks.

This isn't what I found with the 4-12x40 Hawke Airmax or my cheap 4-16x40 Center points and those are centered using the "count clicks" method. Matter of fact, with the Hawke the "reflection in the mirror" wasn't even in the same quadrant of the view as it was when "counting clicks" and then viewing in the mirror! I also centered the reticle with the real tedious (for me) "spin the scope in vees" method and with that particular Hawke (the same one that would shift the poi by focusing) none of the three methods even remotely agreed!

Great info..I tried it on my cheaper scope and I was right it's still broke.lol.someone making this scope forgot to put the Erector spring in it.

Most scope manufacturers have notch marking optical 0. You have to take turret off to see it.

Nice discussion, I remember seeing a similar posting here:

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/field-target-tech-channel-episode-7-optically-centering-a-scope/

check this one, Tom, thanks for the video.