Given time it gets worse, too

Description:

Brian Finlay* makes a good point - but unfortunately it doesn’t end there.

Variables with ‘second-focal-plane’ (non-magnifying) reticles have always posed the problem of bullet impact moving with magnification changes. However, the issue may not be apparent when a scope is new or being reviewed.

Gradual wear in the fore/aft lens travel can move the target-image position over time, a problem enhanced because image-movement is also the means of adjusting bullet impact in most scopes now. New research asserts that adverse movement of even five microns in lens positions, esp. in high-multiple variables, can bring target-focus and parallax issues that will exacerbate those bullet-impact problems.

Constant rotational battering from recoil inertia might also bend the erector tube the lenses move in, changing lens alignment as they move back and forward between magnifications.

(There are answers but don’t expect them in magazines running large ads for new scopes - it would be commercial suicide to say their state-of-the-art technology was not to be trusted. That said, one well-known reviewer has told me that none of his own rifles have a scope made after 1971 and that one of his favourite makes has not sold riflescopes for about 60 years. His old scopes are all fixed powers and do not have the usual 'constantly centred' reticles, it seems. - SBM)

‘LIGHT AT THE START OF THE TUNNEL …’ does have the answers in an evolving story and is still available in various grades from $24-$45, post paid.

*In the tear-out h/w from Page 7 of ‘Australian Shooter’ March 2024 (shown for review).

NB: The second picture shows a digitised representation of books with the dark reticle added. The rubber-stamp is never so neat, extensive or black but, if required, a drawn one can be ordered that comes closer.