home / advice / rifle scopes / adjusting your rifle scope

Adjusting your Rifle Scope

When you ready to start using your rifle scope you will need to calibrate is before you can go shooting. In many cases this can be done by the weapon merchant were you buy and pickup your weapon. But when you decide to buy a new rifle scope or replace your current one, you can also do this yourself. To do this you can use this simple guide.

Step 1. Preparation

For the first step you get a sheet of paper (preferably A4) and draw a vertical line of 15 centimeters in total. After doing this, you attach the sheet to the target board (at least 2 cm thick and 1x1 meter big). At a distance of about 10 meters from the target plate you set up a table and a stool. The support your weapon u can rest the front on a cushion or sandbag.

Step 2. Windage Adjustment

Now we will adjust the windage adjustment, which can be found on the right side of the rifle scope. First we will zoom to the maximum of the rifle scope and focus until the image become crisp and clear. Afterward you will zoom to 4four times magnification and take a first shot on the middle of the vertical line. After firing two more shots you will have a good indication on how far off your shots are right now. Now you will determine the average divergence to the left or right off the vertical line. Depending on the divergence to the left or right you make a correction by making a few "clicks" (for example 5) on your windage adjustment. Finally, you will take 3 more shots and determine the average divergence again so you can make some adjustments again (clicks).

Stap 3. Elevation Adjustment

To change the elevation adjust you almost go through the same proces. But in this case, the elevation adjustment is found on top of the rifle scope. For this step you get a new sheet of paper (A4) and draw a horizontal line of 15 centimeters in total. This page is attached to the target plate as well. Afterwards you fire three shots on the horizontal line again in order to find the average divergence above and below the middle. Depending on the divergence up or down you make a correction by making a few "clicks" (for example 5) on your elevation adjustment. Finally, you will take 3 more shots and determine the average divergence again so you can make another set of adjustments (clicks).

Considering other factors

When adjusting your rifle scope, you should consider the following factors:

• The bullet speed (this has an influence on the drop)
• (Cross)winds. Up to 100 yards (91.4m) this is not a huge factor.
• When you shoot using a lighter bullet on 300 yards (274,3m) and there is a wind with a speed of 8 km/h, the path can deviate.
• The weight of the used bullet will can make a big difference as well, especially on large distances.
• Shooting at a given angle can have an influence as well.

*Make sure how many clicks you used to set the rifle scope, this way you can always turn back to point "0".

Parallax

The parallax deviation occurs when your eye moves in front of the eyepiece of the rifle scope. In those cases, the reticle slightly moves from the target you are looking at. The solution is quite simple: you just need to look straight through your eyepiece. Unfortunately, this is a lot harder than it seems, it just is hard to sit exactly straight in front of your rifle scope. In most cases the rifle scope have been designed with a special parallax setting to make a parallax correction for a certain distance. This setting or adjustment is often found on the left side of the rifle scope (sidewheel) or on the front of the rifle scope (adjustable objective).

Tip. Look through the rifle scope from a slightly different distance so you will start seeing black borders around the crosshairs. Now look through the rifle scope until the black borders are equal around the reticle.