Scope Turret Markings

[AnonUser]

I did a bit of searching on here and elsewhere but couldn't find anything.

I bought a SWFA SS 12x42 and for my first hunting rifle and am about to break in my barrel and zero my scope.

Except I'm not certain about zeroing my scope and the turret markings. Currently the markings are set to "4". But shouldn't this be "0" and the other markings be -1, -2, -3... and 1, 2, 3...?

Or are these numbers just arbitrary?

I attached a picture a circled in read the markings I'm asking about.
(BTW, this is the stock image from the manual.)

SWFA-SS-12x42.jpg

[Don the savage]

I believe those are your movement from zero- if you have 50 moa of adjustment in your scope those marks measure it for return to zero

[NorCalFocus]

Those are just revolution or "rev" marks. Yes ideally you want your rifles zero to be on the 0 rev mark. However its just a refrence point so if you do more than 1 full revolution on the turrets you can get back to zero.

So once you zero your rifle in and set your turrets to zero, just make note of what rev mark your zero is on. For both turrets. Then you'll know how to get back to zero if you ever get lost in how many turns you got into the turret.

[kcheung2]

That scope has about 52 mils of travel on both elevation & windage, and since each revolution is 5 mils, you can turn that turret about 10 times. The rev counter number tells you which revolution you're on.

When you zero your gun, you would not want the rev counter to be on 0. It should be closer to 4-6 revolution range. As an example, if you zero your gun & the windage turret ends up being set to 0 rev, that means it's at the extreme left adjustment range & you could only adjust rightwards. Whereas if it were instead at 5, that means you have equal adjustment range leftwards & rightwards.

[ExtremeX]

Those are just revolution or "rev" marks. Yes ideally you want your rifles zero to be on the 0 rev mark. However its just a refrence point so if you do more than 1 full revolution on the turrets you can get back to zero.

So once you zero your rifle in and set your turrets to zero, just make note of what rev mark your zero is on. For both turrets. Then you'll know how to get back to zero if you ever get lost in how many turns you got into the turret.

This...

Rev counter, and it's there so you don't get lost in the dial...

Its an important feature if you don't have a zero stop for a reset after you work the turrets shooting over different elevation ranges.

The numbers themselves don't really mean anything to your zero other than to help you identify where you are in that rotation.

[AnonUser]

Thanks everyone for the responses. What I'm reading is those numbers are arbitrary and just a reference.

After work today, I'm going to the range to break in my new barrel tonight and hopefully have time to zero my scope too.