Scopes 101 help

[xenophobe]

Hmm.. How does the larger tube make it more durable? The adjustment part is obvious.

A larger diameter tube is more difficult to bend or break than a smaller one. Try taking a 1/4" copper pipe and try bending it.... then take a 3/8" or 1/2" and try bending it. Same principal.

Light collection is increased by a larger objective, not transmission. Transmission increases have to come from improved clarity of the lenses and reduced reflection from surfaces (plain glass reflects ~4%). Just a terminology thing...

Yes, I did somewhat misspeak. Better anti-reflective coatings will increase light transmission. A larger objective will increase the amount of light collected. That would be correct.

[WokMaster1]

OK, you guys are going to laugh but out of the blue I decided to pick up a Nikon Prostaff 3-9 X 40. $160, Warne Hi-scope mounts & headed to Richmond R&G Club & played sniper for an hour. 100 yards, yes, I didn't hit anything inside the 5 ring....
It has been a very disappointing day.

At least it was a beautiful day, a bit windy. The glass on the Nikon is pretty clear but I need help in zeroing the scope, lots of help.

[aplinker]

A larger diameter tube is more difficult to bend or break than a smaller one. Try taking a 1/4" copper pipe and try bending it.... then take a 3/8" or 1/2" and try bending it. Same principal.

Not sure it is. If I recall correctly strength of a cylinder is a function of the ratio of the diameter and wall thickness. I think it's essentially normalized by volume of material. In other words, the reason the 1/4" pipe is weaker is that it has substantially less copper than the 3/8". To do the comparison you'd have to have the same mass, maybe even less for the thinner tube. I hate pulling out these old physics recollections cause I don't always remember perfectly...

OK, you guys are going to laugh but out of the blue I decided to pick up a Nikon Prostaff 3-9 X 40. $160, Warne Hi-scope mounts & headed to Richmond R&G Club & played sniper for an hour. 100 yards, yes, I didn't hit anything inside the 5 ring....
It has been a very disappointing day.

At least it was a beautiful day, a bit windy. The glass on the Nikon is pretty clear but I need help in zeroing the scope, lots of help.

If you're on the paper, firing multiple shots with the same zero and still all over the paper, it's not the scope that needs to be zeroed.

[PistolPete75]

OK, you guys are going to laugh but out of the blue I decided to pick up a Nikon Prostaff 3-9 X 40. $160, Warne Hi-scope mounts & headed to Richmond R&G Club & played sniper for an hour. 100 yards, yes, I didn't hit anything inside the 5 ring....
It has been a very disappointing day.

At least it was a beautiful day, a bit windy. The glass on the Nikon is pretty clear but I need help in zeroing the scope, lots of help.

bring the target in the 50yard range, stabilize your rifle, then shoot off 3 or 4 rounds. look through a spotting scope and you should have a descent grouping somewhere on paper. adjust your settings on your scope, and fire a few more shots, and repeat until you are dead center. then take it back a 100yards, shoot a few more rounds, then reset your scope, and keep repeating till it's dead center. note, the hotter your barrel get's, your grouping might get wider. it's not the scope, it's your barrel. you might have to cool your rifle off for a bit. good luck.

if this is too much trouble, get someone to bore sight it for you, then readjust accordingly.

[Technical Ted]

At the 50, take the upper off the lower and remove the BCG. Prop the upper with sandbags and sight down the bore. adjust the bags until the target is centered in the bore.

Adjust the scope elevation and windage until the cross hairs are on the target.

Reassemble the rifle.

This should put you on the target paper if not in the black.

Adjust the scope accordingly to align your point of impact with your point of aim.