AO optic zero shifting

In all my years of owning optics I’ve never had a close range adjustable objective scope that I could dial down to under 10 yards at 10 X and have it crystal clear. Long story short I found a supply of Tasco 2.5x10 and 6x24 NIB target varminters on sale for $24.99 shipped from an internet supplier. I always likes the cheap Tasco optics ever since I was a kid. It was the first optic I owned. It was the only optic my dad could afford and bought me. It was a 4X for my deer hunting rifle back around 84’. It was responsible for many big bucks and then one day while hunting and dragging out a nice eight pointer I tripped and the scope hit my forehead denting the bell. I just didn’t like how big of a dent it was in the optic so I took it off and gave it away as it still worked. Throughout the years I bought many 1 year warranty tasco red dots and put them on my 44 mag pistols ,22 rimfire pistols, and BB guns. Eventually they would all lock up and not adjust even though the red dot would still come on. A matter fact I still have two sitting around that want to just put the dots come on. I still have two in camo PDPs service on my browning 10 gauge turkey slayer and one on my browning 800 express pistol. The 10 year plus old optic still adjusted the other day just fine on my springer pistol.

Other than the red dots failing eventually all my optics from Tasco have never failed and held up. All seem to hold or zero throughout the years even though they were cheap optics.

Well since the varminter did not state it was airgun rated I called Bushnell, the new owner of Tasco, and they told me it was air gun rated and had a lifetime warranty if it ever failed. Also my springer”s spring had been replaced with a nitro piston before it was shipped to me back in 2009’ when pistons were not offered as a factory installed option yet in spring guns.

At the great value for the price of what they’re selling these optics for I ended up buying three 2 1/2 by 10’s and one in 6 x 24. The 24X optics are now sold out at that price and are close to 100 bucks again. I don’t know if I’ll ever use the 24X but for 24 bucks I bought one and put it away for another day. The two extra 2 1/2 by tens will be going on my rimfire’s. I remember back around 1999/2000 era when these optics first came out they sold for $169/$189 and I almost bought one back then but became a Leupold snob at the time.

Anyways back to my original topic. I went out and sighted one of my 2.5x10x scopes on my Walther Talon nitro piston 22 Magnum air rifle the other day at 23 yards. I was amazed at 25 feet that I could put this optic on 10x and focus it crystal clear. This cheap scope is brighter and crisper than my Leupold VX11 3 x 9. I used my Caldwell lead sled to sight my air rifle. I also adjusted it to 10X and spun my adjustable objective in the front till it was clear and then sighted in my gun in. I made sure to adjust my front focus Eye piece clearly first before any other adjustments were made. Owning a close range scope like this is something new to me. I honestly didn’t know you could adjust the front focus eyepiece as I’ve never had to do that on any other optic that I’ve owned other than my Nikon‘s that have the newer style rubber eyepiece with arrows Showing you to spin it back-and-forth. I wasn’t aware on the older models like this that you could spin your eyepiece in and out to adjust your focus. Only took five decades to realize that... An old dog can learn new tricks every day yet! Well after I got it zeroed in with JBS match heavy jumbo 18.13 grain pellets that were shooting in the same pellet hole at 23 yards I thought I was good to go. I went out for fun and shot it at 100 yards the next day and could tell I needed to aim to the right with no wind to hit my targets. We all know that’s kind of common when siting in a rifle and needing to fine-tune the farther out we shoot to fine tune zero at longer ranges but I just had a gut feeling that my scope came out of adjustment. The next day I went out after reading about adjustable objectives and fine-tuning them so they are perfectly in line with my eye piece so the crosshairs don’t float left or right. WHAT???...I never realized I had to do it or ever heard having to do it! I went through and tried it... And I might even played with my front focus eyepiece the other day when sighting in which I read moves the POA as well. Well after checking my zero on day three my rifle was shooting probably a half inch to the left if not a hair more. I went and re-zeroed my gun which took maybe a dozen clicks or so to the right at 10 yards to get it back to zero vertically. I didn’t mess with the horizontal up and down Adjustment so hopefully it’s still zeroed at 23 yards and was just a vertical AO floating issue. I then dialed my scope back to 2 1/2 power. At 10 yards it still was zeroed horizontally so I would assumed I found my issue? It makes sense because I wasn’t aware that my adjustable objective need to be fine-tuned so my crosshairs wouldn’t move(float) when shifting my head left and right. I still have to double check my zero again at 23 yards but my guess is I’m probably right on the money. I did shoot 100 yards yesterday when I was done and hit a stump The same size as a pop can the first try so I’m probably pretty close or good to go. I didn’t want to blame it on my scope because I really want to like it and can’t believe how crisp and clear it is and the mill dots in it. It’s way crisper and clear then my Tasco world class Three by nine mill dot optic that I’ll tell you that. I’ve use that cheap $39 world class mill dot on my lever action 35 Remington and took it off to put it on my 22 rimfire the other day. It’s never lost zero...knock on wood. It’s nowhere near as crisp and clear as a a Nikon for but for $40 bucks it’s a good plinker and target practice scope.

If someone would like to give me some tips on close range adjustable objectives feel free as I’m still a green pea and learning.

Here are some good articles and videos on adjustable objectives that helped me out in the last couple days to figure out it was user error not my optic...knock on wood...


https://youtu.be/z5LeAu-CYso


https://www.pyramydair.com/article/S..._March_2008/46