how important is parallax?

[raz-0]

Ok, I have been trying to make up my mind on what I want in a scope before I lay down the cash for a good quality piece of glass.

Most of the features I want, I have a pretty solid opinion on, but the whole adjustable parallax thing has me kind fo split.

On the get something with an AO side, I'm still working on my skills, and would likely be spending more time shooting at paper, and having AO would seem to remove one place to add in error and confusion.


On the no AO side, you may not have the time to mess with more controls or accurately range your target if you take it hunting. It's one less thing to break, leak, or have set wrong. Additionally, ditching it seems to result in a cheaper, lighter, more compact scope. Most of my practice/plinking would wind up being at my local range, which is 100 yards, which is the parallax free point on the scopes i am looking at.

That's basically my reasoning so far, if you can't tell, I'm kind of leaning towards ignoring adjustable parallax. Any insight/wisdom/corrections pro or con on the subject?

 

[lycanthrope]

I find it's more important to have the adjustment with higher power scopes. For most 3x-9x scopes it's not a big deal.

But.....

Adjustability is always a nice feature as you can tailor it to suit you. In the past, I have used black electrical tape to make sure my scope adjustments haven't moved in the field. I also find that adjusting the parallax makes the crosshairs appear darker and more distinct to my eye.

YMMV

 

[echo3mike]

I for one think an AO on your scope would be a good idea. Granted, for 100yd paper punching it might make little difference, but I've had scopes (including a Leupold Vari-X III) that have had unusually large amounts of parallax at 100yds.

The one benefit to having an AO on your scope (even at these ranges) is that you really don't have to worry about a precise, repeatable spot weld. Try this the next time you're at the range, or dry firing at home. Set the crosshairs on the target and then move your head up and down, then left to right while viewing the target through the scope. When I did this with the Leupold, the crosshair would "move" on the target as much as 3 inches depending on where my head was positioned. This demonstrates how a little change in head position or weld can have an impact on POA / POI relation. It's kind of a drag to have the makings of a "screamer" group going only to have the last round open it up because you mucked up the weld.

While it adds a little bulk to the scope, I think the benefits far outweigh the costs. For hunting ranges, you can set the AO range to minimize the parallax but not eliminate it all together so you won't have to fiddle with it when you're about to make your shot. It's also useful for UKD ranging to a point. It's not as accurate as a LRF or even mil-dots but it works well in a pinch if that's all you've got. Most manufacturers construct their products well enough so that you don't have to worry about it going tango uniform when you need it.

The ERGO (adjustable) objective on my U.S. Optics ST-10 fixed 10X adds a little bulk (to an already huge scope), but the amount of crosshair movement (parallax) is absolutely zilch up to 1000yds. The Leupold AO's are much smaller.

In short, an AO is an additional feature that you'll probably want in the future if not before. Once you set it up you won't have to worry about minor changes in position effecting your POI which is a big benefit to target shooters.

S.

 

[444]

I guess I don't have much to add. I own both types of scopes. The last few scopes I have purchased and been without. As you mention, it is just one less thing to mess with and one less thing to go wrong. These scopes are all on hunting rifles where I have seldom needed to shoot a 1/4" group. In fact, the last two scopes I bought were also fixed power. Again, I found that when I was hunting, I would play with the variable scope under different lighting conditions etc and would usually end up with the scope set at the same place anyway. I just decided to buy fixed power scopes at that power setting and leave it at that. I have had occasions when hunting to have an animal at considerable distance, and I had a good solid rest and I would have liked to have been able to zoom up a real big varmint scope to high power, but for me that is the exception rather than the rule.
The one exception for me is .22 scopes. I don't believe in the idea that the caliber of the rifle or the cost of the rifle has any bearing on the scope you mount on it. I want just as good of a quality scope on my .22s as I do on my centerfires. In fact, I can make a case to myself to spend more on the .22 scope because I actually shoot them a lot more than my centerfires. For the .22s I buy an adjustable objective. I would like to just have the parallex modified for shorter range, but have never actually done it.

 

[dakotasin]

i've got both...
if this is for a hunting rig, then leave the ao off.
if this is for a target rig, then get it.
if this is for a do it all gun and it spends 75% of its life or more on the range, get the ao.

the ao is just one thing too many to screw around w/ while you are hunting... if i am hunting w/ an ao scope, i set it to infinity and leave it.

 

[raz-0]

thanks for the feedback, it's given me a few more things to consider.