Missed an opportunity on a big deer tonight. Possible scope issue?

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Olympus

Olympus

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10 minutes of the last legal hunting light tonight and big deer comes out on the opposite side of the food plot I'm hunting, about 200-250 yards. I know it's a big deer because all I can see at that distance is a head with horns on top! I'm hunting the opposite side of the food plot, about 50 yards in the woods. I put my rifle up and look through the scope to get a better view of the rack and the dang scope is focusing on the limbs and leaves between me and the deer! I can still easily see the deer, but he's not in focus in the scope, he's cloudy and out of focus. The scope is Vortex Copperhead 4-12x40 and I had the power set at 6. I cranked the power down to 4x and looked again, still the same. Leaves and limbs are sharp and clear as a bell and the deer is still out of focus. I decide to go the other way and I crank the scope up to 9x. That made it even worse. I could see all the little details on the limbs and leave between me and the deer and the deer was still out of focus. The deer kept walking toward me and got to about 90 yards and stopped and put his head down to graze. I had the gun up on 6x again and I had the crosshairs on the top of his neck, but he was still so out of focus in the scope. I decided that since he was still walking toward me, to hold off on what I thought was a less than ideal shot, and to let him keep walking closer. I thought once he walked into the woods on my side, he would be within 50 yards and I wouldn't have a problem with the scope wanting to focus on something closer. He walked to a spot that was blocked by a tree that still had leaves and I never saw or heard him again. I have no idea where he went, but he just disappeared. I sat until full dark before climbing down from my stand. As I climbed down, I never heard him run off or anything. I had a long ride home wondering what the heck happened with my scope.
 
Just a SWAG.

It could be that your scope just didn't let enough light through that close to sundown to see the deer clearly. A scope with a 40mm objective does poorly in low light above about 8X.

Or:

While I'm not familiar with that exact scope all of them that I've used need to be focused at the ranges you plan to shoot. I have my big game rifle scopes focused at 100-200 yards. Targets at 50 yards will often be out of focus. The scopes I have on my 22's are generally focused for 50 yards and objects farther away will be out of focus. And everyone's eyes are different. My scopes are focused for me. They will be out of focus for others.

If focused for long range they aren't out of focus enough at 50 yards to be an issue, but if focused at 50 yards an object at 200 might be. Other than initially getting the rifle zeroed I almost always shoot at 100 or farther at the range with my center fire rifles so I tend to focus and forget it.

But I shoot my 22's between 25-250 yards. This is where a fast focus feature on the scope helps a bunch. I only have one 4-12X scope and it simply will not focus for my eyes at 50 yards or less if above 7-8X. I have a variety of 1-4X, 3-9X, and fixed 6X scopes on all of my other rifles.
 
Sounds like a focus issue....check that your objective lense, and the rings that hold it, arnt loose.


If those seem ok, try looking at different things from point blank out to 300ish yds with the scope set to max. You should find a range where the view thru the scope is clear, and inside and out side.of that I should start bluring a bit. That will give you an idea at what range your scope is focused.

I prefer to have some ability to focus my image so usually buy AO or SF scopes.
 
I dunno. But obviously not all scopes are the same. I got a cheap nikon, and you can really tell the difference with VX-2 or 3 at dusk. Better scopes extend the DNRs suggested hunting hours.

Also some days, are just darker earlier.

But that some things were in focus in others nots, makes me think adjustment. Maybe I should, but I never adjust mine. Probably should see if I could get it better.
 
Olympus said:
10 minutes of the last legal hunting light tonight and big deer comes out on the opposite side of the food plot I'm hunting, about 200-250 yards. I know it's a big deer because all I can see at that distance is a head with horns on top! I'm hunting the opposite side of the food plot, about 50 yards in the woods. I put my rifle up and look through the scope to get a better view of the rack and the dang scope is focusing on the limbs and leaves between me and the deer! I can still easily see the deer, but he's not in focus in the scope, he's cloudy and out of focus. The scope is Vortex Copperhead 4-12x40 and I had the power set at 6. I cranked the power down to 4x and looked again, still the same. Leaves and limbs are sharp and clear as a bell and the deer is still out of focus. I decide to go the other way and I crank the scope up to 9x. That made it even worse. I could see all the little details on the limbs and leave between me and the deer and the deer was still out of focus. The deer kept walking toward me and got to about 90 yards and stopped and put his head down to graze. I had the gun up on 6x again and I had the crosshairs on the top of his neck, but he was still so out of focus in the scope. I decided that since he was still walking toward me, to hold off on what I thought was a less than ideal shot, and to let him keep walking closer. I thought once he walked into the woods on my side, he would be within 50 yards and I wouldn't have a problem with the scope wanting to focus on something closer. He walked to a spot that was blocked by a tree that still had leaves and I never saw or heard him again. I have no idea where he went, but he just disappeared. I sat until full dark before climbing down from my stand. As I climbed down, I never heard him run off or anything. I had a long ride home wondering what the heck happened with my scope.
Click to expand...

Did you attempt to adjust either the adjustable objective (if if has one) or the diopter adjustment on the back ocular of the scope? I suspect one or both were not focused.

Just googled the scope. Now you know the limitations of non- A/O variable scopes. I bet those leaves were about 100 yards out.
 
sourdough44 said:
‘Adjustable Objective’ out of focus/adjustment for the range?
Click to expand...
The Copperhead is a fixed focus scope, parallax is set at 100yds. For me that would basically make it blurry at anything over about 150, even if it was crystal clear at 100.....
Ive found that the shorter the focus is set for, the sooner I get blurring as range increases. Which is why I usually set mine for about 200-250yds IF I'm using a nonadjustable scope. My eyeballs seem to be weird tho, dunno if its the contacts, astigmatism, BOTH....or just me.

Thats also why I have exactly 2 fixed focus scopes in use atm, both on gun I use as loaners.
 
I hunt 15-40 yards or so, and range is 100. So I never have. But maybe I could make it better, or maybe so close it doesn't matter.
 
I think he thinks the mods deleted your comments in Post #12.
Berserker, if the mods had deleted the post, it would be gone. Completely. South Prairie Jim did that; maybe he decided what he posted was not germain to the discussion, much like your post #13.
 
Berserker said:
Brings up interesting question. binos always adjsuting, but not my scope. All leupolds. Maybe with scope I don't take as much time to look around and play with,
Click to expand...

Don't feel bad, you learned a valuable lesson. I'd not used a scope for years, only iron sights, but I'm not going past 100 yards with a flintlock...,

THEN I got a Mossberg Predator rifle in .223 Remington. Well it needed a scope, so I got one. Well gee, it really has been a long time since I looked through a scope. Looking through it inside the house, no worries, but on the range for the first time....POS!...all blurry...

Then my son, the guy who shoots targets at 1000 yards says to me at the range as I looked through the scope at 100 yards and started muttering to myself about how it's such a POS....how I got ripped off...... ,

"Hey Dad, you do know you need to adjust the scope to bring it into proper focus, right?" :confused:

:oops::uhoh::oops::uhoh::oops:

LD
 
Adjusting the magnification power does nothing for scope focus.

Your scope's eyebox/eyepiece adjustment need to be tuned to your eye's with whatever you use for correction as well be it glasses, contacts, etc.
Next, if your scope has parallax adjustment (some scopes are fixed at the factory) needs to be adjusted to the distance of the target being viewed.
 
The scope has a fixed Parallax of approximately 100 yds. which means it would be mostly parallax free at that distance, though parallax doesn't really come into play significantly until the other side of 250-300 yds.

The scope does have a diopter however and I suspect that adjusting that and keeping the magnification down to about 4-6X (in low light) would have produced an acceptable image (with respect to focus). The low light conditions don't help things either and sub $200.00 scopes are not going to have stellar glass. But it sounds as if the deer was at one distance and other items (limbs and leaves) were at another.

I'd wager adjusting the diopter would clear things up....but it can be difficult to do quickly under field conditions. OP did the right thing and passed on any shots offered.
 
Way back when, I had a savage m110 gxp in 06, actually 2 same caliber, but that's another story. Well an acquaintance was checking out my rifle and adjusted my diopter, well the resulting adjustment made a poi change of 3 in right and 3 in low as well as being out of focus for my eye. I knew I didn't change anything, but rotated the diopter back to the left and my rifles poi reverted back to pre adjustment zero.

This was mid 90's when savage used Simmons 3-9x32 scopes on their package guns. Didn't have an issue with it again, but in comes rifle 2, same era same optic type. Had the gun about 6 months with 60 yds down range with a solid 200 yd zero. It started betting blurry every other shot and fogging up. The problem was the objective lens ring worked loose and the glass was flopping around and the nitrogen leaked out. I replaced that with a Philippine made taco world class 3-9x40 wide angle, the pronghorn model that I bought on sale for 100.00, list was 149.00,

Said all of this to say that if you change your focus ring, verify your zero so that you don't miss and not know why.
 
I had an episode like OP just yesterday.
I hunted a favorite spot on a wma that’s a 2mi hike in. (Or 200yd walk if my boat motor will crank.... another story for another thread...).
I had a deer walk out on a levy about 200yds away. I raised rifle and looked through the scope. Totally blurred except for a small sapling 20’ in front of me.

The Euro quick focus ring had gotten cranked all the way in from being rubbed against my pack strap as I walked. Fortunately, it was a quick twist (or 3) to get it refocused. It was just a button buck. Doe days are tomorrow. If he comes back, he’s in trouble!
 
I have seen cheap scopes like one on a GAMO air rifle that did not focus at all beyond a few yards and then only at lowest power. Never buy GAMO anything. It could be a defective scope or need refocusing. But in low light like Jmr40 said, there may have been too much brush interference to see beyond it. A scope doesn't know what it is supposed to focus on. Seeing through brush with a scope can be a problem especially at higher magnification. I like red dot sights for close range. Woods and scopes don't always work well. I feel bad for you.
 
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