Asking for input on a scope problem and input for a replacement

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schultzie

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Good afternoon,

I have a Ruger M77 in 257 bob. I put a Bushnell XLT 4-12x40 on it as an interm just to get it shooting. I have found over a couple of range sessions that the size of the groups I am shooting changes in size when I change the magnification. I get better groups at 4 power then I do at 12. I've never heard of this before. The worst I've read about is point of impact changes. Has anyone else every seen this before?

As for a replacement I am down to either a Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 with the BDC reticule OR a Leupold VX1 3-9x40 with the LR duplex. I am a Leupold guy. I have 2 Vx2's already. However the price difference and the awesome reviews the Nikon is getting has me interested. Went to Bass Pro and had a look through both, no real difference in light transmission or clarity, however I did find the Nikon slightly heavier.

As with all reviews on cabels, wholesale etc its all people who take it out of the box and go ohhh pretty. I want to hear from people who have used a ProStaff for a while and what they think/what they found.

Sorry for being long winded.
 
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if the current scope is putting all the rounds into the same "area" then are you sure that the scope is broken?
Usually a broken scope wont hold zero, so your shots would wander wildly across your target from shot to shot, and not maintain groups.

Larger grps at higher mag, could just be a result of improper breathing technique, trigger control etc.
 
I shot a bunch of different groups at low and high power settings and every time I changed to the higher setting the groups opened up. I switched to my 308 and there is no difference in group size between 3 or 9 power. First thing I thought was that it was me seeing as that would be the most likley cause. I feel though (I do shoot often) because of the repeating change and the lack of change with the VX-2 on the 308 that I am not the problem (this time :p)

The plan has always been to replace the bushnell on the Ruger before hunting season anyway. I am more curious as to if anyone else has seen this before AND peoples experiences with the Nikon scopes.
 
There's nothing wrong with that Bushnell. It's got a second focal plane reticle and has no parallax adjustment which will affect your point of impact when changing magnification after you've zeroed. What you would normally do in such a case is zero the rifle using the magnification you would normally use while hunting or shooting and stick with that, otherwise your POI will shift with every magnification change.

Parallax; on a telescopic sight, parallax occurs when the “primary image” of the object is formed either in front of, or behind the reticle. If the eye is moved from the optical axis (center) of the scope, this also creates parallax. When your eye is even slightly off of the center or axis of the scope your point of impact will be slightly off as well.

So, with low power scopes or first focal plane reticles, parallax is usually not an issue. But when you get closer to 10x magnification and start shooting out to greater distances parallax can greatly affect the point of impact. This is why most modern scopes with a magnification beyond 10x will usually have a parallax adjustment turret with a set of ranges indicated (i.e. 100, 300, 400, 500, etc meters/yards). In the case of your Bushnell, they produced a cheap hunting scope not intended for long distance shots, but over-magnified it without parallax to compensate. Just a poor design concept in general.

I've got the Nikon Monarch 3 5-20x40 myself that I picked up for $450 a few years back, it comes with a second focal plane mil-dot reticle and parallax adjustment. I tend to shoot with the magnification set to 14x because that's the optimal setting for a mil-dot reticle 100 meters+. With the parallax adjustment I can set it to the distance I plan to shoot to (for example 100 meters) and it eliminates parallax. As for the scope overall, it's a great piece of glass and highly recommend it to anyone. In fact I highly recommend Nikon in general. Good affordable optics.
 
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