Feeling smug...DIY Scope repair.

[trevj]

Picked up a 3x9 Bushnell off the EE for postage.

The reticle was spinning, along with the power adjust.

Turns out it was a ring, that had broken loose from the rubber ring it was glued to. A dab of CA glue later, some fiddlin' about getting the adjustment spring back into place, and I'm back in business!

It was a bit of a head scratcher. It came apart fine. There was no obvious (to me) problem, until I poked at a mark in the rubber beneath the ring and it crunched. That was the clue I needed.
About the only thing that needed a careful eye, was to keep the alignment correct on the reticle so that it came out a cross rather than an x, when I glued up the ring to the rubber.

A little thought, and on realizes that the ring is the flex joint that the adjustable part of the scope pivots on when the adjustments are made.

Hey, It's not exactly in the top three at the F class shoots, for a scope, but for the cost of postage only, hey! Good stuff!

I'll find it a home on a 22 I think..

Well worth the cost, simply to have a scope to rip apart without having to break it myself!
I should rip it mostly apart, goober a bit of extra grease on the joints and O rings, and squirt some nitrogen into it.
For what that's likely to be worth.

Cheers
Trev

 

[AP]

That's a terrific story. You may not need nitrogen if you have the same experience as I have .. several older Zeiss (Jena) scope I have contain no nitrogen (manufactured that way) and they work great.... always clear etc.

I never bring a cold scope into a warm room though even the Leupolds etc which are "supposed" to be nitrogen filled.

The only area you may want to investigate a little is the type of grease you use so not to deteriorate any rubber it comes in contact with AND one that doesn't "outgass" and leave residue on the internal glass elements. I am not sure what or where this can be sourced but I wouldn't mind getting a small "pot" of it myself.

Congratulations.

 

[trevj]

Thanks!

Next time I'm anywhere near a camera repair place or the like, I'll ask after some grease. See what comes of that.

The nitrogen, for this scope, would be a little like being so proud of your gold medal, that you got it bronzed, sorta thing, eh! I can pour some in, but the scope is as likely to be full of plain old air pretty quick.
Good for a laugh, to say it was filled.

It's pretty interesting to see how the reticle sits, and how fine it is. One can get a pretty good undestanding of just what kind of work goes into repair and replacement of reticles on "good" scopes will be, too.
This one uses a etched or chemically machined cross wire, and I gather that som eof the Mildot scopes use a similar system, while others use a printed pattern on a glass disk.

I have read thet the old target shooters would make a set of croshairs out of spider web, by taking some strands of cobweb, and carefully laying them across the base of the ring, and securing them with a dot of laquer paint or similar.
And I have seen articles in old magazines showing how one could go about making ones own target scope, back in a time when everybody was not so sure that all things should be left to "experts".

Cheers
Trev