You would not believe how many people don't even know what optical zero is let alone set it . I have sent so many people to watch this video because I think its the best and easiest to follow and understand . I'm a air gun shooter and setting a scope to optical zero is one of the most important thing to to do . You should add that you need to set your scope to the least power setting and if you have a parallax set it to infinity before you start to center the cross hairs .
I don't have illuminated reticles, so I just used a glass digital scale and placed it over my mirror which gave me a 1" gap. Then I lit a flashlight shining to the place between them. I was pretty close before using the click count method, but this got right on. Thanks.
Great tip i never touch a turret on a new scope,but i was talking to someone about the scope and noticed i was turning the turrets back and fourth.When i went to sight in i had no more up on my dial.Thanks to you im now center again
That's not good idea to calculate totat click of Turret .... because Turret spring which is below the tube that lost its performance if you over burden it ....don't tight too much both windage and elevation... optical center method is best for cheap scope ....click count can be good for tectical military grade scope.
Pertaining to the adjustable scope mounts. Burris scope company in Greely, Colorado also has adjustable scope mounts that use inserts the allow elevation and windage adjustment without using the scope turrets adjustment. The insert come in different thickness from zero to 0.20 plus and minus thickness. This allows you to keep the optical center which allows full turrets adjustment range and help ti provide a clear optic. The shims will bring you to near zero within 1" or less, once you get to this point the scope turrets can be adjusted to the final point. I have this system on 2 of my air rifles and it work great. My scope picture is clear and have 99% of the turrets adjustment left. Also used Tomcats optical centering method, which works great, prior to mounting the scope. This insured that i was starting with a scope that was adjusted to the true optical center.
Good morning I would like to know which zoom and parallax setting the scope should be on for this to work. I saw in another video that the zoom must be at least, and the parallax must be at infinity, does this work or whatever? Thanks...
My pleasure! I just finished recording 2 other methods for doing this, the "Click" method and the "Spin" method. I hope to have that video edited and up very soon. :)
Or if you use a piece of glass on top of the mirror to enable a little light to come through. This will help if you don’t have an illuminated recital. That way you will see a lot better.
Great tip Tomcat! After learning from Cyclops (hats off to him) about the internal workings of the majority of scopes if seems it would only make sense not to have those springs inside your scope all bound up from a turret cranked all one way or the other.........😫 Now I'm wondering if theoretically the scope can handle some more of those unexpected bumps without losing zero?......Hmmmmm......?
did this the hard way w/o the illumination ret. However, knowing the tip of the illumination... Now Ill do the other scope too. Thanks Tom, Thanks ArabAirgunTV
What good is optical zero when you're not in zero once you adjust for target zero. Unless of course, you employ a fully adjustable mount whereby, you can set an optical zero on target by a D justing the mount. Then tweak it in using the turrets that is already close to optical zero via the adjustable mount.
All I can think of right now is to get yourself some scope mounts with adjustable windage and elevation. Sports match makes some but, they carry a high cost.
This method will work for non-illuminated scopes. It's just a little harder to see and was extremely hard for the camera to pick up. I've heard putting a piece of glass between the mirror and the scope will allow more light to enter and make it easier to see.
TOM, PLEASE HELP ME. I have a sightmark cbr illuminated scope and I tried your method and and can't find the second set of cross hairs. I even tried with illustration off and still can't find it. Tom please let me know what I'm doing wrong
It's hard to assist without seeing what you're doing. Try zooming all the way out. If that does not work, I would refer you to this video and to using the click method. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SjyoYfb7bc4.html
@Tomcat Airguns I tried the methods you sent me yesterday, and still nothing. I have a sightmark with illuminated cross hairs, I turned on the illuminated cross hairs like you did but the second set of cross hairs that should pop up when you put a mirror at the other end ,don't pop up. I turned both knobs hoping they would appear but nothing happens.
@@mr.trevino.4356 If you use the counting method, you don't need to worry about seeing the crosshairs. It works just as well as the mirror method. Out of curiosity, do you have a scope cap or anything else installed on the front of the scope?
@Tomcat Airguns no I don't have a scope cap or nothing on it. Ok I will retry the counting method. Quick question my scope has illumination just like yours, why can't I see the double on the mirror. I did everything like you did?
Fucking brilliant! THANK YOU! I bought a used scope and fought with the knobs to zero it. Got it close but knew there was a problem. I’ll find a small mirror and check it out.
@@Atoyota25 Thanks for getting back to me. It’s a Vortex LPVO. A 1-6x24 PST Gen 2. I put a mirror in front of the objective and saw the faint shadow crosshairs, but they appear really well lined up with the brighter crosshairs. I put the red dot on a low setting and that confirmed it. That said, I did it with the scope mounted on the rifle and may have not had the mirror completely flat against the scope. This is my “go to” rifle so as it is dialed in well enough right now, I don’t want to mess with it until I have another set of optics on hand to replace it with, in case I have to send it to Vortex. A friend of a friend has an EOTech and magnifier for sale…
@@Atoyota25 I’ve heard great things about them, and I have other Vortex scopes but I didn’t buy this one new, so I’m not sure how that will affect a warranty claim. We’ll see and if you like, I’ll get back to you n
This method doesn’t work for the cheap Gamo air gun scopes. Tried all suggested approaches mentioned in the thread and no can do - no ghost reticles show up!!!!
I'm glad you liked it! I think I do something similar to the V-notch in Part 2. Each method has its own pro's and cons. I find myself using a makeup mirror the most, though. Quick and easy.
Turn on illumination, if possible. Also, make sure your eye is the proper distance away and you have a lot of back lighting. If none of that works, I have videos of other methods that might work better for your situation.
How about showing the same method without the illuminated scope? For most people that use ordinary scopes this is useless! You start off about how to do this with a mirror, then it seems we need illuminated scopes????
Richard, Do the same exact method. You'll see a shadow of the reticle. This video was originally made without using the illumination but, it did not show up well on camera. So, no, no one NEEDS illumination to do this.
