To AO or not to AO?

[castafly]

Thanks for all the replies concerning my question about scope recommendations for a 17 Hornet. If I may, I have one more question I'd like to ask: how necessary/important is an adjustable objective for a scope around 4-12 or 4-16, shooting varmints anywhere from 50 yards to 350 yards? Is an AO scope for this purpose worth the additional money? I've done a bit of searching, but I can't really find a good answer. Thanks in advance!

[george ulrich]

Yes you will change your aim point with parallax.

[Lunde Sr]

AO?. Without a question, YES

[thekriebles]

Originally Posted by Lunde Sr

AO?. Without a question, YES

+1... It's a significant advantage to have the AO for accuracy and visual clarity for the range of distance you're considering.

[Old Hawkeye]

As long as you have your eye centered in the scope a non-AO scope will be just as accurate. An AO scope will give better clarity as you adjust for the yardage & reduced the need for your eye to be perfectly centered behind the scope. To tell you the truth, I don't notice any difference in the field shooting varmints. Target shooting may be a different matter. A lot of this stuff is just hearsay as far as I can tell. I shoot to 500 yards with a non-AO scope & don't feel at a disadvantage. For a 4-12x or 4-16x scope and the yardages you are talking about I don't think it matters one bit. If you were talking 1000 yards I might have a different opinion.

[Hog Patrol]

Most non adjustable scopes are parallax fixed at 75 or 100 yds. Shooting anything inside of those ranges without the eye being in the center will change the point of impact and for that reason I use only scopes with AO or side adjustable parallax. In addition, the target may appear blurry at ranges inside the fixed distance.

[trotterlg]

Past 100 yards or so there is very little difference in point of aim shift with or without an AO scope. Guess if you were shooting at 20 yards with it set to infinity you may see some shift. If you have time to range finder the subject in order to properly set the AO on your scope you are sure doing a different kind of hunting than I do. I have only one AO scope and I just leave it set at infinity, I can still put 5 shots through a Quarter at 100 yards. Larry

[Stormbringer]

With a 4-12 or 4-16 and shooting the distances you listed the AO is the only way to go. Do you value a clear picture? Without an AO at your highest magnification (12 or 16) the image will be fuzzy and parallax a problem.

It is that important and a highly desired feature. I would not own a scope over 10 power without one.

Mike.

[hemiallen]

My son received a Rem 700 223 heavy weight gun from me that I put an inexpensive 6-24x scope on it and developed loads for it. I got it shooting around 3/8" 5 shot groups ( more than one, lol) and sent him home with it and ammo. Several months later he went to the range with his BIL and came by with a 5 shot group that was 3 and 2, seperated by 1/2", total group was around 3/4". He was disapointed and mentioned to me that " your loads aren't that good".

A few days later I took the gun and ammo to my backyard bullet trap at 100 yds and saw that the target was out of focus, where I determined that he had the objective set at 200 yards. I adjusted it to be in focus ( not on the hashmark for 100 yds) and proceeded to shoot a nice, tight 5 shot group representative of my loads. The next time he came by I showed him the target, and set the gun up on my table, aimed at the telephone pole that is 75 yards behind the house and set the objective to the 200 yard hashmark. I had him sit down and take a look, he noticed it was out of focus, and I suggested he aim the reticle on a small bolt on the pole and move his face around to see what paralax does to the aimpoint.

We believe he probably had fired 3 of the rounds with his face in one position and , maybe, the other 2 in another... or, as I suggested, he isn't as good a shot as the old man is...lol

My experience is :1, face placement isn't conscise or repetetive :2, this adds to the size of one's group 3: adjust your scope's objective lense to reduce aiming errors, ie paralax. Some scopes have paralax regardless of adjusting the paralax to your eyes, in that case get a better scope.

Most good scopes have an adjustable objective if they are 12x and above, for a reason.

Allen

[kenbro]

I have a Xeiss 3-12 without parallax adjust. and it's a crisp picture to 200yds, but I still prefer scopes with adjustment, preferably on the side rather than on the objective. Much easier to use when lying down, or in any other position for that matter. Might be I have short arms!
Ken.