Rifle Scopes In and out of focus.

[MadKap]

I had a weird experience shooting today. Using my Vortex 6-24 PST (ffp) my target was going in and out of focus. Not moving my head at all, it was like my eye was acting weird or something, I just don't understand what was causing it. The crosshair was always perfectly in focus, but without messing with the parallax, the actual image would go in and out of focus.

It's a phenomena I just don't understand and if anyone could school me on it, I would love to hear what they have to say. I've found it happening to me on another scope before (swfa 10x), but it hasn't happened to me using a nightforce 8-32 or a bushnell 6-18 (a really cheap one ironically).

 

[smk175]

Re: In and out of focus.

had the exact same thing happen to me yesterday i just took a five minute break from the scope got up walked around and cleared my head. I'm not sure if that was the actual problem but it worked for me, also make sure your not holding your breath that can sometime cause it too.

 

[MadKap]

Re: In and out of focus.

Interesting, I didn't think about my breath. I need to be more mindful of that for sure.

Do you know if there are any certain optical properties of some scopes that might cause it with certain individual's eyes?

 

[smk175]

Re: In and out of focus.

i was using a paralax free scope and it only has happened with my paralax free scope so i dont know if that would make a difference just and observation and as far as eyes i think it could also happen if you are tired/out of breath, dont think it has much to do with your eye itself but i could be wrong

 

[SmokyJoe]

Re: In and out of focus.

I've heard this can happen if you're sighting with one eye closed for a long time. The open eye gets fatigued trying to maintain focus unilaterally. Ideally both are open.

 

[MadKap]

Re: In and out of focus.

Another shooter complained of trouble seeing through the scope, is this potentially a sign of a messed up parallax? Perhaps my eye was trying to focus on the crosshair and the background when they weren't matching?

 

[SigsauerP229]

Re: In and out of focus.

Try blinking your eye's several times. If you become focused for to long on an object you tend to just stare and not blink. Blinking wets and lubricates your eye's. I notice this gets worse when using lower end glass compared to higher end glass. I have also learned that some Visine before a shooting session can help.