Night Vision Return to zero - Clip on tips and tricks?

[pangris]

Greetings all - I've got a shiny new Steiner C35 gen 2 and they have yet to release the rail interface

But, I do have the Burris Smart Clip and it can be mounted on my 3x18x50 VX-6. Sidebar, initial viewing is very promising, looks great from 3 to 8X and even 10 isn't terrible.

For those that have used the slip on clip on - how's your return to zero repeatability? Any tips or tricks other than witness marks? The only thing I can figure at the moment is to reference where the reticle appears on the boot up or menu screen, but that seems to be a less than perfect metric.

Any advice is very appreciated.

 

[ping]

I don't have a smart clip setup, but I do have a Pulsar clip-on that I use to coyote and varmint hunt. In addition to witness marks I also use the Pulsar menu to reference the crosshairs with the menu letters as you allude to.

I am not a precision shooter and don't shoot more than about 300 yards with my setup so I can only say it works for minute of coyote/bobcat/skunk/raccoon/possum/etc... for me. Killed a coyote the other night at 200 yards with no issue. I'm not the most careful handling my gear when hunting and the setup gets used hard. I can tell when I don't have the adapter fully seated and clamped down or if I banged it badly and it isn't on the scope right. Not a "perfect metric" as you note but works for my applications.

I look forward to hearing more of your feedback on the C35 gen 2. I had one ordered a few weeks ago and it got canceled by the merchant due to a stocking error.

 

[pangris]

This is me, hoping beyond what words can express that I have some pics of proof of concept by Tuesday... I'll use the witness/reference method until then

 

[Rancid Coolaid]

Immobilize gun barreled down a coin or piece of foil on a target bullseye at 100 yards, carefully add clip-on to rail, check that crosshairs still on heat marker at 100 yards.

If not, take the clip-on off, check again. If verified as no gun movement, re-attach clip-on (carefully) and reset image to proper zero.

I run a C35 in front of a March 1.5-15 and really like the setup. I have had it for a solid hunting season and experienced no appreciable shift in zero - though my thermal shots are 200 and in - and the gun is a laser.

In contrast, I have a super hogster that requires verification every time out. As much as I like the optic (and the price), I hate the repeatability (and the menu system.) So, every time out, I confirm zero...

If someone has a better way, I'd love to know what it is!

 

[isofahunter]

Make sure the mount is slipped all the way on the scopes bell housing, check visually if it appears level.
Adjust the lever until it closes tight.
Turn on Thermal and have scope on 3x.
Look through scope and then slowly move 3 to 4 to 5....
Watch how the reticle is positioned as you increase the magnification on the scope.
Is it equal right left and up down. Really helps if you have Mil or MOA hashmarks to reference.
If left side reticle is at 4 Mils is the right side also at 4 Mils? As you zoom is left and right both at 3 Mils and so on..... Same for up down.
If not loosen lever and make adjustments until this happens.
Once it is centered you should have no issues with zero.

I move mine from rifle to rifle and following this procedure and have never had an issue with zero. I used to worry about it and would verify before going hunting every time, after months of no issues I quit verifying and just go hunting.

 

[pangris]

I'm home and generally impressed. I fire several groups with it on/off every 2-3 rounds and in short it was minute of coyote in practice later that night. At one point I had 8 rounds across 4 remove/remount sequences in about 1.5" at 100 yards. That is sufficient. Others were bigger but none were unacceptable for predator hunting out to 250-300. I'd slap an orphan for a rail mount, I'm using the Burris Smart Clip which appears to be working but I gotta believe the rail would be easier. I don't know if I got lucky but my first shot at 50 yards with X/Y at 0/0, I was about 1" high and 2" to the right so getting centered was easy.

I'm hoping to go to the range and fire a 30 round group with 15 remount/reset and NO careful screen reference verification. I've got witness marks on the exterior for depth and level - I'm very curious to see what the margin of error is with a physical reference only and no fine tuning. I actually have high hopes because the VX-6 and C35 combo worked WAY better than I expected based on what I'd seen on the interwebz as far as what to expect for screen resolution. I may try for another 20 in 5 shot intervals where I make a real effort to align as closely as possible using the screen reference method.

Will post some pics soon, but in short - for verification, I was zooming ALL the way into 18x and could about see which pixel I was on under the letter "A" in the menu. What really surprised me was in the field, I smoked a coyote on 18X as well. At that magnification it was definitely like a 16 bit resolution dog, but it sat down and was looking toward us. I was playing around with the system and when the opportunity presented itself, I was able to get real world DRT hit within 2" of where I expected at ~ 200 yards. To be sure, if clarity is what you're after, somewhere between 6x-10x it gets a little pixelated but the clarity allowed me to shoot targets at 100 on 18x.

Can't wait to get another solid range day under the belt.

 

[Rancid Coolaid]

Mine is rail mounted. If you can find the rail mount, I highly recommend.

 

[pangris]

The rail mount is currently fully unobtanium. Will buy when can.

 

[rlsmith1]

Any pics of your gen2? General feedback on how it works?

 

[pangris]

Steiner C35 Gen 2 - Initial range trips and first hunt

Greetings all. As stated in the C35 Gen 1 thread, I was primed and ready to jump on the grenade when the Gen 2 dropped and I ordered it the morning after I saw it appear on Gunbroker. The unit comes with batteries, cables, a charger and no way to mount it on an optic. The rail mount is not...

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