Rifle Scopes Scope gone bad?

[sharac]

After shooting season had some work done on my rifle and decided to check the scope out (made myself I.O.T.A. type of training device from butler creek cap) but unfortunately found out it might have gone bad. The scope in question is IOR 3.5-18x50 and it sits on 28moa DTA one piece mount. As far as shooting went i haven't seen anything which would led me to believe something is wrong but...

Zero is set with following adjustment available +2.6mil down adjustment (i.e. 2.6 mils of scope reticle UP -> POI down) and -17,7mil up adjustment (i.e. 17.7mils of reticle DOWN -> POI up). When i move knob towards maximum up adjustment reticle moves nicely somewhere up to 11-12mils and then simply stops moving while knob rotates normally (at least it appears to me). I've also tried measuring this outside but i don't have rifle here or any other rest to keep scope reasonably steady to make absolutely sure.

Any ideas what to check or how without having some really solid fixture to make sure i'm not imagining things? I'm not really fond on sending scope back to factory as its been there one for cleaning but they failed to clean anything (customer support in Europe is crap as it appears US market is only market IOR is treating seriously) and since i'm going to be shooting .260 for distance i'm not going to be needing 10+mils anyway.

 

[Deadshot2]

When a scope reticle stops moving when adjusting the knobs it usually means that the "erector" doesn't have full travel capabilities. If you run out of elevation adjustment then it's possible that the windage adjustment is cranked off to one side or another.

If your scope mount has no provisions for windage adjustment then you may need to get some rings that allow for windage (or elevation) adjustment with the use of offset sleeves.

Look at a circle. Draw some parallel, vertical lines inside it. Then notice that the longest line(s) are at the middle. Same for a scope, the largest adjustments are available when the erector assembly is centered.

I have one rifle that I had to actually fill the scope mount screw holes and redrill because the mount holes in the receiver were not in line with the bore. I wouldn't blame your scope yet. "Spin Center" it then look down the bore at a target 50-100 yards away. Get it centered in the bore as best you can and then see how close your reticles line up on the target. If there is a lot of windage offset then fix that first. Easiest way will be with the insert type rings. Hardest will be to adjust holes in your scope rail then re-bed it.


BTW, the reason the knob "free-wheels" is that the erector spring has pushed the assembly up as much as it can and now you are jammed against the side radius of the scope tube.

 

[sharac]

Just an quick update... After playing with it and looking at the erector from obj side its clear something is broken inside as in certain combination of elevation (10mils+) magnification knob gets stuck which definitely was not the case before or when i got it. Obviously something killed it i suspect last trip to shooting competition ~600km and had zero .5mil to the left i attributed that change to sun position or something else but obviously something got damaged so i guess i'll see how customer support works... Still having kind of mixed emotions about it since there was no event which should (IMO) cause it to fail...

 

[sharac]

Update:Checked it out in detail and here is whats wrong in my opinion:

on 18x everything works as it should (full ~20mils of travel, left right np scope as it should be) and thats why i havent noticed anything as i rarely (almost never use high correction with low magnification) dial all the way down...

on 3.5x (mind the zero which is on almost very bottom of erector travel) as i start dialing knob up (CCW towards knob full up) somewhere along the rotation (~10mil, one rotation) erector stops moving and stud that moves erector continues to move up and there is gap forming between erector and stud until knob is at full up rotation.

IF i start turning magnification up somewhere along the path (7x-8x) the erector will jump up and "fill the gap" which was caused by moving elevation knob totally up.

Going backwards from 18x i can move erector totally up all 17mils which i have for up and as said it works perfectly HOWEVER if i start dialing magnification back down towards 3.5x it will get extremely hard to move i.e. stuck and (since i dont want to break anything) will not move any longer UNLESS i move erector down (back towards my zero) and then somewhere around 3-4mils up from my zero it will "unlock" and i'm able to dial down to 3.5x easily...

My conclusion is that something with magnification ring has gone wrong it was super hard from the start so obviously something wrong with that threads/assembly/whatever makes it work...Basically wanted to write it if someone else has same issues so he/she doesn't force (its already super tight from factory so one might be tempted to force it) mag ring as i suspect it will break something...

Back to the IOR it goes tomorrow.

 

[sharac]

Update:

Got scope back from IOR (approx 1 month net time - minus post travel) and was fixed for free (warranty states 2y for service and parts and 30y for parts to be available) so this is a plus, time is acceptable as they had 2 weeks of holidays.

Results not so great as elevation knob is not quite even ( i remember it that is was uniform for whole travel) and magnification ring also has a bit of a weird feeling but at least it seems to be in working order (have to shoot to confirm). What bothers me is no explanation on defect (written with scope, several emails) and the most "foam on mouth" producing part is that its DIRTY again with a chunk of something stuck right at the center of ocular lens on the inside and won't budge. This makes it THIRD time dirty (as i bought it new it was already dirty sent it back for cleaning and came back dirty again and now the third time) i mean COME ON is it so hard to clean it after service...

With prices being what they are i'm having really mixed emotions about this entire company haven't decided yet but right now i'd be hard pressed to buy another of their scopes perhaps with time i'll be less pissed. Generally speaking scope is great and it functioned flawlessly at 18x and also repair was free and rather fast but to me at these prices little things are those which separate good from great.

PS: Mind you this is European market and is not representative of service level in the US....

 

[Magnumdood]

Tell ya what; when LowLight comes out and publicly says I.O.R. scopes are a waste of good money, given his creds and a peep into his testing protocol, an I.O.R. scope would be the last one I'd consider putting on my rifle. That includes if someone gave me one, or even tried to pay me to run the I.O.R. as my rifle optical sight.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

IOR's are pieces of shit... No secret there.

 

[sharac]

Honestly i don't consider them crap as they do work also reliability should be high (basically all 3.5 and 3 gen4 seem to be ok with mine being probably one of the few that died), glass is ok. But once you move towards 2k$ price mark you run into serious competition and being just good is simply not good enough and lets face it for someone who has 2k$ to spend additional 500$ or so is not big deal and every company will have to be great all around (from glass, to reliability, to mechanical quality and last but definitely not least have great warranty and customer support). My post wasn't meant to be pissing match or general rant just a simple observation and info on type of defect and how it was resolved by company.

 

[sharac]

Well its broken again this time when you turn mag ring or just put tension on it (just before turning) cross also moves and you can "wiggle" it alternating left/right pressure on mag ring. It still keeps zero though and i've managed to shoot match until the end but sure is annoying as it appears that erector assembly/mag ring developed some kind of gap/is loose... Well back to the factory it goes and guess who will never be buying IOR ever again .

 

[delixe]

So much for IOR having resolved the issues afflicting early models in current generation scopes.

 

[Javelin]

That is terrible.