Rifle Scopes variance in listed travel vs. true measure?

[ROLEXrifleman]

Can not sleep tonight and have a few scopes just sitting so I decided to play.

Can there be / Is there a variance in scopes when windage and elevation measurments are compared to whatthe manual says vs. what you actulay have in front of you?


For example, in my case:

NF NXS 12 - 42 (.25 MOA adjustment)

Manual says 45MOA of elevation and 35 MOA of windage. SO...
I bottomed out my elevation turret and counted clicks till I topped out. 190 clicks. Did this twice and verified 190. Since my adjustmnets are .25 value that gives me a true total MOA range of 47.5 MOA

Did the same with windage: 128 clicks = 32MOA total adjustment

So it appears that I have 2.5 MOA of extra adjustment when compared to teh manual for Elevation and 3MOA less adjustemnt in windage when compared to the manual.

Is this common?

 

[tt350z]

Re: variance in listed travel vs. true measure?

Yes.

Your on the good end atleast. Nothing to worry about.

I'm 3.5 MOA short of whats listed, not gonna lose sleep over that.

 

[brand692]

Re: variance in listed travel vs. true measure?

Yes, very common.

In fact, I don't know of a single scope that I've had that matched the manual perfectly. 90% of the time, it will work in your favor and you will have more than the manual says.

It sucks, however, when you have less. Or when mechanical zero on a scope isn't split exactly at the center, ie on a 45MOA scope, instead of mechanical zero being 22.5 from top and bottom, its 21 from bottom and 24 from top. This really plays a factor on high mag scopes that don't have a whole lot of adjustment.

Not to long ago a guy was struggling because he couldn't get his scope to zero with a 20 MOA base. It was a NF 12-42 with 45 MOA of adjustment. Mathematically, you SHOULD be able to run a 20 MOA base, and still have 2.5 MOA before you bottom out. Well, his didn't for whatever reason. It could have been the rifle, it could have been the scope. Whatever it was, he had to get a 15 MOA base to make it work.

This is a great example of why people should test a scope when its brand new. One would be very surprised at how often the "ranging power" on SFP scope is not accurate. Or how many MOA of adjustment a scope actually has.