Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics AO on deer hunting scope?

One of our .com friends asked this question, but it seemed to get over looked. Maybe having its own thread will help.

Maybe it was not overlooked - rather people figured, whats to tell?

No difference using the AO feature hunting deer than punching paper.

You either are around your scopes current parralax setting distancewise, then you fire away.

Or you correct, using the AO feature to the desired distance and engage target (or) deer.

The fact, that, outside of the internet, in the game fields, the majority of deer are engaged well inside 200 yards, may further explain the quiet.

I would think having parallax adjusted properly in field positions where your eye might not be perfectly centered might matter, but inside 200 yds only a matter of which side of the aorta you hit.

I have always wondered why AO scopes did. See some for sale at times.

Why would using an AO on "deer-sized game" be any different than using an AO on other-sized game?

The better question might be.
Why on Earth would you want to monkey [bleep] around with an adjustable AO scope, while hunting any big game.?


dave

Agreed.

i dont have any desire for AO

I've never owned one either, so I can't say.

I re-phrased Fotis' question on the other post. He asked if it would hinder hunting.

Some guys said they gotta have it for hunting (assumption) and I was wondering why--tempted to conclude something smartass like this is another case of herd buying following savvy marketing. The deer sized parameter was included to exclude varmints.

More specifically, if I am understanding this now, you adjust the AO prior to hunting a known specific distance?

I hunt with AO scopes a bunch. I hunt very open country. I set them to 200yds and forget about it unless I'm going to make a long shot. At that point I have the time to take a good rest, manipulate both the power ring as well as the AO.

This is the way informed user of A.O use their scopes.

Seems like a good thread to hijack and correct my confusion. I have 2 AO scopes. The last marking before infinity on 1 is 150 yards, on the other it's 100 yards. Yes they are budget minded scopes. Also, the higher the range the closer the markings are to the previous one leading me to believe that once you're out beyond a couple hundred yards AO adjustment is pointless? Yes? No? Kinda?

My other thought is the focus issues I have with AO scopes. With my AO's I have to have them properly set for my eyes to work but on all my non-AO scopes, whether they were factory set at 50, 75 or 100 yards, focus is never an issue. Example: if I have an AO scope set at 100 yards it's completely unusable at 25 or 200. If I have a non-AO that is factory set at 100 my eyes do just fine at 25 and 200. I don't know why there would be a difference between adjustable at 100 or factory set but there seems to be. Am I alone in this?

Save me from my own thoughts!
CB

I think "E" suggests you put the scope on infinity. I hope I am not messing up his idea. Now you point the scope at the sky and look though it. If the cross hair is not immediately sharp turn the ocular one way or the othe till it is clear. Look away often and look at someething else. Then recheck the crosshair. This may take a couple minutes or more.

Once you have the crosshair clear turn the ocular till it barely becomes fuzzy. Now turn the ocular the other dirction counting the turns until it becomes clear again and then fuzzy again. Now turn the ocular half way back to where it was fuzzy and you should be in the center of the clearest the crosshair is going to be. I hope I got it correctly from "E".

Now set the A.O. for 100 and check the results. Let us know how it works.




"E",

If I messed up give us a hand.

Like horse 1, I have a bunch.of AO scopes. I bought one for the airgun (most valuable there), one for the scoped .22 (Needed unless a specific .22 set parallax) and the rest came to me at no extra cost in a rather uninteresting way. Use them like horse does. Will never pay extra for the feature on a 10X or less, except for airguns and .22s. jack

Chris, one of the reasons why the non AO scopes are desirable is because non AO scopes have a longer depth of focus, as you have discovered.
While Ringman did describe how I usually start to focus my scopes, that procedure won't change the depth of focus of the scope. E

Eremicus,

I have been using your system because it sounds logical and can't hurt.

Leupold sets its parallax on non AO scopes to 150 Yards. S & B sets it to 100 meters (110 Yards). I don't know about other scopes.

The POTENTIAL loss of accuracy out to normal hunting distances of say 500 yards is minimal, less than 2MOA. If one looks directly through the scope, there is no parallax problem. It's only a problem where one cannot get a good view and even then one would have to be way off center.

Many guns don't even shoot that accurately - (oh yeah I know ALL yours do!). So on a deer sized target you're going to hit it, and probably in a vital part. 2MOA is the 10" pie plate that will put the animal down @ 500 Yards. And once again, if you look directly into the scope, there is no error.

I get AO for varmint shooting, those are small targets engaged at fairly long distance. Ever notice that all the big manufacturers put AO only on the 12X and above scopes??? Anything else is a gimmick IMHO.

And of course someone has already pointed out that in the "heat of battle" who has time to fool with AO anyway??

mrmarklin,

Your arguement assumes the bullet hits exactly where the crosshair is indicating. If a guy is shooing a 2MOA rifle and is 2MOA out he can be pleanty far off to miss or wound.

One can also buy fixed-focus cameras, binoculars, telescopes, etc.; very convenient - no need to focus.