Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics SWFA

If you are worried about that, then buy something else. I leave mine on 200 and have zero problems. If it is long distance and you have time to screw with it, then fine, but the deer don't seem to notice. I have never seen it as a "fuzzy scope", but maybe I am not splitting hairs. I just kill stuff. I have killed deer from close, out to 430 yards with it and never needed to take the time to adjust the scope. I started buying fixed-power because I got tired of having to dick with it all the time to be on the "right" power. Now, with the 6x and 10x, I just shoot!

Have you ever used a parallax adjustable scope? With all the ones I've had,you don't have to set them to a specific yardage for them to be clear. The adjustment will help if you are looking at a very close object with a high power. Just like a non parallax adjustable 2-10 wouldn't be real clear on 10 power at 10 yards,the fixed 10X wouldn't be perfectly clear at 10 yards unless you adjusted the parallax, but it would be fine at about 30-40 out to beyond 200 if you just left it set at 100.

Hopefully you wouldn't hunt tight spots with a fixed 10X, but if you did ,you could set the parallax at 25 or 50 and be fine at any close distance.

You could get maximum clarity by adjusting for a specific yardage,but it wouldn't be like it would be fuzzy fifty yards farther or shorter from what you set it. I doubt you could tell the difference without using an eye chart,and only then if you had really good vision.With the SWFA SS 10X if you expected a shot from 50 to 200 just set the parallax at 100 and leave it alone. If you expected a longer shot you could set the parallax longer and for a really long shot the adjustment would actually help you to correct any errors due to parallax,so it would help in more than focus at very long range.

With my 3 x15 x42, I set the parallax on 100 and don't touch it from 50 yds to 600 yds. It stays clear for it all. Likely just my eyes,but once set and clear, I don't mess with it.

Clarity aside, how's the parallax at 400 with it set to 100?

I’ve 2x SS 3-15x SFP scopes on my T3 SLs. They hold zero and are repeatable so far. Both of them I bought used in the classified section. One has slightly loose paralex. I’ve been thinking about sending it in for repair because it’s pretty loose and appears to be off. The other one is a lot tighter and spot on.

Have you ever used this particular 10X SS scope? I asked the question because mine is very sensitive to parallax adjustment. If I leave it set for 150 or 200 yards, it's a bit fuzzy at 100, and very out of focus at 50. Same going the other direction. Maybe I got one that's worse somehow, I don't know as this is my only fixed SS scope. That's why I asked what other people do with theirs.

To answer your question, yes, I have used other parallax adjustable scopes. This is the first one I've had that has to be set at a specific distance for a clear image.

No problems. I shot three days ago out to 600 yds and never touched the parallax. Once in a while if there is mirage, I might make a minor adjustment, but not much. I have found that I get the least parallax( none) with it set on the 100mark. That is why I don't mess with it much. When initially adjusting the scope, I found more parallax,the higher I went on the parallax knob. It still wasn't that much though.

I'm still interested in feedback on this parallax/focus thing on the 10X MQ SS. Did I get a scope that acts differently than others, or is this a "feature" of these scopes that the SS fans just don't talk about? I expected clarity at all ranges (other than up close) regardless of parallax setting, but that's not what my 10x does.

I have a 12x, not 10x but the following has been my experience. At under 40-50, I need to adjust the scope to get a clear image. Beyond that distance, as long as I have the scope set at above 50 and below infinity, I have a reasonably clear image. Setting the parallax to the appropriate range does also sharpen the image a very tiny bit more. Basically, if I leave it between 100 and 200 it is going to be in focus for anything over 50 yards. 50 yards and in I will need to focus it. Everything else, I can use as is or adjust for parallax and it will get a little bit sharper.

Yep, all my 10x's are the same way.

I would pretty much agree with that for the 10X I've shot. If I was looking at close targets,I just set it at 50 yards. It didn't have to be anywhere real close to exact yardage to be clear.

Set parallax to infinity, then use the actual scope focus to make the image look how you want it. Then leave it set that way forever.

If going to go under 50 yards or so, that won't work well however.

Thanks for the responses.

Some of these comments have me thinking folks aren't clear about what parallax is.

Yeah,seems a bunch of folks think that adjusting the focus on a scope is the same thing focusing with a binocular. Focus is for the reticle, not the image.

You likely ain't gonna always have a perfect image when adjusting the parallax. You should only have to adjust the focus once to get the reticle crisp and adjust parallax as needed.


People worry way too much about image focus/clarity, whatever.

I'm not the most knowledgeable concerning parallax. Majority of my scopes were not parallax adjustable until I started using the 6x SWFA...previously it was mainly a few different rimfire scopes.

My simple understanding of parallax is that its aligning the focal plane of the scope (what you're looking at) with the focal plane of the reticle so that regardless of head position, the reticle isn't going to appear in a different location on the object of focus.

In the past couple of months I've seen that parallax adjustment in different scopes can REALLY change the focus of the image as well...to very different degrees across different scope brands/models. I wasn't expecting it and it's something I'm going to pay a lot more attention to in shooting this year.

The only thing that needs to stay focused is the reticle.

Focus/clarity became a good bit more important to me this year when I was trying to pick an opening between twigs and everything was fuzzy. I'd not had that problem (at least not to a noticeable degree) until this year.

How close/far, how did you set focus/parallax

If you have the reticle sharply focused then it's because the eyepiece is doing a good job of getting it right for your eye. That's its job.

When the parallax adjustment affects what you see as the image focus it means it is optically moving it away from the reticle. Since your eye is properly focused on the reticle, and your eye can't simultaneously focus at two distances, the image looks out of focus. It's the parallax adjustment's job to move the image to the same optical spot as the reticle.

So first look at a non target, like a clear sky. Focus the reticle using the eyepiece. Leave that alone. Now when you aim at a target you minimize parallax by using the adjustable objective, side focus, or whatever the parallax adjustment mechanism is for your scope.