Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics hope i don't have an issue........

ok fellas y'alls thoughts please as I've never encountered this before after mounting dozens of scopes and sight in. anywho, so I bought a new Leupold vx-freedom 3-9x33 efr for my lil boys CZ-455 scout and man let me tell ya I'm impressed with the clarity and overall fit/finish of the scope...............except for the adj knob feel. they feel kinda mushy and not audible much at all but you can feel the clicks if you wanna call em clicks. now this isn't meant to be a bash Leupold post as I have several rifles scoped with such and this is my first issue,if it is even an issue. so, I get the rifle zero'd at 50ish yds so my lil boy can practice on a life size deer poster and bust some spray paint cans, they love reactive targets the best only us groupie nuts get off on tight groups, at said 50 yds. after he does well,like 5 shots in 1" group at 60yds well, on the deer and pops the spray paint cans I decide I wanna shoot for groups so I go put up 2 big sticky orange dots on our board at 60yds. I pop in 5 Winchester subsonic hp 40 grain and fire a 5 shot group. then I pop in 5 cci subsonic 40 grain hp in the mag and bust off another group on the top dot. so, I get down to the board and there is a fairly tght group about 5-6" high of the top dot and same above the bottom dot. WTH is happening??? so, I scratched my big ole head and clicked down the appropriate number of clicks and it stayed there for the rest of the shooting session. all of the ammo shot was standard/subsonic 40 grain ammo so that can be ruled out. also, I threaded the sparrow ss on the end of the cz and groups did not shift and stacked em in right with the unsuppressed group. I've never had this happen to me so I thought I get y'alls opinions and please don't say well its a Leupold...............
thanks for y'alls time men,
Big Ed

Some have said you have to tap Leupold’s on the turret with a hammer (or other blunt object) in between sighting adjustments. I have NEVER had to do this , but I’m sure an internet expert will be along shortly.....

I've never had to do this with any of the other pile 'o leupolds I own. I mean this one was shooting fine to exactly poa then I go to shoot groups and bam...........this happens. guess I will continue to shoot it and if it does it again then back to leupold it goes.i mean its not just 1 or 2 errant shots but the whole group was off by 5-6". group was tight but not where I was aiming.
thanks,
Big Ed

Are you switching ammo and expecting that POI isn't going to shift?

I guess somewhat bill. never 5-6" of a shift. I did think of that though and shot a group with the ammo,cci standard 40gr lrn, I'd been using for sight in and paper deer,spray paint can busting and it grouped right on in there real close with the hp ammo. certainly not 5-6" difference and maybe 1/2" diff.
thanks and please keep the thoughts coming,
Big Ed

Different ammo - one group was shot with CCI, the other group was shot with Winchester. Even if they are both 40 gr Subsonic that does not mean the point of impact will be the same.
Did you shoot other groups with the two different ammos, and if so did the groups change position on the target. From reading your post it appears that you only shot the first group with the Winchester then you switched to CCI. The easiest way to see what was going would have been to try the Winchester again.

drover

drover, I did go back and shoot the sight in ammo,cci standard velo 40 grain lrn, and it too shot the same 5-6" high. windage perfect on all but elevation 5-6" high. after I moved the poi down 40 clicks it was real close to perfect at 60 yds. I shot several more and it didn't waver. but intend to shoot a lot more even maybe shoot a few then put gun up and shoot a few more over several days to see if poi changes any. just kinda screwy is all. trust me I thought of that in that rimfires a particularly screwy with ammo changes. so, I said well maybe the hp ammo is that far off but no the cci standard velo 40 grain lrn bullet impacted really close if not right on in with the 40grain su sonic hp ammo.
thanks,
Big Ed

Whitearrow,

Looks like you're getting some good feedback here, and that things seem to be working well now, but I thought I'd chime in. The adjustments on the VX-Freedom are similar to those we had on the VX-1 riflescopes. It is normal for them to not have a very loud click, but you should feel clear detents each 1/4MOA click. In general, tapping the adjustment will not hurt or help a riflescope make an adjustment.

In my experience, rimfire ammo can vary in point of impact quite a lot, especially subsonic loads. Bullets traveling at subsonic or trans-sonic velocities can do unpredictable things. Additionally, shooting with rimfire rifles at close distances increases the likelihood that you might run out of adjustment. The first sign of this would be that you are able to keep turning the dial, but your point of impact does not change. That scope should be able to adjust a little over two full revolutions of the dial from center before it runs out.

If you run into any more trouble, or just want to talk it over with one of our techs, give us a ring at 1-800-LEUPOLD!

I tried tapping mine the last time one went tits up. Ended up just pulling the scope (VX3 3.5-10x40 CDS) and tapping it against a big boulder 60 yards away from where I was standing.

I’m laughing so hard at this thread now. In general, tapping the turrets won’t help or harm ,..lol

I just remembered something. I think you’re supposed to run the adjustments all the way up and down and left to right. then sight it in. I read that here on the Fire about Leupold and it MAY HAVE come from Leupold.

Shot two types of ammo, each group of ammo shot a nice group, but they didn't group together, and its the scopes fault?

no chrisau changes of poi due to ammo preferences aren't the scopes fault. yes I did say I shot (2) different hp ammo BUT I did say that I went back and shot the original sight in ammo and it too shot to the same or really close poi as the hp ammo.
thanks,
Big Ed

I have read and re-read your postings and I am totally confused. At one point you are talking about shooting subsonic ammo and in a different post you are talking about shooting HP (hollow point?) ammo.

Where and how did the HP ammo fit into the sequence. Not ragging on you but rather trying to figure out sequence of shooting events.

Could you lay it out some thing like this -

A: Kid - shot X number of rounds of (brand and type of ammo) ______________

B: I shot X number of rounds of (brand and type of ammo)__________________

C: I then shot X number of rounds of (brand and type of ammo)______________

D: Was it at this point that there was the 5 - 6" difference in point of impact???

E: After noticing the point of impact did you go back and -

F: shoot X number of rounds of (brand and type of ammo_________________??

G: Then did you follow up with X number of rounds of (brand and type) of ammo___________??

H: If so what were the results???

I: If I am reading your OP correctly everything worked fine when you kid was shooting the rifle, you decided to bench shoot it and that was when the problem occurred - is that correct?

J: You then adjusted the scope and after that everything went where you thought it should?

K: And you were shooting only Std Vel ammo at this time?

L: Did you let your kid shoot the rifle some more to see if perhaps it was your hold, bench technique or some other problem you may have induced.

Perhaps my reading comprehension level is off today but I am having a problem with your rambling style of writing and am not understanding the sequence of events.

drover

Lol

M. You can’t shoot from a bench he said .

Ok driver for you buddy.
A. Rough sighted gun in
B. My kid shot some nice groups approx where poi was for me
C. I decided to shoot a couple groups with some hunting hp,hollow point,ammo but same velocity as standard ammo I sighted in with
D. Went and checked groups and both groups were 5-6” high compared to where they shoulda been
E. Lightbulb went off and I said well maybe I should shoot a group with sight in ammo
F. Sightin ammo also shot 5-6” high
G. I clicked scope 40 clicks down,20 clicks on a 1/4” click scope should move it 5”@100yds. I’m at 50ish yds so I doubled it at 40
H. Shot to poi=poa thru several mags
I. Suppressed and un suppressed go to same poi
J. Gonna follow closely because a scope that won’t hit first shot and needs to be sighted in every time just ain’t for me.
K. Do ya follow me now?
L. Did it help you diagnose my issue to reword into an alphabet format?

I saw that quoted in a John Haviland article. Some Leupold guy named O'Connor recommended that. I have a VX-2 3-9 that was acting squirrely, but straightened up after running the knobs a few times. Not 5-6" squirrely though.

Neither a VX-3i nor a VX-5 HD showed any sign of that, so maybe the dual springs help.

Yes, I have a better idea of the sequence now, although I am still not totally clear on a couple of things, thanks.

When you refer to subsonic ammo are you referring to Std Velocity ammo which usually have speeds of aroung 1100 - 1150 fps, or are you referring to an ammo such as the CCI Quiet which has a speed of only around 750 fps? That was one of the reasons I was asking for more specifics on brand and type of ammo.

You refer to hollow point hunting ammo you were using as having the same velocity as Standard Ammo (Std Velocity?) which is a bit confusing to me, I am unaware of a hollow point hunting ammo which has the same velocity as Standard Velocity. Hunting ammo is usually 200- 400 fps faster than Std Velocity ammo.

I have a couple of extremely accurate 22's and with them I notice POI changes with different std velocity ammo's. I shoot my groups at 50 yds and between different Shooting them with different Std Vel ammos it is not unusual to notice an inch or so difference in the POI.

However when using the CCI Quiet the POI is about 5 inches lower at 50 yds then Std Velocity ammo. By chance were you using CCI Quiet for some of your shooting? If you were using it initially and then switched over to a "normal" Std Vel ammo then that would explain the 5" higher grouping.

Long story short - If it were me I would go ahead and keep using the scope, if a problem does arise then I would send it back for repairs. If it is a relatively new scope I would call Leupold and ask them for a prepaid shipping label so that the return would be at their expense.

Good luck - let us know how it comes out.

drover

Nope driver no “quiet” 750fps used. Standard velocity is 1070ish fps and subsonic hp ammo is also 1070-1050fps hence as to why I was baffled at the 5-6” vertical shift in poi. Standard velocity ammo is sub-sonic and can be intertwined in usage. That’s all i shoot in my bolt guns due to high accuracy potential at 50-75 yds where hyper velo ammo goes from trans sonic to sub sonic groups get a lil funky due to the barrier being broken from trans to sub sonic.
Thanks for your thought and I intend to keep using the scope but will keep a keen eye on it also,
Big Ed

That's the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that gets things done!