Beginners guide to scopes

[LondonJamie]

I’ve bought a relatively cheap 3-9x50 scope for my first, entry level .177 / 4.5 bb rifle.

Could you point me in the direction of some decent beginners guides to installing and calibrating a scope aimed at a relative noob?

Thanks in advance.

[MartynB]

I’ve bought a relatively cheap 3-9x50 scope for my first, entry level .177 / 4.5 bb rifle.

Could you point me in the direction of some decent beginners guides to installing and calibrating a scope aimed at a relative noob?

Thanks in advance.

Try Google with various search phrases, will likely return some youtube videos

[Sir rocco]

For starters i would suggest that with a bb gun it may be better to master opens first,
Apologies if you already know your way round them,
Atb.

[angrybear]

It's dead simple, but many guides mis something out,
The first 2 basics are mount height & eye relief, if the scope is too high or too low you have to strain your neck to align your eye, eye relief is the gap between the scope & your eye.

The best way is to fit the scope, shoulder the rifle with your eyes closed, get comfortable, now open your aiming eye, if the scope is not directly in your eye line, without you stretching up or squashing down then the height is wrong, that means changing the mount height.
Then you need the sight picture to fill the ocular, too close or too far from your eye & the edges blur & get a 'shadow' it needs to be a sharp & crisp circle, filling the whole ocular.

Now you can 'zero' it.
First adjust the ocular focus screw right at the eye end so the reticle (crosshair) is nice & crisp.

Scopes always mount with the height turret on top & the windage turret to the right,
The windage has to send the projectile straight down the line of the bore not off left or right which is simple, to move impact left is clockwise, to move right is anti-clockwise.

The height is a bit more complicated, the projectile does not fly flat (line of sight) it has a "trajectory arc" like kicking a ball, the further you want it to hit, the more angle up it must have at the start,
"zeroing" is adjusting the reticle to intercept that arc at the range you want it to be, so if it's zero'd at 10yds then at 20yds it will hit low, if it's zero'd at 30yds at 20yds it will be high.

I always initially zero at about 10yds, because 9/10 the impact out of the box will hit fairly close,
I hope that gives you a start, then you'll need to get in to the complicated stuff of velocity, angles, MOA or MRAD scope adjustments etc then you want a trajectory program,
I still think Chairgun is the best, even if no longer updated.
Download here https://uk.hawkeoptics.com/chairgun-...d-of-life.html

[ashf9999]

Here’s Tinbum’s take on it.

https://youtu.be/k70RrgetEN0?si=WZY4G6R1RirdjEc-

[LondonJamie]

Thanks for all the input. I’ll obviously do some research, but was hoping someone had already been through this pain. Appreciate the hints, tips and time taken to respond.
Cheers!

[angrybear]

Thanks for all the input. I’ll obviously do some research, but was hoping someone had already been through this pain. Appreciate the hints, tips and time taken to respond.
Cheers!

Everyone here has been through it, there is no magic answer, there are the basic's as above,
after that to know how many clicks equals what range and all that stuff you need to know velocity, projectile weight, ballistics etc, etc.
It will be different for different pellets/BB's in your rifle, which will be different to someone else's rifle, oh and with multi aim points (mil-dots) when you change scope mag the drop between dots also changes
it's not easy like in the movies

[TonyL]

Welcome to the forum.

Good advice up above from angrybear.

As he says, all rifle / scope / ammunition combinations will be different.

If I could add.....l always start the zeroing process at VERY short range. Like about TWO yards. This way, if the scope is miles out, hopefully it will still be "on paper" and you can see the point of impact. I've seen lots of people trying to do their initial zeroing at too long a range. The pellet misses the target completely so they haven't got a clue as to where the pellets are striking / which way to adjust. At such a close range, you'll need a lot of clicks to seemingly move point of impact a short way. For example, many scopes move point of impact approx 6mm at 100 yards for one click. So 0.6mm at ten yards. 0.3mm at five yards. At these very short initial zero ranges, expect the point of impact to be below the aim point by about the same distance as the centre of the scope is from the centre of the barrel.....it could be in the region of two inches with such a big scope. Adjust the windage (left to right) so it's spot on. Then move to five yards. Adjust windage more if required. Gauge the vertical one. Then move to your intended zero range (say 10 yards) and get those adjustments spot on.

Do make sure you have a suitable, safe backstop, target etc. And it's a good idea to wear shooting glasses, especially at these closer ranges...even more especially if using BBs.

What BB rifle is it? Personally I'd have rather gone for a much smaller scope, as I'd view this one as overkill for the short ranges I'm guessing you might be shooting at / the type of rifle.? If you can exchange it for a smaller scope, great. If not, are you intending buying other rifles later?

Sorry, not wanting to lecture and I hope you find some of this useful.

[Neil54]

I start at 6yds on a cardboard box.
The shot should be low at that distance but so long as its going straight , all is well.

[rapidresponse1]

my methord to neil