Scope and changing objective

Question

well i just got this 200$ scope and i sighted it in on white paper and i could see the cross hairs fine. But when i went to shoot a woodchuck with the gun, i couldnt hardly see the cross hairs for shitt. So i started to change the objective in the back of the scope(were it is normally) and when i was changing it i couldnt see a difference in seeing the cross hairs. What am i missing here, Cause i've never had a problem like this before. Because all of the other scopes that i've ever put on i've never had a problem like this

Answer 1

The end of the scope closest to the eye is the eye bell. It holds the ocular lens. The other end is the objective bell. It holds the objective lens.

To focus the scope you look through it at the sky and rotate the eye/ocular bell until the crosshair is sharp with no fuzz showing at the edges. Once done, if the scope is not faulty, you should not ever have to focus the eyepiece again.

If you have an adjustment on the objective end, that is for parallax. You adjust that for different ranges to set the scope to be parallax free at the different ranges. When set properly, you should be able to move your eye around a bit without noting any movement of the crosshair. The focus of the scope should be a little sharper with the objective adjusted, but that is not the sole function.

$200 isn't exactly an expensive scope. If you paid that for a scope that has high magnification, like over 14x, then the lack of clarity is likely due to the construction of the scope.

Answer 2

First, the lens on the front end of the scope, nearer the object being looked at, is the objective lens. I assume you were fiddling with the focus on the eyepiece.

The two things that come to mind are that you have fine crosshairs that simply aren't going to show up well in low-light conditions, or that you're guilty of "stock crawl" and did it to yourself without anything at all wrong with the scope.

Answer 3

  Just an observation, dim or invisible crosshairs can be from low light conditions, shoulder to grip change, cheek rest position on the comb, and the scopes ability to gather in ambient light. One comment I have heard on a couple of occasions is "I couldn't put the crosshairs on em'." The hunter had great results at the range but in the field had a hardtime aquiring his target. Doing some research and field testing with this hunter we found he had a depth perception issue. He could see great at the range or on a open target down a gravel road but when presented with a target against a wooded backdrop his depth perception made the crosshairs disappear. Incidently he now hunts with bifocals.