Short history on the scope in question. Purchased a 5-25x56 FFP ATACR in May. Zeroed at 100 yards and quick box test, everything seemed to line up. Shortly after I started seeing groups open up and not be consistent from one day to the next and a 1/2 or 3/4 five shot group would be 2" the next time out. We are talking about an M1A, however a very good one with the previous scope but I wanted more magnification, so on went the 5-25. At this point I thought maybe it was the powder because I changed lots but really had a hard time dialing in a good load the rest of the summer.
To cut to the chase I thought I was on to something recently and was getting pretty consistent 1/2-3/4 three shot groups at 200 yards so I decided to bring the load out to 600 yards to see what it would do. So let it be known that I have not touched the windage dial on this scope since the first time it was zeroed. I shot some sighters and they were off to the right about 5" in a no wind environment so I dialed .2 mils to the left and thought the clicks felt a little mushy even going beyond what I was intending for so I had to bring it back .1
So ten shots later I had 6 that were fairly center of POA and then 2 off to the left of center about 12" and 2 off to the right of center about 12", so just over 4 MOA and vertical was acceptable. Some may joke and say well it's an M1A so that's about right but this same rifle would hold 1 MOA or slightly over for 10 shots at that distance previously.
One other note, I noticed on several occasions over the summer that my sight picture would get blurry after several shots and then it would clear up. Tried readjusting the diopter but to no avail, it didn't change.
So I contacted NF and they gave me an RMA number to send the scope in to have it checked and I pulled it last night. I guess before I ship it, does it make sense that just the windage would have an issue and not the elevation if something was amiss internally? Are they not both affected by a single retention spring inside the erector tube? I probably should have tried the box test again but I pulled the scope in frustration and boxed it up.
Not an internal scope expert so I figured I would just ask for some advice before I send it away for 6 weeks.
To cut to the chase I thought I was on to something recently and was getting pretty consistent 1/2-3/4 three shot groups at 200 yards so I decided to bring the load out to 600 yards to see what it would do. So let it be known that I have not touched the windage dial on this scope since the first time it was zeroed. I shot some sighters and they were off to the right about 5" in a no wind environment so I dialed .2 mils to the left and thought the clicks felt a little mushy even going beyond what I was intending for so I had to bring it back .1
So ten shots later I had 6 that were fairly center of POA and then 2 off to the left of center about 12" and 2 off to the right of center about 12", so just over 4 MOA and vertical was acceptable. Some may joke and say well it's an M1A so that's about right but this same rifle would hold 1 MOA or slightly over for 10 shots at that distance previously.
One other note, I noticed on several occasions over the summer that my sight picture would get blurry after several shots and then it would clear up. Tried readjusting the diopter but to no avail, it didn't change.
So I contacted NF and they gave me an RMA number to send the scope in to have it checked and I pulled it last night. I guess before I ship it, does it make sense that just the windage would have an issue and not the elevation if something was amiss internally? Are they not both affected by a single retention spring inside the erector tube? I probably should have tried the box test again but I pulled the scope in frustration and boxed it up.
Not an internal scope expert so I figured I would just ask for some advice before I send it away for 6 weeks.
