• We're live!

    We've got the homepage updated and subscriptions are now managed through HideTV. If you run into any bugs please contact @alexj-12 or use our contact form for help!

    ENTER HIDETV VIEW THREAD

Scope Evaluation Range vs Scope Dial Elevation limit

ratton

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 21, 2009
893
151
64
Nevada
I was reading the Specs for the Leupold MK5 5-25x56 PR2-MIL scope. The specs say the Elevation Adjustment Range is 35 MIL. But the Elevation Dial Adjustment Limit is 30 MIL. Can someone explain the difference and is it possible to actually possible to get the maximum 35 MIL zero through adding cant to the base and/or other methods. I would like to maximize the usable dial Mil elevation to shoot my 22lr at extended ranges. Why's is the elevation 35MIL and the dial travel limit only 30?
 
Not the same but a Gen 3 Razor has 36.1 mils of max elevation adjustment. From my rimfire with a 50y zero, I can only dial 29.2 mils. That’s with a 30 MOA base and 10 MOA in the scope mount. Mount height is 1.5”. With my data I can dial out to about 500y.
 
Internals of the scope allow 35 mils.
The turret cap only allows just under 3 revs before the underside of the turret cap comes to a hard stop. See how that pin travels in the groove in the pics below.

If you want more than the cap allows, you are gonna have to either modify something or chose a different scope.
 
Some elevation turrets, typically those that are non-translating with revolution indicators, can only rotate a certain number of revolutions before stopping-- even if the erector has additional travel remaining. It's usually the mechanical limit of the revolution indicator mechanism that prevents further turret rotation and being able to use all the available erector travel.

The MK5 turret is limited to just under 3 revolutions because of the rotation indicator design. Also for example, Premier/Minox/Tangent DT turrets and S&B DT turrets are limited to just under 2 revolutions.

Other scopes like the Razor G3 have a revolution indicator that lets you use the full erector elevation travel without running into the turret revolution indicator mechanical limits (in the case of the razor G3, 36ish mils erector travel, and the turret indicator can show 3 additional turret revolutions beyond the first/zero revolution at 10 mils each, so the erector runs out of travel before the elevation turret rotation indicator hits its limit.)

If you want to use all the available erector travel in a scope, you need to find one that the turret will let you. This will typically be a scope with a translating elevation turret, but there are some scopes out there with non-translating turrets with multi turn indicators that will let you use the full erector travel.
 
  • Like
Reactions: carbonbased