I think one of the most common complaints, if you can call it that, about the new SS 5-50 scope is that the index lines on the elevation knob don't line up. There is a reason for this and I'd like to explain.
There are 60 splines on the shaft the knob is attached to. There are 100 lines on the knob. If you remove the knob from the shaft and rotate it, there will be times where, when you reposition it, the lines will not line up. The shaft would require 100 splines for the knob to re-align with the 100 marks every single time you move it. With 60 splines, the knob will move about 1.66 lines per spline, so essentially every 1.7 mils of revolution on the splines, the lines will line up again. Anything in between, they won't. If you're at zero and your lines are lining up, and you dial .8 mils and then re-set your knob to zero, your lines are going to be about half off. If you dial 1.6-1.7 mils, the lines are going to line up again almost perfectly. Dial up 8.3 mils, re-zero...your lines will line up perfectly. Dial 8.6 mils and they;ll be close enough to not notice, but dial 7.5 mils, re-zero, and your lines will be half off.
If the lines are lined up, they should stay lined up throughout the range of travel. That's a function of the accuracy of the clicks and so far that seems very good. There is a <span style="font-style: italic">little</span> back and forth movement with the cap once the "click" is engaged, but this is a spring loaded detent and there's going to be some movement. It's not hard to move it back and forth a little to find where "home" is in the detent. There may be some very slight tolerance stack up, but not enough here that I can see. The machining on these types of parts is very high tolerance...like making watch parts. The workings inside a quality scope like this are very precise and very high precision.
As far as the lines, it's just a function of the ratio of splines-to-clicks and there's nothing wrong with the scope. I can see that trying to manufacture a shaft with 100 splines would have required some major changes and was probably not cose effective on this scope.
Hope this helps.
There are 60 splines on the shaft the knob is attached to. There are 100 lines on the knob. If you remove the knob from the shaft and rotate it, there will be times where, when you reposition it, the lines will not line up. The shaft would require 100 splines for the knob to re-align with the 100 marks every single time you move it. With 60 splines, the knob will move about 1.66 lines per spline, so essentially every 1.7 mils of revolution on the splines, the lines will line up again. Anything in between, they won't. If you're at zero and your lines are lining up, and you dial .8 mils and then re-set your knob to zero, your lines are going to be about half off. If you dial 1.6-1.7 mils, the lines are going to line up again almost perfectly. Dial up 8.3 mils, re-zero...your lines will line up perfectly. Dial 8.6 mils and they;ll be close enough to not notice, but dial 7.5 mils, re-zero, and your lines will be half off.
If the lines are lined up, they should stay lined up throughout the range of travel. That's a function of the accuracy of the clicks and so far that seems very good. There is a <span style="font-style: italic">little</span> back and forth movement with the cap once the "click" is engaged, but this is a spring loaded detent and there's going to be some movement. It's not hard to move it back and forth a little to find where "home" is in the detent. There may be some very slight tolerance stack up, but not enough here that I can see. The machining on these types of parts is very high tolerance...like making watch parts. The workings inside a quality scope like this are very precise and very high precision.
As far as the lines, it's just a function of the ratio of splines-to-clicks and there's nothing wrong with the scope. I can see that trying to manufacture a shaft with 100 splines would have required some major changes and was probably not cose effective on this scope.
Hope this helps.
