I think that many who want side focus on an LPVO also don’t want to pay the weight penalty, as evidenced by the moaning at the 24oz
2-10x32 Leupold thread.
For perspective, the Razor 1-10 is 21.5oz. If there’s that much moaning over 2.5oz…I dunno. Optimizers like to bitch (I speak from experience).
But what are the hard numbers, the misses we are going to have without side focus / parallax adjustments? Theory is not working here.
Calc from a 1-10x24mm Vortex Razor Gen III that is factory set at a 150yd parallax & based off of a Leupold dude in a RO podcast:
(You might have to turn your phone sideways to best read the table below. Also, earlier versions make the parallax error look worse b/c I suck at math. Scopes with larger objectives will have larger potential errors.)
| Distance | Max reasonable error if taking your time
(a guess, half of Max Reasonable in-a-hurry) | Max reasonable error in-a-damn-hurry
(a guess, half of Max Stupid) | Max Stupid Error
(looking through scope diagonally, lots of scope shadow, barely being able to see center crosshair, sliver of light. NOT A GUESS, FROM RO PODCAST.) |
|---|
| AKA: Mr. Sniper LPVO | AKA: “Shit I’m getting shot at!” | AKA: Fell down a well, upside down, one handed |
| 150yds | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 300 | 3mm / 0.1181102362”lol or ~ 1/8” | 6mm / ~0.25” | 12mm / ~0.5” |
| 450 | 6mm / ~0.25” | 12mm / ~0.5” | 24mm / ~1.0” |
| 600 | 9mm / ~0.35” | 18mm / 0.71” | 36mm / 1.4” |
| 750 | 12mm / ~0.5” | 24mm / ~1.0” | 48mm / 1.9” |
| 900 | 15mm / 0.6” | 30mm / 1.18” | 60mm / 2.4” |
I suck at math, so I took this from about 25min at this link (Dave
@Feniks Technologies /
@Dthomas3523 was on this too)
For those who don’t want to bother listening, the Max-Fell-Down-A-Well parallax error is calc like this: parallax is set at X yds. For every X yds further, add 1/2 of objective diameter.
Perhaps my assumptions of “reasonable error” are off here, but even at Max Stupid Error at 600yds I can deal with a potential 1.4” error when shooting something as small as a damn prairie dog.
Note that I often shoot pdogs from a well’s bottom, upside down, and with one hand.
This isn’t even getting into hyperfocal stuff, which you can’t typically find on a scope’s specs without calling the manufacturer. I’m hazy here.
To sum up:
- Would side focus be nice? Yes.
- Would lockable side focus be better? Yes.
- Do these things add weight? Yes.
- Will the same people who demand these features bitch and moan about weight? Yes.
- Does it really matter, from an “hitting what I want to hit” perspective? No*
Usually, the more inconsequential an argument’s outcome, the more strident the opinions.
Edit: in that podcast it was also noted that contrary to popular belief, parallax error affects people’s emotions more at close ranges, like 100 yds. I think the example was if you left your scope set at 750yds and shot at 100yds, you’d notice.
The actual error isn’t a huge number, but errors magnify their importance in your brain at close ranges. Why? Because you want the tightest group to see how good your barrel (& skills) are.
But, of course, if you’re off at 100yds and you base a lot of your dope on that, then a small error here might get magnified. I can’t figure out the potential errors at 100 (only 50yds less than the parallax is set at) but my intuition tells me it’s not gonna be much. Could be wrong, though.
*Excepting you benchrest fags lol
