I recently received a rifle made for me in Europe. It came with a Zeiss varible scope. I had a difficult time sighting it in.Everytime I tried to shift the point of impact to the point of aim, it would move in the opposite direction. I have been told this is a European scope. They put the rifle in a vise,shoot and then move the crosshairs to the bullet hole-the rifle never moving. I guess this makes sense. Has anyone else ever run into this???THANKS

Many times. But it's just a psychological thing because you probably have the mental reflex of the American right/left, up/down dials on the scopes. You don't need to put it in a vise if you can hold the rifle steady in a rest. I have always found it easier to have a buddy turn the scope knobs while I look through the scope, telling him to go up/down/sideways whatever until the crosshairs get to the first impact while I hold firm the rifle.

If you fire a big bore in a vise, you can kiss the stock goodbye most of the time...

I pretty much use nothing but Zeiss and S&B glass with the occasional Docter thrown in, you are right about them being opposite in adjustment.

What I do to zero in one shot is to shoot at the target first from sand bags THEN put the rifle in a sight vise. Adjust the vise so the reticle is exactly at the point of aim you held to fire the shot. You can now move the reticle without touching the rifle, just the turrets, so the center is on the hole your bullet made. Done. You're zeroed in one shot, fire again to check it.

I mostly use old European scopes and what you say is true but I think my new Swarovski and Docter have markings for move of POI (the older ones indicate the direction the reticle moves.

The "one shot" sighting in method works for me and the difference in labelling is just a matter of definition. I'm a medico and we learn to reverse right and left when looking at someone facing us - so when I refer to something on the right of a patient, I always mean their right and, if they are facing me. Thus, if if the PH tells me to shoot the zebra on the left I tend to shoot at the one on my left if the herd is facing away from me and the one on the right if they are facing me. Confuses the PH no end.

mike

Aussie Mike I have the same deal. I deal with patients and my L/R dyslexia cost me a buffalo once. Too bad the PH couldn't figure out that when I said right I meant left.

Hi Bwana1:

Since the mechanism on those european high-quality scopes work very precisly, this is the way I do it:

I shoot a three-shot group to determine the current POI, then measure the variation to the desired POI (l/r & h/l) and adjust the scope accordingly, following the instructions on the dials (i.e. how much shift per click on 100m or 100yrs). Then I do another three-shot group to confirm the new setting.

Hardly ever had to readjust after that. Also, I never believed much in adjusting my scopes with one-shot groups, too much possibility for error.

Cheers, 500NE

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana1:
I recently received a rifle made for me in Europe. It came with a Zeiss varible scope. I had a difficult time sighting it in.Everytime I tried to shift the point of impact to the point of aim, it would move in the opposite direction. I have been told this is a European scope. They put the rifle in a vise,shoot and then move the crosshairs to the bullet hole-the rifle never moving. I guess this makes sense. Has anyone else ever run into this???THANKS