My nephew sent his Leupold VARI-X III 3.5-10 x 50mm Silver scope to Leupold to replace the Heavy Duplex reticle with a Mil Dot reticle. When we tried to sight in the scope after Leoplod installed the Mil Dot reticle, we could not get within a foot of the bullseye before running out of windage adjustment. Also, I noticed the windage adjustmnet seems to move in reverse direction when adjusting it. I own several Leupold scopes and they all work as expected so I have never dealt with Leupold directly. Has anybody dealt with Leupold lately? Has anybody heard of this problem before?

I have sent two back nto Leupold for reticle changes in the last 2-3 years. Both worked flawless arter the change.

Sorry, I can't help you with your problem either. When I have dealt with Leupold's Custom Shop for reticle change, the results have always been very satisfactory.

I'd call up Leupold, they are known for their excellent customer service.

- mike

I have not used Leupold's customer diservice department for many years. I found them o be incredibly incompetent and defensive when they madea mistake and would put in the wrong reticle and things like that. Premier reticle was awesome, but alas, now we are stuck with Leupold.

I feel for you brother. Hopefully they can get it right on the second try. I have had them fuck the second time as well, which made them twice as defensive about how they were right. It was always funny on the phone when they would pull up the letter of instructions sent with the scope when they said, "Oh....Ummm, send it back and we will put the right one in." when asked if they were going to cover my shipping back to them they never would

I have not dealt with them since about '99, so hopefullly they are better now. There was a guy named Garth Kendig who had a lot to do with the disservice department. hopefully he has moved on

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Also, I noticed the windage adjustmnet seems to move in reverse direction when adjusting it.

Well, either it does or it doesn't. Determining whether it does (which would obviously be indicative of a major problem) isn't hard.

Just place the rifle with the scope mounted on it on a secure rest so that the rifle doesn't move. As you look through the scope, turn the windage adjustment in the direction which is indicated as "R" (for right). This is supposed to move your bullet impact to the right, meaning that your scope reticle should appear to move to the left.

If the adjustment does indeed work backward, then by all means, send it back to Leupold. If it does not work backward, then I suspect that by your use of the word "seems" that there may be some equivocation about the gun itself.

The fault could lie either place -- for example, it is possible that when remounting the scope that something kept one or the other ring from clenching as it did before. Or even that it was inadvertantly mismounted before. You don't say, but we're assuming you put it back in the same mounts and rings -- however, if different mounts and rings then that may be where your problem lies.

Get some assistance from an experienced shooter before returning the scope, and document the tests you perform on it. If you do and you then find the scope to be truly at fault, you'll have a much stronger case in getting Leupold to fix it right or give you a new scope.

Update - My nephew called Leupold and they talked him through re-adjusting the scope. He later went to the range and again ran out of windage adjustment trying to zero the scope.
He sent the scope back to Leupold. He called them about a week later and they had disassembled the scope and found nothing and re-assembled and would mount the scope on one of their rifles for testing. They were able to zero the scope and provided a target with three holes in the bullseye.
The scope was returned to my nephew last week. He mounted the scope and we went to the range this weekend. He hit paper with the first shot at 50 yards and was able to zero the scope.

I don't know why (I am not an expert on scopes) but I wouldn't want to use a scope where I had to use more than just a very tiny bit of adjustment anyway.

Anytime I put a different scope on I make sure and zero it for windage and elevation, mount it, and take a shot. If its off the first thing I want to do is start adjusting the mounting system.

There were a lot of winchester classics made that no matter how much adjustment you had you were never going to get it adjusted correctly for elevation. (I know, I have three of them) And the key thing there was to carefully take metal off the underside of the mount to get it right.

So, with all of that said, could it be possible that something was amiss with the scope mounts if in fact there was nothing wrong with the scope.

22WRF, the scope when originally mounted worked OK. It did not need much adjustment to zero it. He used it on a Black Bear hunt and then on a Caribou hunt. He killed 1 Black Bear and 2 Caribou. The problem arose when he sent the scope to Leopold to have a new recticle installed. When he mounted the scope after getting it back from Leopold with the new reticle, the scope was about 6' off to the right and there was not enough windage adjustment to zero it. He sent it back and now it works fine, see my previous post. His wife said he missed a nice Mule Deer last week, the shot was approx. 450 yard. The only Deer he saw in a week. Screwing around with the scope didn't give him enough time to practice which he needed. The outfitter told him to be prepared to make 500 yard shots. That's why he decided to change the reticle.

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The outfitter told him to be prepared to make 500 yard shots.

Someone should have changed his outfitter not his reticle.

Jim,

What sort of rings and mounts does your nephew have on that rifle?

George

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Originally posted by SR4759:

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The outfitter told him to be prepared to make 500 yard shots.

Someone should have changed his outfitter not his reticle.

+1

SR4759 and Stonecreek,

I agree with you but he had this hunt set up for more than a year and found out about the long shots only recently.

GeorgeS,

I don't remember which rings we selected other than they were quick detachable. We are going to the range next Sunday and I will check. He thinks forcing his rifle with the 50 mm objective into the saddle scabbard knocked it out of zero.

If they are Redfield-type bases, use the screws that hold the bottom of the ring to adjust coarse zero.

George