Thread: Another lesson under the belt - parallax binding up

Recently got another inch cut off my 260 with a new DPT magnum can fitted. Got it home and finally got around to taking it to the range to re zero etc. Noticed my parallax dial was quite stiff and didn’t seem to have the full range of motion that I remembered. Didn’t think much of it at the time but it sat on my mind.

A few days later I was sitting at home with it still on my mind and me cursing that it might be buggered. Pulled the rifle out and lined up some trees 800m behind the house and had a play, sure enough the parallax wouldn’t focus. I went and got my other rifle with the same scope (Swarovski Z5) and put them side by side. Sure enough my other one moved much more smoothly and had its full range of motion, focusing nicely upon on the trees. Bugger I thought, I’ll have to take it in for repair.. I undo the rings and pull it out and hello, it’s suddenly operating like normal again!?

I start messing around with fitting it back in the rings (Talleys) and as soon as I hit a certain point in torquing up the screws it starts binding the parallax dial. I try swapping the ring tops around but still does the same thing. By this point i’m a wee bit fustrated as it has been in these rings perfectly fine before the latest chop. Anyway, I head into my local (Manawatu H&F) filled with good buggers who give me a hand trying to tidy up the rings to remove any pressure points. Head off to the range to fit it again and do a zero but nope it’s still binding that parallax. I pack it away and check zero my other rifle.

On my way home I drop into the local and they throw me some Optilocks to see if the scope is fine and confirm if it’s definitely the rings. Once home again I try a few more tricks that might work like rotating the rings etc. No joy. I then pull out the Optilocks and for the millionth time re mount the scope - Bingo she torques up nicely and everything is functioning as it should.

Now I am happy because I have resolved the problem but fustrated that I need to fork out a decent sum for some damn Optilocks! I’ve used plenty of Talleys across a few different rifles without issues so this was new. The Optilocks are damn nice though. Always a new lesson to be learnt!