Canted Reticles — Serious Problem Needs to Be Addressed
Unfortunately, we still see too many scopes sold to the public with canted reticles. The problem of canted reticles is a serious issue that some manufacturers (both domestic and foreign) have failed to address. (Note: here we are talking about an INTERNAL scope assembly problem that results in reticles being off-axis relative to the turrets. Don’t confuse this with the canting which occurs if you don’t level your rifle. A canted reticle is a scope production defect requiring factory repair.)
One degree of scope reticle cant is noticeable. Three degrees is “slap in the face” obvious and, frankly, pretty unpleasant to work with. Unfortunately, three degrees happens to be one major domestic scope-maker’s production tolerance. And sure enough, you can find this company’s scopes in retail outlets with the reticles located a full three degrees off-axis.
We believe that badly canted reticles are unacceptable in a high-dollar scope, one costing more than $450.00. Optics-makers — it’s high time to improve your quality control.
Three degrees may not sound like much–after all it is less than 1% of a 360-degree circle. Nonetheless, as the diagrams show, three degrees of cant is VERY noticeable in a scope. In fact, most people will be bothered by a reticle that is just one degree off-axis. Canted reticles are not just annoying to look at, but off-axis reticles cause a number of problems with sighting and accuracy. For example, if you set up your rifle so the vertical cross-hair is straight up and down, your turrets will be slightly tilted. This means that when you click elevation you will change windage slightly, and vice-versa. If, on the other hand, you cant (or tilt) the whole rifle to make the turrets square, this throws off the bullet trajectory–causing bullet impact that is low and displaced horizontally*.
Now, all manufacturers can have a production flaw now and then. Yet we’ve never heard a complaint about canted reticles in Nightforce, U.S. Optics, or Schmidt & Bender scopes. So, it IS possible for the better manufacturers to get it right. Our point here is that it is time for the major scope-makers to address this problem and improve their quality control. That will happen sooner if consumers pay greater attention to reticle alignment during the purchasing process. If you have a scope with a canted reticle, send it back to the maker and ask for the problem to be fixed. If enough shooters do that, we expect the scope-makers will take notice and improve their products.
*CLICK HERE to read a very thorough technical article that explains the effect of rifle canting on bullet trajectory. CLICK HERE to see targets shot with canted rifles showing bullet displacement. The diagram below shows how this occurs.
Illustration courtesy Long Shot Products, Ltd.
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I’ll add Zeiss to the list of manufacturers where I’ve yet to see a canted reticle. Zeiss does beautiful work and the best optics to my eye, but their customer service at all levels (sport optics all the way up the food chain to ~$500k microscopes leaves something to be desired).
I have a 8-25 leupold that has a badly canted reticule in it. I will never buy another leopold scope. they dont care about building a quality scope anymore. Ill stick with nightforce or usoptics from now on. they are spendy for sure but at least they wont sell you a crappy scope.
Matt,
Yes indeed. The Leupold scopes were the ones that really frustrated me. For the money, the Nikon scopes had better quality and better glass, but very bad customer service (never returned an email or phone call). Were I to rank my preference of scopes according to quality of glass, out of the ones I’ve shot with, it would be Zeiss, S&B, US Optics, Nightforce, Nikon, and Leupold in that order. In terms of customer service, while I’ve never personally purchased or owned a US Optics, I hear their customer service is second to none, so perhaps it might be US Optics, Nightforce, S&B, Leupold, Zeiss and then Nikon.
It frustrates me to see the quality of Leupold drop that far as well as their standards (3 degrees is shoddy indeed). The way I look at it, if something is well designed and it breaks, it can be fixed. But if it is poorly designed and poorly implemented, it will always be garbage. Leupold has fallen into the garbage category for me.
Interestingly, there is a new player as well that might be worth looking into, Premier Reticles who are now making their own scopes. One of these days, I might get the chance to shoot with one of their scopes as well. http://www.premierreticles.com/
When I was serving in Iraq, Leupold sent me two MKIV scopes, one of which had a reticle that was ~3deg canted, the other around 4deg. They knew where the scopes were going and for what purpose and had been to their custom shop for fitting of custom elevation knobs, so that layer of quality control had tanked as well. 0 x 0 = 0 in the quality control stakes. What turned disbelief into jaw-dropping incredulity was that they also sent the wrong reticles – so the scopes had to go back.
They sent replacements, with the right reticles that were nice and true, but one scope had (and still has) has a random piece of reticle wire sitting in the upper right hand quadrant. How the hell did THAT not get noticed?
No more Leupold scopes for this black duck, or any of his team mates. Ever.
So, which manufacturer says 3% is within spec? Do we know specs for any of the other scope makers?
I finally got around to getting myself a scope leveling device and have been getting everything lined up nice and neat. It would be nice to know how vain my attempt was.
I just mounted a Vortex “Diamondback” scope. I had trouble zeroing and grouping even though the scope was mounted by level-level=level process. Once zeroed at 100 meters worked OK. To change to zeroe at 200 meters and 300 meters, the windage kept adjusting to the right. I finally check the reticle with a plumb line and found that the reticle is out about a 5′ cant to the right. I adjusted the scope to have the reticle line up with the plumb line but the turret is now haywire to the right. The windage variance is even worse at longer ranges as the elevation is raised or lowered the windage varies either right or left. Windage should not change with the elevation adjustments. At longer ranges the error is very noticeable and variable if the reticle is our of alignment with the turret.
I just purchased a $1400 Burris Eliminator III and was amazed that the reticle had a 2-3 degree tilt. Now the Eliminator specifically has technology that measures the distance to the target and calculates (based on the ballistics of the round) the amount of drop at the measured distance. It then provides an aim point on the now not-so-vertical reticle axis. Clearly this causes disastrous aiming at any distance save the single distance the scope was zeroed to (100 or 200 yards/meters). What a mess.
my razor 5 x 20 just experienced a major reticle shift after only 63 rounds through my 338 lapua today.has anyone else had this happen with vortex products would really appreciate any feedback. thanks
I have a Zeiss Conquest HD5 5-25×50 with a badly canted reticle (3° I guess). It drives me nuts! I can’t believe Zeiss will allow something like this to happen, especially considering the money they charge for their products……
just bought a new eliminator 3 burris scope….noticed a 3 degree left cant…tried everything to fix this before I was told buy my local gunsmith that the probem is in the scope….I shipped it back to burris….they said it was fine..and met there specs….1500.00 worth of garbage….I cant even sell this scope knowing whats wrong with it…
I have a recently purchased Vortex CrossFire II 2-7×32 BDC and fired 100 rounds of .22LR with my Ruger 10/22. The scope is mounted with Vortex Pro Series PR1-M rings. After 100 rnds fired, the reticle became canted at about 10-20 degrees and demostrated a movement and vibrations upon dry firing. Contacted Vortex and they will repair or replace the scope and include prepaid shipping labels. Hope this is just a fluke in manufacturing, will know when it is returned and used again.