How To Adjust Rifle Scope Crosshairs? The Ultimate Guide

Are you searching for how to adjust rifle scope crosshairs? Gunsight adjustment is not as tricky as your imagination. Let’s read on to learn more!

The crosshair of a firearm telescopic sight

The crosshairs or reticles of rifles will help you make the bullet go precisely to your target. But do you know how to adjust rifle scope crosshairs?

First, you must define where the bullet will strike through the gunsight. Then, you can turn the adjustment dials on the scope to fix the vertical and horizontal axes of the crosshair as you want.

This post will provide you with more details about how to rifle scope adjustment. Let’s explore together!

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How To Properly Align The Rifle Scope

Making crosshair adjustments is an essential step for how to calibrate rifle scope. For proper calibration, you will need to know how to use dials on rifle scope.

The turrets or adjustment dials will change the gunsight’s direction. You can follow the steps below to learn how to adjust rifle scopes.

Level the gun’s scope

First, it’s essential to level the scopes. In this way, the vertical axis of the crosshair will be perpendicular to the target. It would be best to place your weapon on a stable base before mounting the gunsight.

You can easily buy a rest or base for your gun in firearm accessory stores or online. If you can’t find any gun rest, you can use some books, bricks, or a sandbag for replacement.

After finding a stable position for your weapon, you can start mounting its telescopic finder. You can consult this video for a detailed guide to mount a gunsight:

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Focus the reticle

Before adjusting the reticle of your gun, you should focus it on your eye first. To focus the reticle, set the telescopic finder at the highest power and aim it to a blank wall or at the sky.

Next, twist the eyepiece until the crosshair is no longer blurry. If the eyepiece has a locking ring, loosen it before turning.

It’s better to put your gun on a stable base

Adjusting the elevation

Once the gun’s telescopic finder is level, you can turn the knob on the top of it to fix the elevation. Turn the knob clockwise to move the vertical axis of the reticle up and counterclockwise to move it down.

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Adjusting windage

Now you are clear about the method to adjust rifle scope up and down. Let’s move on to the right and left adjustments.

You will turn the turret on the gunsight’s right side to change its position. Rotate the turret clockwise to make the crosshair’s horizontal axis go to the left. Rotate the turret counterclockwise if you want to move it to the right.

Turrets of a gunsight

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How To Adjust Rifle Scope Sights

To precisely aim the target, you need to sight in the telescopic finder of your gun. The following steps will help you make proper sight modifications.

Install the telescopic finder correctly

Before sighting in your gun’s telescope, you have to make sure that you have mounted it properly. It’s necessary to find the right ring for the base of the telescopic finder.

Adjust the distance between your eye and scopes

When shooting, your gun may create some recoil. If you position your eyes too close to the telescopic finder, they may get injured due to the recoil. Thus, remember to keep a safe distance between your eyes and the gunsight.

Don’t position your eyes too close to the telescopic finder

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Get the telescopic sight level and align the crosshairs

It would help to put your weapon in a stable position to reduce the recoil. Then, align the reticles with parallelling the vertical and horizontal axes with adjustments.

The purpose of crosshair alignment is to avoid reticle cant. If you shoot with a canted reticle, the bullet will not strike your target precisely.

Set the minute of angle (MOA)

Depending on the distance from your target, you can choose a proper MOA setting. The commonly used MOA click values are 1/4 and 1/8 inches.

At 100 yards, you will need to rotate the windage or elevation turrets four clicks to move the bullet impact for one MOA. If the distance increases by 100 yards, the value of each MOA click will increase by 1/4 inch.

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Start shooting

You can try firing three consecutive shots and observe where these shots strike on the target. You can adjust the sight and try firing 3-shot groups until they hit the bullseye.

Then, change the distance and practice again. After several times, you will know how to sight your gun telescope at different distances.

Final Words

Hopefully, you know how to move the rifle scope and adjust its crosshair through this article. Making the proper adjustments will help you make the most of the power and versatility of your gun telescopic sight.

If you have any questions about firearm scopes or reticles, please leave a comment. Thank you for following this post!

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