Air Rifle Scopes Explained – Everything You Need to Know

It can be difficult to choose the correct scope for your Air Rifles as there are a lot of choices. So, for that reason, we have put together this blog – Air Rifle Scopes Explained – Everything You Need to Know. We hope that by the time you finish reading this blog, you’ll be able to make a fully informed decision about which scope is right for you and all your Airguns.

So, let’s get into it…

THE OCULAR LENS

This is the lens that is closest to your eye, and it is often fitted with a screw-in, screw-out facility, which enables the shooter to focus the scope for their particular eyesight. In some cases, shooters who wear glasses can dial in the scope so that the need for the glasses is removed while shooting.

EYE RELIEF

Every scope is also designed with a certain amount of eye relief. This eye relief is the distance that you will need to place your eye from the ocular lens to get a good, un-blurred sight picture, and it can range from anything from one to four inches. Therefore, scopes like Hawke can be perfect for a new shooter as they are a short eye relief scope, and this makes them easy to use and set up since the shooter’s head position is less critical.

RETICULES

All scopes have a reticule, which could be a simple cross-hair (30×30 ret) or a mil-dot or half-mil-dot. The reticule is extremely important as it is what you will be using to aim your rifle. The 30×30 is perfect for high-power rifles as the rounds essentially fly on a flat trajectory. However, air rifle pellets fly in an arc, and because of this, you need multiple aim points. Scopes like the Hawke half-mil-dot series are perfect as each line of the reticule will correspond to a set distance to where the pellet will strike.

MAGNIFICATION (FIRST AND SECOND FOCAL PLANES)

You will often find the magnification ring at the ocular end, which is quite simply a lens that enables you to make the image look closer or further away. Now, you may hear shooters talking about first and second focal planes. The basics are: if your scope has a 1st focal plane, when you increase the magnification, the reticule will also increase in size along with the image. However, if you have a 2nd focal plane, the reticule will remain the same size, and only the sight picture will get bigger.

If you are a hunter or a plinker, then 10x magnification is perfect as it will give you a clear sight picture out to 50 yards and a good depth of field.

THE OBJECTIVE LENS

At the far end of the scope is the objective lens, which can range from under 30mm to over 60mm in diameter and as a general rule of thumb, the smaller the objective lens, the larger the depth of field that you can see. The objective lens’s primary function is to gather as much light as possible and give you a good sight picture.

THE TUBE (SCOPE BODY)

In between the objective and ocular lenses is the tube, which usually comes in either 25mm or 30mm sizes. Within this tube is the reticule, which is usually etched onto a lens or, in some cases, can be a wire filament. You also have the picture reversal apparatus, without which your targets would look upside down. The whole scope is then filled with nitrogen so that it will not fog up on a cold day. Attached to the tube are the windage and elevation turrets and the scope will usually have adjustable parallax at either the objective lens end or mounted on the side.

 

PARALLAX

What is parallax, or, more importantly, what is parallax error? Well, to explain it is fairly simple. First, hold your hand out in front of you and raise your index finger so it is pointing towards the ceiling. Next, close one eye and, with your arm outstretched, move your hand so that your finger covers a point on the wall (your finger is your scope’s reticule, and the point that it is covering up is the target). Now, move your head left, and you will see that even though your finger has not moved when your head is to the left, your finger/reticule is now to the right of the target. So, now move your finger back to the left so that it is covering up the target again and move your head back to its central position, and your finger should now be to the left of the target.

More targets are missed through parallax error than any other form of error. To compensate for this, most quality scopes have Parallax adjusters, which will enable you to set your scope with a parallax of 40 yards for a 40 yards target and no matter how much you move your head about, your cross-hairs should remain on the target.

DEPTH OF FIELD

This is one of the most important parts of your scope’s makeup, and buying the wrong sort of scope for the shooting that you want to do will cost you time and money. For example, if you are going to hunt or shoot targets, you will want a scope with a large depth of field. The way to check this is to take your scope, set the parallax for about 25yards and place the magnification on 10x. Next, look at a target 45 yards away and adjust the parallax until the 45-yard image becomes slightly blurred. Then look closer and closer until the image becomes blurry again.

A good scope like the Hawke Panorama should have a clear image from 45 yards down to about 15 yards.

POPULAR RIFLE SCOPES

Here are some of the most popular air rifle scopes at Just Air Guns UK:

Air Rifle Scopes and Sights at Just Air Guns

Hawke Scopes and Hawke Scope Mounts

ABOUT JUST AIR GUNS UK

We were the first to offer home delivery of Airguns in the UK, and today we have the largest number of our own drivers and vans on the road delivering to your door seven days a week. Simply place items into the cart to see the actual delivery price you will pay to have the latest Air Guns delivered to you. If you have any questions about our airguns delivery service, please contact us via this website or call us on 0330 999 5224.

Shop Address: Just Air Guns, Trimex House, Pier Road, Feltham, TW14 0TW
Website: www.justairguns.co.uk
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0330 999 5224