Welcome to our comprehensive guide on Triton optics. Whether you're a seasoned marksman or a newcomer to the shooting sports, understanding the anatomy of a rifle scope and mastering its adjustments is crucial for enhancing your shooting accuracy and experience. This guide is meticulously designed to walk you through every aspect of a rifle scope, from its basic components to more advanced adjustments and maintenance.
IMPORTANT: Whenever you are working with a firearm, make sure that it is unloaded. Remove all magazines/ammo cartridges. Visually and physically inspect the chamber.
Scope Anatomy
Mounting Your Scope
Changing Illumination Battery
Adjusting Reticle Focus/Diopter
Adjusting Windage and Elevation
Sighting in Your Scope
Resetting Turrets
Adjusting Parallax/Adjustable Objective
First Focal Plane vs Second Focal Plane
Scope Anatomy
Mounting Your Scope
Mounting a rifle scope properly is essential for ensuring long-term accuracy and performance. The process involves attaching the scope to the rifle using rings or a scope mount. To achieve the best results and maintain the integrity of both the scope and the rifle, it's crucial to follow a systematic approach, including the use of a criss-cross pattern for tightening and adhering to recommended torque specifications. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
1. Preparation
- Gather Tools: Ensure you have the right tools for the job, including a torque wrench, screwdriver bits that fit your mount screws, a level, and a clean cloth.
- Choose the Right Rings/Mount: Select rings or a mount that are compatible with your rifle's receiver and the scope's diameter.
2. Positioning the Scope
- Removing: Remove the rings from the scope rings or mount. Loosen the base mount so that you can easily attach it on to your rifle.
- Identify the ideal position: If using a scope rings or a one-piece mount, attach it to the rifle based at the location of your preferred cheek weld, only hand-tighten the base, place the scope on to the mount without the top rings and adjust the scope and/or rings according until you are satisfied with the positioning of the mount and scope.
- Once you ensured it is seated properly, tighten the base to the recommended torque specifications. We recommend 20 in-lbs for the base for all Triton mounting options.
- Place the Scope: Carefully set the scope into the bottom halves of the rings, ensuring the elevation and windage adjustments are centered for maximum adjustability.
3. Aligning the Scope
- Adjust for Eye Relief: Slide the scope forward or backward in the rings until you achieve the proper eye relief, ensuring you have a full field of view without being too close to the scope (to avoid "scope eye" from recoil).
- Level the Scope: Use levels to ensure the scope is perfectly horizontal. You can place a level on the top of the scope's turret and another on the rifle to match them.
4. Tightening the Rings
- Apply Initial Pressure: Place the top halves of the rings onto the bottom halves and gently screw them in by hand to hold the scope in place without fully tightening.
- Follow a Criss-Cross Pattern: Begin tightening the screws in a criss-cross pattern to apply even pressure across the scope. This prevents warping or damaging the scope tube.
- Torque to Specifications: Using a torque wrench, tighten the screws to the manufacturer's recommended specifications. Typical torque settings range from 15-25 inch-pounds for ring screws. We recommends 15 in-lbs for ring screws on mounting products made by Triton.
Changing Illumination Battery
Most Triton scopes use a CR2032 battery or USB-C, if your optic is rechargeable. As you use the product, the battery will eventually need to be charged or replaced. If you optic is rechargeable, use the included cable to charge the product. If your optic is not rechargeable, the battery location will on the illumination knob, on the left hand side. To access the battery, hold the illumination knob so that it does not turn and loosen the battery cap with a coin by placing it in the slot and turning counter clockwise. Once you replaced the battery, replace the battery cover as well. Tip! When reinstalling the battery cover, turn counterclockwise first one full turn so that the threads are properly seated before turning clockwise. This way, you prevent the threads from biting improperly.
Adjusting Reticle Focus/Diopter
The ring that holds the eyepiece lens in place also houses the reticle adjustment ring. Adjusting this varies from person to person, it is perfectly normal to see the reticle sharp without adjustments. To check, look through the scope a bright background without visual clutters, such as a white wall or the sky, don't look directly in the sun... Then if the reticle looks out of focus, simply turn the reticle focus ring counterclockwise until it is in focus.
Adjusting Windage and Elevation
There are 2 type of turrets that we use, locking and non-locking. Non-locking turrets adjust whenever you turn the knob. Some non-locking turrets feature caps that protect the turrets from the climate and needs to be removed before adjusting. Usually no tools are required, just turn counterclockwise.
Locking turrets come in many variants but the most common are push and pull, you will need to pull the turret up before making any adjustments. When you are done with your adjustments, push down on the knob to lock it in place.
Sighting in Your Scope
Everyone has a different method of sighting in their scope. We like the information at the good folks at NSSF. Here is a link to their video.
Resetting the Turrets
When you've sighted your scope, you may want to reset your turrets, to do so, hold the turret so it can't spin and depending on the scope, use a coin or allen wrench of the correct size to unscrew the turret. Once complete remove the bolt or cover and pull the entire turret up. Location the zero on the turret and line it up with the dot on the scope. Reinstall the turret and bolt. Make sure to hold the turret so it doesn't spin with you are tightening the bolt down, do not over tighten.
Adjusting Parallax/Adjustable Objective
Parallax is the apparent shift in position of an object as seen from two different points not on a straight line with the object. In simpler terms, it's your picture focus as opposed to your reticle focus. You can find the adjustment on the left hand side if it is an inline parallax adjustment or in the front of the scope at the objective bell known as adjustable objective ring. An ideal adjustment would be if you were at 100 yards, to turn the dial so that it is adjusted to 100 yards. It's that easy.
First Focal Plane vs. Second Focal Plane
In simple terms, a first focal plane's reticle will increase in size when you increase magnification, while a second focal plane will stay fixed. Learn more about it here in this article we wrote.