Some Broadhead Testing at the Range

[paulaboutform]

I was at the range yesterday afternoon to do a little bh testing. I shot the Toxic Broadheads last year out of my old exomax and loved them. I traded that and bought my M380 and have only been able to shoot 30yards in my yard. Same poi as my field points. I was a little nervous as to what would happen as I extended that range with the blistering speed of the bow. Well, I was happy happy happy! I shot from 40yards to 65yards with field tip precision. I know this may be a moot point because that's well beyond normal hunting range but I like to tinker. This actually speaks volumes for the work big John put into making the arrows and certainly speaks volumes for the funky little toxic broadheads. I'll be doing more testing at further extended ranges with broadheads. Possibly out to 110 yards accuracy permitting. I fully expect to reach that with the results I've seen so far.
Incidentally, I made an observation while shooting yesterday. When shooting 90-110 yards the 9X scope setting seems fine. However, while shooting closer ranges, 20yards-65yards, I was struggling with accuracy and couldn't figure out why. ??? I'm talkin 2 1/2" groups at 40yards and 4-5"groups at 65yards! W.T.H.!!! Strangely, I dialed my scope down to 3X and was back to drilling 1"spots out to 65yards. Hmmmm. I have no idea why that would be but those were certainly the results so if anyone has any ideas why I'd love to hear. Thanks.

Paul

[cjonesth]

While looking through the scope on 3 power, keep looking through the scope, adjust the power to 9 power, do your recitals get farther apart, if so there is your answer.

[Kegbelly]

I'm not sure exactly why it happens but I've had the same thing happen with rifle scopes... they'd be dead on up to 5-6x then POI would change a little at higher powers. I rarely go past 5x even on my best scopes. Sort of hard to get around that on a crossbow scope if you want the reticle spacing to match up with yardages.

[Significent]

I could be mistaken, but it sounds like the answers so far don't address the question. I could understand if the POI changes, but the groups size shouldn't as long as you're not changing magnification while shooting at a static distance. It almost sounds to me like something is loose and the slight pressure of turning the magnification down to 3 somehow also locked the scope or reticle in place. That sounds unlikely, but not much else makes sense. Did you confirm everything is nice and tight regardless what power the scope is on? Could the reticle be moving around inside the scope at the higher power and not at the lower power? What kind of scope is it?

[vixenmaster]

Are you usin a Riflescope ?

[dabluz]

It depends on how far off the point of impact is. If the difference is small....it could be a change in parallax error.

Yes.....I have seen scopes that gave different points of impact when the magnification was changed from low to high. I am a bit leery of mid-priced scopes that have magnification of 2 to 9 or over. I had one and I never put it over 4 or 5X. If I can't see a moose at 350 yards with 5X magnification....it's time to use an inter ballistic missile. 350 yards would have been the maximum distance with my 7mm Rem Magnum.

[paulaboutform]

I'm using an HHA Optimizer so I don't use the hash marks on the scope. My scope is a Leupold VX-R 3-9X40. At 90,100, and 110 yards I'm using 9X and shooting 2 3/4"-
3 1/2" groups. At the closer yardage if I'm not on 3X my groups open up. I'm not embellishing the groups, I'm on a bench off a lead sled. I don't know if it's just me or if that's normal.

[Significent]

It's gotta be something to do with stability of the scope or the reticle. Does the magnification ring touch the mounting rings when you move from 3x to 9x? Have you contacted Leupold to see if they've had any problems with your model?

[paulaboutform]

It's gotta be something to do with stability of the scope or the reticle. Does the magnification ring touch the mounting rings when you move from 3x to 9x? Have you contacted Leupold to see if they've had any problems with your model?

The magnification ring is clear and I believe everything is tight. I cleaned and lock tighted every fastener on that bow, scope, and HHA Optimizer. I'm wondering if with the high magnification and closer yardage I'm having trouble lining everything up? ie. I think everything is lined up but I'm aiming in the wrong place. ???

[Significent]

Even if you were aiming in the wrong place, as long as you did so consistently the groups might be at a different POI but they would be smaller at closer distances. If everything is tight, it's has to be the reticle moving around inside the scope at 9x. I'd ask Leupold if that's possible.

[paulaboutform]

Even if you were aiming in the wrong place, as long as you did so consistently the groups might be at a different POI but they would be smaller at closer distances. If everything is tight, it's has to be the reticle moving around inside the scope at 9x. I'd ask Leupold if that's possible.

Once everything is set up properly I always tend to look at the shooter rather than the equipment. This doesn't make much sense to me so a call to Leupold doesn't offend me. Thanks.

[Kegbelly]

I'm wondering if it might be a parallax problem? Being a rifle scope the parallax is probably set at 100 yds. At 9X your shots are on at 90-110 yards but are spreading out at 40-65. If the reticle was moving at 9X it would move whether your shooting 40 yards or 140 yards, the scope doesnt know how far you're shooting, and I would think the +100 yard groups would be all over the place too if the reticle was loose. I'm thinking if you started at 65 yds on 9X and dialed it down 1X on each group you would see the groups get tighter as you decrease power. IF it's parallax, I think it's going to be more evident at higher power at shorter yardages, and maintaining the exact same eye alignment on every shot would be critical at higher power. JMHO of course. Hope you get it figured out.

[Limbs and Sticks]

If you do everything the same each shot you should group at every distance, a 1X or 2 1/2 X is really all the scope one needs I think bigger over powers the bow. could be those bh's don't like the longer distance, I know it's not the arrows.

[paulaboutform]

I'm wondering if it might be a parallax problem? Being a rifle scope the parallax is probably set at 100 yds. At 9X your shots are on at 90-110 yards but are spreading out at 40-65. If the reticle was moving at 9X it would move whether your shooting 40 yards or 140 yards, the scope doesnt know how far you're shooting, and I would think the +100 yard groups would be all over the place too if the reticle was loose. I'm thinking if you started at 65 yds on 9X and dialed it down 1X on each group you would see the groups get tighter as you decrease power. IF it's parallax, I think it's going to be more evident at higher power at shorter yardages, and maintaining the exact same eye alignment on every shot would be critical at higher power. JMHO of course. Hope you get it figured out.

Kegbelly, that makes sense to me. What I was thinking is that even on a bench rest I'm not locked down so there's still the human variables. I go through the same shot process every time but at the closer range any imperfections in the perceived acquisition of the bullseye are magnified at the higher power on the scope. Thanks.

[Significent]

Parallax shouldn't make that much difference. Try putting the bow in your sled so it's stationary, crank up the scope to 9x and center on the bulls eye and then move your eye around to see how far the cross-hairs travel across the center of the bull. If it's the same amount you're seeing with the bigger group sizes, that the problem. I'll be surprised if it is. (I've been surprised before )