Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupold M8 6x33 AO compact

A buddy offer this scope for me to use hunting in timber. I put on Howa 1500, 308 varmint 20". Took it to the range yesterday to zero.....

This scope has the friction adjustments which i once dealt with on an old Vari-Xll. With the Xll my gradients were 1/2" at 100 yds as i recall, so that was my assumption with this M8.

Based on my range session im convinced the M8 gradient is 1" at 100 yds. Is this correct?

The scope is zeroed and the pattern of adjustments supports my conclusion......

Groups were MOA and moved accordingly to 1" adjustment.

It could be on that scope if it's old enough. It seems you were unable to decipher the dial markings. Could you post a pic of the elevation dial?

Research on this uncoverd a 14 yo thread from this forum on the same question......one of the participants was convinced it is 1", while the rest all agree......

The scope can be a bear to zero, but once zeroed its tough as nails.....

If adjustments need to be made they may require walking ones way to the end result.

Mathman,

Thx, im sure the answer is right in front of me if i had a clue about geometry.......ill have to get back to you but the actual segments shown on the dial was less than 18......does 15 make sense?

Were there any numbers on the dial at all?

Ive owned a handful of the old friction adjust Vari-X scopes and you can take whatever the supposed adjustment value is and disregard. They all have their own “personality”. I found very little uniformity in adjustment value from scope to scope. They all involved some guesswork and trial and error to get zeroed, but unlike modern Leupolds, once zeroed, I found they generally stayed there.

All that said, not sure I’d want a 6x scope on a close range woods gun. 2.5x fixed, or even 4x, would be a better choice.

Yes.....and if memory serves the dial had either 12 or 15 marked divisions.....i was too wrapped up in my own assumption it was going to be 1/2" increments to really pay closer attention.....

Anyway, im comfortable with where the settings are and how the crosshairs consistently respond to adjustments, whatever they may be......

I'll just assume 1" for future 100 yd work.

I'm not too concerned about how many divisions are around the whole dial. What I need to know is what the dial looks like for two consecutive numbers and the space between them.

As i think about it i only distinctly remember 4 numbers printed on the dial......0, 3, 6, and 9

Based on that 12 segments....

Then think of it lika a clock where zero equals twelve. Twelve divisions, one hour apart. So on the scope so marked, twelve divisions, one moa apart.

Thx.....my old Vari-Xll must've had 24 segments.

Here's an old Vari-X III I have:



Observe that there are five numbers set out, 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12. There are fifteen divisions around the dial, but that isn't what really matters. What matters are the marks/spaces between consecutive numbers.

For example, observe the 9 and 12. There are two marks between them. The rational way to number those would be 10 and 11, so it's easy to see they're supposed to be one moa per mark.

Here's an old M8 10x AO:



Look at 6 and 8. There are four spaces in there. So two, the difference between six and eight, is split four ways into 1/2 moa each. The unnumbered hashes are then corresponding to 6.5(small), 7(large) and 7.5(small).

mathman & SCgman1;
Good morning to you both, I hope the weekend was kind to you all and you're well.

Before answering I went into the safe and uncapped two 6x33 Compact scopes from the late '80's I believe and a 2-7x33 Compact from about that timeframe I'm guessing?

They all have the same numbers marked on like mathman's photo showed.

One of the 6x33's adjusts not too, too bad as far as ease of movement but the other one almost requires a pliers and a nickel. It does not like to turn in either direction. The 2-7x33 has smoother adjustments than either of the 6x33's, about like the other Leupold scopes of that era that we've got.

The plus is they are great "set and forget" scopes. None of the 3 have ever wandered off on their own despite being pummeled.

The minus is as mentioned they don't adjust easily/readily.

I want to say we usually take each hash mark for an inch at 100yds, but it might be on one scope it's more than that or a bit less? Sorry I can't recall that detail now. Certainly not ¼" though.

For me running a straight 6 on my walking around rifles hasn't been an issue as far as hitting anything relatively close or in a timely manner, but it surely might be considered a compromise of sorts - that's valid.

Oh, they're really light too which was a goal with a couple of the rifles.

Hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there.

All the best.

Dwayne

Edit;
Had to look one more time at them all!!

They are the same as the top photo - one mark between what I'd take to be an inch.

This is what im working with, thanks for posting....

I’ve owned and still own a bunch, can’t say I’ve ever paid those marks any mind. I spin them like I’m on the Wheel of Fortune until they get where I want them to go! Haha

The howa is an MOA shooter and my last 4 shots were all over a 1" square w/3 touching.....so i was satisfied at that point......that was at 100 yrds....

where i plan to use this set-up will rarely present a 50 yd shot, if ever.