It's been a while since I sighted-in 1x optics. I had forgotten a few things, including the fact that I'm due for a new set of glasses, with new corrections needed at all ranges, including reading. Anyway, with tweaking the diopter on the Leopold Prismatic, I got one group that indicates potential, despite the many toe-stubbings on my part.
The group under the barrel was five rounds of 28gr ammo at 25 yards. The center dot of the reticule is bigger than the orange dot at that range, so I was guessing where it was, hidden under the dot in the scope. Now I remember why I usually sight in with a 4x scope. But accuracy shows promise, and the rifle seems to be adequately broken-in, since the trigger pull has stabilized to a crisp seven pounds, with a variation of about one ounce either way. My friend has already blessed the trigger pull, since his arthritis in his hands forces him to use the second joint of his finger to pull the trigger. He also chose a vertical foregrip rather than the Magpul angled one I prefer on my weapons. Always keep the customer happy.
I need the one extra trip to the range so I can shoot at targets with big bullseyes with this scope, and because I redid the mounting after firing this group.
That brings me to the second part of this report, the Leupold Prismatic scope that I had overlooked for the past couple of years. The benefits of ruggedness, clarity, eye relief, and adjustable diopter eyepiece convinced me I need another one, so I have one more on order since I will replace my trusty Eotech with the equally-trust Prismatic. That holographic set of crosshairs out at infinity doesn't do me much good without glasses. The Prismatic lets me shoot accurately without glasses, and the LaRue QD mount lets me mount it vey low on the rails.
His scope is on the left, mine is on the right. I had just learned that GG&G had discontinued their Prismatic QD mount, but LaRue makes good stuff, so I bought two. It seems to be almost a quarter-inch lower than the lowest mounting I can get with the GG&G mount.
My scope already had the built-like-a-bank-vault Leupold Alumina lens caps, which had me puzzled at first, since I don't remember how I found the right size caps in the first place, and there is no documentation of it in the docs that came with the scope, or the Leupold web site.
I emailed their service department, and they said they had no information on it, and didn't think it could be done. Then I finally remembered that I had stumbled on the answer myself, and just had to do some hard rememberin'. Leupold only makes two types of Alumina eyepiece caps, regular and Ultralight. I borrowed the Ultralight off my CZ453, and it was the right kind (50% chance of a win on the first guess). The front lens cap is for a Leupold 20mm lens. It works just fine, although not quite "what the Leupold doctor would order". I ordered two sets, and emailed back to the service guy the part numbers that I discovered. I don't think this particular type of scope (it comes in about five different color/reticule combos) is very popular, but it wouldn't hurt to update the one-page set of special instructions for this scope.
So now I have some virtually-bulletproof scopes, and a new AR57 that just needs to be sighted in, again. It's been slow, but the results are really coming together. The only downside is that the Korean clone magazines may need tweaking, and I have a couple of things I'll check out on them.
A gunsmith's job is never done, thank ghod. :)