First, the story.
I bought a Zeiss 6-24×56 Diavari scope years ago. So long ago, I do not even remember where I bought it, but it was certainly before I knew all that much about scopes.
It has wonderful glass, as you might expect, and when I started F-Class shooting a few years ago it seemed an ideal scope for long-range target shooting.
It went on to a .308 built on a Barnard action, with a Lilja barrel and Jennings stock, by Mik Maksimovic at Dolphin Gun Company.
Once I started using it, I soon found out why mil-dot scopes are not ideal when shooting on ranges marked out in yards and at targets sized in minutes of angle. Nothing quite matches up!
The turrets were the real problem. The scope has 1/20 mil adjustments so each click moves the point of impact by 0.5cm at 100 metres – you can also do the math in yards and inches but it is really not worthwhile.
The elevation turret provides 4 turns, each of 80 clicks, for a total of 16 mils adjustment. So you would expect the turret to be marked from 0 to 4 (or to 3 and then to 0, but you know what I mean). But it isn’t. Instead, Zeiss fitted a turret marked for a scope with 1/10 mil adjustments. So the turret is marked from 0 to 8, which means the “1” on the turret represents only a 1/2 mil adjustment. The “4” represents 2 mils and so on.
Even worse, the windage turret is marked only with an “0”. There is no other numbering, and it does not take much windage adjustment before you lose sight of the zero mark.
You can read all about this in more detail on the excellent review I found on SniperCentral, which I wish I had seen before I bought the scope.
So what to do about it? I contacted Zeiss about changing the scope to MoA adjustments. I did this with a Schmidt & Bender scope, and it made it much more useful for my shooting. I discovered Zeiss will also do this, but the cost was remarkable, to say the least. I tried to get replacement turrets with the correct markings, but even offering to pay for them did not get me anywhere.
It seems this scope has become a bit of an orphan child in the world of Zeiss optics.
I did a bit of on-line searching and found that Kenton Industries used to make custom turrets for this scope but not any more.
The Sniperside forum provided a creative solution of using a couple of sticky labels to mark the turrets. This worked OK on the windage turret until it rained a few times. My labels did not like rain very much.
And at last I found Custom Turret Systems. They take the sticky label solution to the next level (actually, up several levels). Using their on-line design tool you can design whatever turret labels you want, for any ballistics you want and for any size of turret. I spent a few hours designing an elevation and a windage turret, trying various designs and layouts. Finally I settled on a design for each and sent my order.
They arrived in the post very quickly, especially given they came from America. And they were just as described. Here is what mine look like:
The top label is for the 4-turn elevation turret, while the bottom label is for the windage turret.
You get four identical labels with each order. I suspect this reflects the fact that most of the manufacturing cost is fixed, so printing four labels costs not much more than printing one label (and means you have some to practice with).
The labels come with an instruction sheet that tells you everything you need to know about fitting them (which is not much, as the process is very simple) and a windage chart that can be stuck on the scope body for ease of reference. Their website also has a helpful video demonstrating the fitting process.
I removed each turret, and used a small amount of detergent to remove any grease or oil. Then I wrapped each turret with the label. A very simple process and the wraps fitted the turret and matched the engraved markings exactly. Here are a couple of views of the finished product:
(click photo for larger image)
(click photo for larger image)
The windage turret now has green numbers for left wind and red numbers for right wind (like the port and starboard lights on a ship). It also has an “R” with an arrow to help me remember – yes, I have turned it the wrong way before.
The elevation turret now shows the correct mil settings for the 4 turns of the turret and I do not have to keep dividing by 2 all the time.
It would be even better if the windage turret had each number vertically instead of on its side. I emailed CTS to see if this was possible and Dan at CTS responded very quickly to say this was something they are working on. Even without this, I am much better off than I was before.
All told, a very effective, practical and cost-effective solution to a problem that should never have existed in the first place.
UPDATE 14 November 2016
Click here to see my elevation turret label on Custom Turrets
Click here to see my windage turret label on Customer Turrets
