Thread: Leupold Turret Help

Hey team,

Have been running Leupolds for awhile now. Having a bit of an issue which has cost me a pretty decent stag recently- seems that the top turret on my VX3i (no Zero Lock) has the ability to shift around with very little force- like walking through some tighter brush etc. It managed to do a full rotation and when I went to shoot a stag at 70m it went right over his back. Any tips on how to tighten it up? Don't really have an issue when turning it by hand but somehow it's getting faffed around in the bush.

Cheers for any info and tips

Err, not easily. The clicker mechanism sounds like it's not doing its thing for some reason? Warranty/service claim?

Leupolds are bad for this probably only way is to sell and get a zero lock, I have seen them taped in place


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insulation tape.... works well. mine has three wraps tightly around it..doesnt move anymore..couldnt work out why .22lr was always going out of whack horizontally till twigged turret was turning as went into gunbag etc... I started out with tape around body of scope n over the top..but after putting on trebly and getting it zeroed nicely the 3 wraps around turret seems to work best,and doesnt look hori.

Cut a piece of car tyre tube to a shape that it covers over both turrets and down the sides when cable tied around the scope tube ahead of the turrets. If cut roughly to size it can be shaped after the cable tying. Easy to reach under the rubber skirt or fold it back when required.
For a scope with no zero stop a spacer ring made out of PVC water pipe or conduit that the turret screws down onto works well

Sounds like tiger country

I pinned mine. It makes it a zero stop (not lock) but will only rotate one revolution. No problem for a Bush rifle shooting less than 500m.
Was very easy to do.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

I pinned mine. It makes it a zero stop (not lock) but will only rotate one revolution. No problem for a Bush rifle shooting less than 500m.
Was very easy to do.

is that the small ball bearing that goes in under the dial or something different?

Thanks for the advice so far team- @Roarless20 how did you do that? Have heard for Leupold that you can send your scope in and spend $250AUD to get zerolock retrofitted but not really worth the hassle. Not shooting more than 500-600 anyway with the rig I got built

Yes I believe this is a design fault because the cap doesnt actually contact the O ring seal so there is very little friction and they turn. Feeling a new VX 5 HD its actually the same once the zero lock is disengaged.

Contact the agent NZ Asia and they will send you a ball bearing that fits in place to limit turret turn range in one direction. Then it can inly get turned upwards and is easy to check. For windage perhaps put one athalf way to prevent a full turn. In practice the turrets would only move a few clicks either way usually, so not too bad at short range and just look and check for longer shots.

NZAsia also kindly sent me some extra O rings at no charge so Ive got two under each cap. Its not that good as its hard to push the caps down enough to fit the grub screws and I had a turret fall off (again replaced free of charge by NOIA the Australian agent under warranty. The turrets now move stiffly and clicks are faint so I think I will remove the second O rings and take my chances.

I have another brand X scope that has never moved a single click in carrying. It has a bigger diameter turret and was obviously originally designed for dialling, unlike the VX 3 series.

@SikaHuntaa

The ball bearing in the hole idea didn't work on my cap as the existing hole is nowhere near '0'.

I used a 1.5mm drill bit to drill the hole and then cut off the shank end of the same bit to be the pin.
Next time i would angle my pin hole slightly away from the grub screw as my pin just barely touches the side of the grub screw and makes it hard to turn. Also i would drill it 3 index marks above '0' instead of only 2.
The pin just floats snug in the hole and doesn't need gluing in place.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

@SikaHuntaa

The ball bearing in the hole idea didn't work on my cap as the existing hole is nowhere near '0'.

I used a 1.5mm drill bit to drill the hole and then cut off the shank end of the same bit to be the pin.
Next time i would angle my pin hole slightly away from the grub screw as my pin just barely touches the side of the grub screw and makes it hard to turn. Also i would drill it 3 index marks above '0' instead of only 2.
The pin just floats snug in the hole and doesn't need gluing in place.

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Awesome thanks for that mate, I will give it a shot

This issue happened to moi and lost a very big stag with the pill whistling throught the tops of his ears. Going to tape the turrets on a VX3i. Thanks for posting this issue. God send as checked and rechecked the rings etc. Have a Sako bag but it does not open at the end. Going to buy another model to avoid another point of contact let alone tight scrub.

One of the reasons I swapped around my CDS VX3 for a non CDS VX3 (Boone and Crocket reticle) for my main hunting gun.

So I was thinking about getting the VXHD 30mm with Cds. I read somewhere about them shifting zero. Is this because the CDS system is not firm enough? Sort of put me off a bit . Any other scopes about that price range / clarity that may be comparable or are they good enough.
Id hate to have a miss because the guns been bumped in the bag etc