Thread: Swarovski Z5 3.5-18 problem?

I have the Z5 and was sighting in the other day when I noticed that a ‘casual’ look through the scope was fine but when ‘concentrating’ for a shot I found that my sight picture slowly closed in (like a tunnel shrinking) til everything went black. Now I wear multi-zone glasses and it was a bright day so I assumed it was a problem with my glasses not being positioned correctly due to shooting into the sun. The scope was marginally better at low power and definitely worse at high power.
My lad took it out this morning and came frustrated as he couldn’t get a shot off comfortably at about 250m and he described the same problem. Definitely not sunny this morning and he doesn’t wear glasses.
Any ideas, experience and how do you access warranty if needed? Thanks

Not sure what's going on, but flick a message to jp.klaus@swarovski.com and he'll sort you out. He's been really good with my swaro queries and issues.

Originally Posted by Kimber 7mm-08

Not sure what's going on, but flick a message to jp.klaus@swarovski.com and he'll sort you out. He's been really good with my swaro queries and issues.

Thanks for that - I’m going to organise to compare mine to a mates but that will be a great contact as I did purchase new in NZ

I’ve had a similar issue same scope which I found was fixed for me by playing around with the eye relief and side focus. I always hunt with contacts in though never glasses ?

You can get problems if you stare at a sight picture for more 10-20 seconds as your eyes lose circulation and oxygen, specially if your neck and head arent upright. Be aware of good head positioning and breathing and shoot within 10 sec.

Also if you haven't got a cheek rest thats just the right height that will make it harder.

Check youve got the reticle focussed prfectly. Use the ocular adjustment firstcwith side focus set to infinity and loking at infinity ie a scene > 500m away or the sky. Look at the sky and think “thousand yard stare” then quickly glance through the scope for less than 5 seconds and thats where you want it hard and sharp in the fine wires. Once thats right, dial the side focus knob (parallax) to the range the target is at. The reticle should still be sharp but the targt should be sharp too. If you are very short or ling sighted that will affect the adjustment ypu needed on the ocular to get the reticle focussed. In that case, zero parallax wont coincide perfectly with a sharp focussed target. For group shooting on paper its more important to have the patallax zeroed but for hunting its better to have the target sharp for identification and shot placement. Small parallax errors wont lose you animals and you need to work on getting a clean sight picture and central view anyway which minimises parallax errors.

At 18x and 44mm its not a very forgiving scope.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

You can get problems if you stare at a sight picture for more 10-20 seconds as your eyes lose circulation and oxygen, specially if your neck and head arent upright. Be aware of good head positioning and breathing and shoot within 10 sec.

Also if you haven't got a cheek rest thats just the right height that will make it harder.

Check youve got the reticle focussed prfectly. Use the ocular adjustment firstcwith side focus set to infinity and loking at infinity ie a scene > 500m away or the sky. Look at the sky and think “thousand yard stare” then quickly glance through the scope for less than 5 seconds and thats where you want it hard and sharp in the fine wires. Once thats right, dial the side focus knob (parallax) to the range the target is at. The reticle should still be sharp but the targt should be sharp too. If you are very short or ling sighted that will affect the adjustment ypu needed on the ocular to get the reticle focussed. In that case, zero parallax wont coincide perfectly with a sharp focussed target. For group shooting on paper its more important to have the patallax zeroed but for hunting its better to have the target sharp for identification and shot placement. Small parallax errors wont lose you animals and you need to work on getting a clean sight picture and central view anyway which minimises parallax errors.

At 18x and 44mm it’s not a very forgiving scope.

Thanks for that. After a good today I agree that at 18x it is not a very forgiving scope in the eyebox or at least for my eyes, especially with the graduated lens my glasses have. I think I will look at moving it on and do some research on scopes with more forgiving eyeboxes

Originally Posted by Staffnurse41

Thanks for that. After a good today I agree that at 18x it is not a very forgiving scope in the eyebox or at least for my eyes, especially with the graduated lens my glasses have. I think I will look at moving it on and do some research on scopes with more forgiving eyeboxes

Check out the vx5

Sent from my CPH2145 using Tapatalk

Higher powered scope are always less forgiving on eye relief, setup and brightness. If you think 18X is challenging, try a 60X target scope and the 18 will suddenly seem fine.

I use a 3-12x50 and have built up a high cheekpiece on the stock and I have no problems with eyebox.
The Z5 is optically better and low light performance was better and its much lighter than my S&B so don’t dis it entirely. It is a bit delicate in the turrets which is another consideration.
Dont go to a Leupold VX3 4.5-14 x40 they are tricky too. The VX5 might be your next option- I havent used one myself.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

You can get problems if you stare at a sight picture for more 10-20 seconds as your eyes lose circulation and oxygen, specially if your neck and head arent upright. Be aware of good head positioning and breathing and shoot within 10 sec.

Also if you haven't got a cheek rest thats just the right height that will make it harder.

Check youve got the reticle focussed prfectly. Use the ocular adjustment firstcwith side focus set to infinity and loking at infinity ie a scene > 500m away or the sky. Look at the sky and think “thousand yard stare” then quickly glance through the scope for less than 5 seconds and thats where you want it hard and sharp in the fine wires. Once thats right, dial the side focus knob (parallax) to the range the target is at. The reticle should still be sharp but the targt should be sharp too. If you are very short or ling sighted that will affect the adjustment ypu needed on the ocular to get the reticle focussed. In that case, zero parallax wont coincide perfectly with a sharp focussed target. For group shooting on paper its more important to have the patallax zeroed but for hunting its better to have the target sharp for identification and shot placement. Small parallax errors wont lose you animals and you need to work on getting a clean sight picture and central view anyway which minimises parallax errors.

At 18x and 44mm its not a very forgiving scope.

@mopheadrob This !

Originally Posted by Bagheera

I use a 3-12x50 and have built up a high cheekpiece on the stock and I have no problems with eyebox.
The Z5 is optically better and low light performance was better and its much lighter than my S&B so don’t dis it entirely. It is a bit delicate in the turrets which is another consideration.
Dont go to a Leupold VX3 4.5-14 x40 they are tricky too. The VX5 might be your next option- I havent used one myself.

The scope I took off was a Z5 2.4-12x50 which is a fantastic scope but at the time I didn’t bother to get the ballistic turret model. It does have the BRX reticle. Apart from the no BT it is an excellent scope and better considerable better at low light performance than several mates VX5s in a side by side test. Never noticed any issue with the view on this scope so it is the one I will go back to while I consider the alternative BT options.

Dont go to a Leupold VX3 4.5-14 x40 they are tricky too.[/QUOTE]

Your comment re the VX3 reminded me that I also struggled with the eyebox of the VX3 3.5-10 that came with the Kimber Hunter as a package deal when I brought it. I took it off quite quickly and it is somewhere in the shed, always meant to sell it.
And this isn’t a knock on Leupold scopes as my all time favourite scope has been a VX2 2-7x33 but sold it with another rifle and they don’t seem to be available any more.