Custom Scope Turrets – a very good idea on a Swaro!

I set up quite a lot of Leupolds with CDS dials, and also a lot of Swarovski Scopes, well, without CDS Dials. However, a local lad actually produces a very sharp solution to an awesome scope (Z5) with some odd quirks (like decimal marked subtensions?).

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As I have covered off before – a Swarovski Z5 is a great option for a lightweight rifle scope. The issue becomes, I feel, that people assume that it’s going to dial out a lot more standard than they do. For guys shooting 7 Rems or 300 Wins they get a bit of a surprise when I point out they are going to run out of dial at around 500 meters.

You can get around this by starting with a 200 meter zero – regardless though, it’s one rotation limit.

No, there is a discussion to be had about guys shooting past 500 meters hunting anyhow, but, for example – a recent customer has a 300WSM. He is planning on keeping the hunting around 300 meters tops – but – has steel on a farm, and is keen to be able to shoot (and practice) out much further. Further than 500 meters.

BT Turrets – cool, but frustrating

The other issue (and bugbear) I have with some Swarovski Scopes, is while, in principle, I like the quick to set BT turrets on some of the scopes, you do have the issue if you want to get super accurate, reverting back to a chart or calculator in the field, that the marked subtensions under the turret don’t have numbers, and, truly oddly, while calibrated to 1/4 MOA (actually IPHY), are marked with a larger mark every 5 (not logically, 4) clicks.

While I kinda get this is reflective of the Swaro philosophy of talking in clicks, not MOA/IPHY (I assume) – it’s counter to my preference to get people talking in the units (IPHY/MOA/MIL) they are actually adjusting in. It’s like meters or yards – you can use either – but you want to make sure everyone understands what unit you are using. ‘Clicks’ doesn’t always do that.

To me, using the unit as part of the naming conventions (come up 3/4 MOA, for example) develops more educated, better shooters. This is just my way of thinking, obviously not shared by the engineers at Swaro!

Anyhow…

The client wanted to be able to dial out more.

While I have previously supplied clients with the information to get in touch with Custom Scope Turrets and have their own ‘CDS’ dials made up – this time I thought I would get in touch myself and explore some options with the client.

I knew this shooter was interested in playing out to distance – I also knew they were comfortable with dialing in MOA or MIL, and, I knew they were reloading – so the final load on the gun wasn’t necessarily finished anyhow. This meant, if we got a Custom Turret made up with the actual dial-up in meters on the turret when he changed his load – that dial would potentially be off.

Instead – we opted for one of the other options – a large, SMOA1 dial that had the numbers on it that he would simply be able to dial.

But wait – the Swaro only has one rotation in it!

Removing the zero stop

While I like zero stops as a general principle – its implementation on the Swaro Z5 means you can only get one rotation of the dial. Essentially, the zero stop is a little tab that stops you dialling down past it, but also stops you dialling up past it the other way.

Removing the zero stop removes this limitation and gives you the ability to get more dial out of the scope.

This does mean you lose the zero stop. But, if you watch the video below, you can simply keep track of how many turns you can come down before bottoming out the scope. If you know that, you can reset your zero easily enough.

So – you can now get approximately 29 MOA dial out of the scope. Also worth noting is that you can’t dial down below the scope 20 MOA – so – I am picking (which we thought was the case, but hadn’t confirmed) the rifle has a 20 MOA rail on it already, and could potentially take a 30 MOA, but not a 40.

For folks that didn’t want to remove the zero stop, and didn’t really want/need to dial out that far – he also does another dial, which has the one row of numbers, larger.

He also does another dial, that provides a custom drop dial in meters or yards, but also has SMOA numbers at the bottom of it – once you have the load dialled in (and don’t plan on changing it) – this is a very good option.

And, we can supply and install.

Finally, as part of all this exploration, I can now also supply and install these turrets as part of our rifle setup service – or – supply and install separately. This can, incidentally be done in the field – it’s a fairly simple process. If you are getting a Swaro scope setup by me – I will likely discuss options with you anyhow.


  1. Also known as IPHY and the system Swaro uses 

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