Parallax?

[Madecost]

Since this is a place for stupid questions...
I vaguely know what this term is but it's never been terribly important to me because I'm not shooting terribly far distance. That said, I see it mentioned in almost every scope thread.
What is parallax?
Why does it matter?
Is there a minimum distance where parallax starts to matter?
How do I use these parallax knobs on the scope?

 

[Jcalder]

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[TN Song Dog]

Helps focus at different distances. Close and far. Scopes with min parallax at 10-15yd range are good for rimfire. Recent years newer rimfire prs style competitions have driven more scopes having closer min parallax, in my opinion.

 

[fairchaser]

If you have a cheap scope and two different people shoot it and have different POI, that's the result of parallax. It's caused by the eye looking through the scope at different angles. You can check it by moving your head around while not touching the gun or scope. If the crosshairs move around on the target, you have parallax. You can adjust this out if you have a parallax or focus knob on your scope. Keeping adjusting until you can move your head without the crosshairs moving on target. If it still a little blurry try to also adjust the eyepiece focus. Go back and forth between the two until you're satisfied with the focus and parallax.

 

[Omega]

If you have a cheap scope and two different people shoot it and have different POI, that's the result of parallax. It's caused by the eye looking through the scope at different angles. You can check it by moving your head around while not touching the gun or scope. If the crosshairs move around on the target, you have parallax. You can adjust this out if you have a parallax or focus knob on your scope. Keeping adjusting until you can move your head without the crosshairs moving on target. If it still a little blurry try to also adjust the eyepiece focus. Go back and forth between the two until you're satisfied with the focus and parallax.

Doesn't have to be a cheap scope, there are a few decent ones that do not have parallax adjustments, they are set to a certain distance, many at 100 yds. For years, parallax was just something you had to deal with unless getting into the real high end scopes, but now even the modestly priced ones have that option but the question is, do you need it for hunting.

Do You Need A Riflescope Side Parallax Adjustment?

 

[Jack Reed]

Doesn't have to be a cheap scope, there are a few decent ones that do not have parallax adjustments, they are set to a certain distance, many at 100 yds. For years, parallax was just something you had to deal with unless getting into the real high end scopes, but now even the modestly priced ones have that option but the question is, do you need it for hunting.

Do You Need A Riflescope Side Parallax Adjustment?

Great article. Thank you

 

[Jack Reed]

Since this is a place for stupid questions...
I vaguely know what this term is but it's never been terribly important to me because I'm not shooting terribly far distance. That said, I see it mentioned in almost every scope thread.
What is parallax?
Why does it matter?
Is there a minimum distance where parallax starts to matter?
How do I use these parallax knobs on the scope?

Great question. Wondered that myself

 

[infoman jr.]

Parallax adjustment is essentially moving the image you see through the scope to the same plane as the image of the reticle.