Scope Cross Hairs or Fixing the hardest thing I have done so far!

[John Rogers]

Two weeks ago while shooting a muzzle loader to 300 yards in some really terrible winds here in San Diego County a plastic container with my spotting board and extra home made shoot-n-see type targets blew into the right side of the scope and rifle just after taking a shot. I was starting to look at my spotting scope and the rifle fell over and hit the threaded end of the eye piece. The fall put a short, maybe 3/8 inch dent in the threaded end of the eye piece and I looked through the scope and the vertical cross hair was broken! Dammmmmmmm that finished my shooting for the day and for a couple weeks. I looked at several places that do cross hairs, about 4 to 6 months and around $150 for repairs. There is a local fellow here in the San Diego area but he is competing at Raton for several weeks with the BPCR folks.


So I ordered some tungsten wire 0.0005 in size from a fellow on eBay and got it today. Pulling the cross hair tube was easy and I gathered the tools: head mounted magnifier, surgery clamps of various sizes, several HF LED lights and my watch repair screw driver set. I used a piece of Gorilla tape to keep the tube steady and after 6 tries I finally got the wires mounted so the cross in the middle and did not snap when tightening the screws. Put it back together and the cross hairs look fine so far so next week I'll try some shots to see how far off I got it, probably starting at 100 yards again.


The wire that size is nearly impossible to see even with double magnifiers but the light reflecting off the wire was the easiest way to see it and you can't pull too hard or...…..SNAP!

[Sebscst]

Wow I worked with stuff down to half a thousand but .0005 .I want to order that just to see or not see what it’s like. Congratulations on success.

[Don Ro]

That is some kind of precision work. Even more so than watch repair. Impressed!!!

[John Rogers]

That wire is some hard stuff to see for sure even with my head mounted magnifier and it can't take a lot of pulling as it is delicate. It took me a several tries to hold correct tension with left hand and tighten the screw with right hand. Here is the link of the fell I bought the wire from: https://www.ebay.com/itm/CROSSHAIR-WIRE-FINE-TUNGSTEN-WIRE-FOR-SCOPES-AND-TRANSITS-0125mm-0005/321070292094?hash=item4ac147dc7e:m:muxoWK0V_rcaPxQ ultIOyJQ


The true test will be this week at the range!

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by John Rogers

So I ordered some tungsten wire 0.0005 in size...

The wire that size is nearly impossible to see even with double magnifiers but the light reflecting off the wire was the easiest way to see it and you can't pull too hard or...…..SNAP!

.0005 would be 55awg wire.
The finest I ever worked with was 56awg. Copper. For winding coils.
You're right, it's pretty tiny stuff.

Working with wire that fine made working with my normal 42-44awgs like working with bridge cable.

[Seahawk]

I thought you were a Navy nuclear machinist for over 20 years - you could have done this with your eyes closed!



Nest stuff, John.

[John Rogers]

We never had anything that small while I was in the Navy. Hell, we never got transistors in our reactor control gear until the early 1980's as the 'ol man never trusted them! This wire is so small I could not feel it between thumb and fore finger!