700 and maxed out windage vari x 2

T

Tipsy Mcstagger

New member
Hi guys. I just got back from a 2/3 terrible day at the range. My 700 with B&C stock and vortex viper scope with several ladder loads of 175 smk and 168 vld hunting with varget, rl15, and 4064 were ready but the ocular lens fell out of place and just dangled sideways inside the tube. Never mistreated, never dropped. Ok so then I moved over to my 700 classic 35 whelen and removed the old scope (an old 2.5x leupold) and put on an old 2-7 vari x 2 on it and at 50 yards I ran out of windage (need to go further right) about 2 inches before center. Like I said it had a scope on it before that that worked and now the new one won't work. It has a one piece base. What can I do? Ideas? It's an old vari x 2 that doesn't click adjust, just twists. It has sentimental value to me.
At least I found a load for my 6.5 Grendel with 28.3 grains of 8208xbr that shot a half inch 5 shot group.
 
Hmm. It has a one piece base the the rear mount has a screw on either side at the base, left and right. Is this an adjustable base? If this is so, this is the first time in all my years I've run across this, or ever even knew this. I'll look into it. Thanks.
 
Yes, that is the windage adjustment. Center the windage retical on the scope by dialing all the way left and then all the way right - counting the number of turns. Divide that by two and put it back left by that number.

Now, use the windage adjustments on the base to center your group. Loosen one side and tighten the other side an equal number of turns. If you have a portable cleaning vise, just remove the bolt and clamp it up in that. Sight thru the bore at a distant object and then look thru the scope without moving the rifle. You can do it on a shooting bench without a vise but you'll have to hold the rifle very still and keep shifting your eye up and down.
 
Tipsy, scopes at one time, were not adjustable at the crosshair, but were adjusted through the bases. You could set both elevation and windage by them. Look around for a good set of Unertl bases. Unertl was the Cadillac of them all at one time.
 
Did the scope have its windage knobs adjusted already? It could have been way over one way or another and by the time it was mounted and boresighted it, it left no room for adjustment.
 
Setting a scope's adjustment to zero by putting one half way between its limits will get you close to mechanical (and optical) zero; a line from the center of the front lens to the center of the back lens through the center of the scope's tube. How close depends on the mechanical design of the scope's part. You can be as much as 5 to 10 MOA off. If you've ever put a rifle scope on an optical collimator whose axis is aligned with rings to mount the scope in, you'll understand.

Otherwise, clamp the rifle in something solid, loosen the rings on the scope so it can be turned. Align the scope with some distant object then rotate the scope in its rings. Watch the reticule make a circle about some point. Move the adjustments so the reticule stays at one place as the scope's spun in its mounts. That's mechanical as well as optical zero. Count the clicks to each limit and you see how much difference there is for each.

Do whatever you want to be as close to zero as you think's necessary.
 
Guys, thank so much for all of the info and advice. Well the scope doesn't have click adjustments just a dial (vari x 2) so I suppose I'll max it out and count full turns. I'll clamp it down and bore sight the windage adjustments with the scope as close to zero as I can. I can't believe I never knew about these bases!
 
Personally I'd ditch the windage adjustable mounts. They were invented to be used on rifles that had the mounting holes drilled improperly. This will allow the scope to be pointed directly down the barrel even if the holes are drilled wrong. As long as the holes are drilled in the receiver correctly (extrremely rare to not be in the last 50 years, but more common in the past), those mounts are not needed and there are MUCH, MUCH better options.
 
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