First time Scope user

L

LSU12ga

New member
Hey All,

Tomorrow I'm heading out to the range with my newly scoped .22. It has been bore sighted but not sighted at the range yet. This is my first time with a scoped rifle I was wondering if you all had any words of wisdom, things i should be trying or experimenting with? I understand hot to adjust the scope with the windage and elevation knobs, so I think I have the basics (one of them, at least) covered.

I'm bringing with me 5 different types of ammo, but only from Remington (Thundebolt, golden bullet, target) and winchester (wildcat and hi-vel). My local bass pro didn't have any CCI.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The scope is a 3-9 x32.

Thanks all.
 
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Use a rig or at least a rolled up jacket/coat to minimize the human error involved in sighting in your rifle.

Honestly tho, I have a 4-9 x 56 scope on my 10/22 and am seriously considering taking it off. I shot this guy's Browning lever action 22 that didn't have a scope and I had a blast playing "golf" with it ;) Definitely more challenging and increases the fun factor by about 10.
 
Thanks, The range I go to is a public range, and they have sand bags out there for use.

Do you have any experience taping one of your glasses lens? I think squinting for to long gives me a pretty bad headache, I figured the tape might solve that issue.
 
If you think you're going to have trouble keeping your non-aiming eye shut tightly, stop at a Walgreen's or CVS and pick up an eye patch. Might not be cool, but will be a lot easier on your eye.

Also, start your sighting-in at short range - 10 yards wouldn't be a bad place to start.
 
Pick one of those types of ammo and sight in for that particular type. This might be elementary to you but I watched some guys the other week trying to sight in a rifle and they were changing ammo every few shots. Different ammo will shoot to different points of impact.
 
Thanks guys.

Csmss: will sighting in at 10 yards require me to re-sight in at 50? I guess it gives the bullet less chance to get of target, allowing me to zero in faster. Becuase at 50 yards the spread would be much wider.

Thanks for the help, I'll post a range report tomorrow.
 
Also, 22's are sorta strange. My 10/22 didn't like the standard CCI's. Well, at least I don't think they liked the standards CCI's lol. I used oil to lube my 10/22 which I learned was a big no no. Instead, you should use teflon or dry lube as these types won't attract the carbon and crap that oil will collect. After 100 rounds, my 10/22 started to stovepipe using the standard CCI's.

After the dry lube and switching to CCI high velocity, I ran about 300 rounds with no FTFs or stovepiping issues. I changed too many variables to say for certain that it was either the lube or the round, but the rifle is happy now.

However, I digress. The point I was trying to make is that I had initially sighted in my rifle at 100 yds using the standard CCI's. I could get a pretty good grouping. When I switched to the high velocity CCI's, my grouping suffered even though it fed much more reliably. So lesson learned, use the standard velocity stuff to sight in 100 yds or greater.
 
just the 10/22 requires the dry lube? I use hoppes oil on this gun, but its from the 60s im not sure they had dry lube. Ill bring a cleaning kit with me, thanks.
 
The 10/22 is a semi-auto carbine which is why alot of people say to use the dry lube. The 10/22 has been around a LONG time, way before they had dry lube so I'm sure some people have used oil on these things successfully. If yours is a bolt action type, I don't think dry lube will be necessary. Have fun tomorrow! :D
 
Just get some translucent 'scotch' tape and lay a strip on the lense over the region where your non-dominant eye will be looking when you're focused on the target through the scope. The objective is to prevent that eye from obtaining focus while you're looking through the scope. You can accomplish this with a single strip if it's positioned correctly, and you won't experience any sympathetic dilation in the dominant eye because you're not blocking much light to the non-dominant one.
 
I think you might be psyching yourself out on what this is going to entail. If you have bore-sighted it you should be on paper at 25 yards and able to close in on being dead accurate with just some basic scope adjustment.

Pick a single type of ammo and do this though. Once you have it perfect, use the other types and document if the POI changes, and done!
 
Psyching myself out is what I DO.

I know I'm making a bigger deal than what it is, thanks for the sagely advice.


Tyrenz: I just broke down my gun, gave it a quick once over with some solvent and added some dupont teflon lube that I had. I'll tell you what; a lot of the grit and went out of the blot and the action seems a lot smoother than it did with the hoppes.

I think I'm sold.

Thanks again
 
LSU, to answer your question, starting at 10 yards is just to get you on paper. Once you're on paper, then you can make the scope windage adjustment to center your shots left to right. You can then adjust elevation at 10 yards to perhaps an inch low (at 10 yards, the bullet will probably still be rising), then move your target back. I'd make my initial sighting adjustments at 10 yards, then move to 25 yards and then at 50 yards.
 
So I just got back from the range....

It went well, I suppose, for the first time using a scope and the 2nd time using a rifle. I was able to get decent grouping with the ammunition I used to dial in the scope. I dialed in at 25 yards, then at 50 yards. Most of the groups at 25 yards were 1.5-2'' for 5 rounds. The remington golden bullet stayed at about 1'' for the entire session which was good. I think the scope needs a little more work, but I am confident I could hit a squirrel at this point.

Here is the target at 25 yards with remington golden bullet after dialing in.

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I think it needs a little more placement to the left, but when I dialed that in it didn't seem to change.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Thanks for all the help guys.


Here is a photo of what I'm shooting, is a ~1960 New Haven 250k (Mossberg 152K)

21jtxyc.png
 
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Yup.. that would definitely take the head off a squirrel :cool:

Looks like you had fun and welcome to the .22 club
 
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