How do I adjust the dang scope?

G

Greg Bell

New member
Guys,

I've been a pistol guy for over a decade--but lately I've been more interested in rifles. I bought a Steyr Mountain rifle in 308. I also bought a set of A-bolt mounts and a nikon 3-9x40 "Buckmaster" scope. I put it on and locktited the mount. The gun shot high and left. I tried to adjust it with the dials (w/ a coin) and couldn't see any difference. I finally adjusted the windage screws (on the mount--not the scope) and centered the gun (for windage). I cannot, for the life of me, seem to adjust the scope to stop shooting high. I keep turning the up and down dial with a coin and get no real difference. What stupid mistake am I making?

GHB
 
try moving the scope back a half an inch in the mounts

how high is it?
at what yardage?
1/4 MOA clicks move the reticle 1/4th of an inch at 100 yards & ~just a schootch at 25 yards
thats 4 clicks to move an inch & 24 to move 6 inches at 100

and nearly 100 clicks to move 6 inches at 25 yards
 
Greg,

Who among us haven’t been here before? Nothing’s more frustrating than a wacky point-of-aim / point-of-impact problem.

Have you tried boresighting? Support the rifle so it can’t easily move, remove the bolt look down the barrel locate a “target” at least 200yds away (the farther the better, 1/4 mile would be great), center the target in the barrel, now without moving the rifle adjust the scope so the target is centered in the cross hairs. Look through the barrel again, then the scope, double check they both coincide on the target.

You are now borsighted. In my experience this will almost always put you within 3” – 4” inches of point of aim at 100 yds.

Since you have a base that’s windage adjustable, while you’re at it you should “mechanically zero” your scope for windage. This entails adjusting your scope’s windage knob to the center of it’s range (count the total number of clicks, then set it at one-half the total). Follow the boresighting directions above but instead zero windage with the base adjustments – leaving the scope’s windage in the middle of it’s range.

This same mechanically zero procedure can be followed for elevation. Zero the scope’s internal elevation adjustment, as you boresight shim the bottom of the appropriate ring (aluminum strips cut from an old beer can make pretty good shims). If you’re within 20 – 30 clicks from center without shimming then I’d leave it as-is without the shims – there’s probably no real advantage to go thru with these extra steps.

One final comment. I’m a big believer in Locktiting bases, but I never Locktite rings. -- Kenrel
 
Last edited:
The suggestion of moving the scope in the mounts is good.
What I would do is go find a gunshop that mounts scopes and have them use a Bushnell or some other bore sighter to manually bore sight the rifle. This should get you on the paper at 100 yds.
There is nothing more frustrating than trying to sight in a rifle without first bore sighting the scope. I bought a Bushnell bore sighter years ago and have used it many times. They can be had for around $70 from Cabella's or Midway. You won't regret the purchase, I can assure you! :D
 
Let's back up a bit. Greg, you said that you got the windage adjusted and to do so used the adjustments in the base. Do the windage adjustments work on the scope? Are you on paper and at what range? If you are on paper at 25 yards and are shooting a group anywhere on the paper and cannot move the point of impact by adjusting your scope I would say that you are not making any mistakes and just have a scope problem.
Feel free to email me if you wish.
Regards
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top