Did my Millett let me down?

[ajhardle]

I recently mounted a millet trs scope on my savage model 12 .223. Everything looked good at a quick trip to the range, so it was off to the desert for long range work. I ran out of varget, only had 20 rounds loaded and i burned half sighting in and checking vertical tracking. Stupid me, I didn't check actual inches per click ( more in a minute). Made my calculations , 1084 yards according to my Bushnell Elite 1600, KAC bulletflight tells me 35.4 moa, and I had 35.5 available, no joke. Squeezed off a shot and it hit 3.5 mils low. mils not minutes. Alot of swear words were spoken. I thought maybe i mismeasured my powder, and the follow up shots confimed 3.5 mils low. I took the scope back to the 49 yards and shot 40 rounds of plinking ammo to confirm tracking. perfect squares up and down 35 moa and also left to right. They did measure about .96 inches for 4 clicks at a hundred yards (.48" at 49 yards), but that doesn't add up to a 12 ft miss. Is it possible that spinning my turrets to fast caused the reticle to not move for a certain rotation of the twist? Would this problem correct itself on the way back to zero?

thanks for making it through my ridiculously long post.

 

[bruce_ventura]

Hard to say without more info. What was your load: bullet, charge, muzzle velocity, etc.?

 

[true1911]

The last Millett I owned was about 5 years ago. It seemed okay for a lesser expensive scope but when it came to tracking it had a mind of its own. I would dial and it would shoot to the original point of impact. The next shot would go closer to where I dialed. It was like the shot was always playing catchup with the turret.

That doesn't sound like your problem. I also don't think the speed at which you turned the turret would matter. Have you chronographed your load? I would guess it has more to do with your load. Either your B.C. isn't quite as good as its supposed to be or your velocity isn't as fast. Could be some of both. Goodl Luck!

 

[ajhardle]

My ballistic calculations were good. I haven't changed load or rifle, just scope. 75 gr. amax, g7 b.c. of .218, veloctity e.s between 2879 and 2923, averaged 2890 and that is the figure i use. alt.=4300 temp=85. Bullets should have dropped about 402. By my calculations from measuring my vertical test, scope does not move 1/4 moa, but .242" clicks per inch at hundred yards, so i actually held over for something like 372". I should have missed by 30" not by 12ft. Scope made proper adjustment from zero to indicated 35 moa the next 8 tries (at closes range, but minutes are minutes at any range). But I took more care adjusting it these times, by not yanking full turns. Has anyone experienced this from yanking on turrets to reach adjustments in a hurry?

 

[green 788]

You know that 35 MOA at 50 yards is seventy (70) inches, right? Were you able to get the scope to dial 70 inches high from your 50 yard zero? And did you have a 50 yard zero programmed into your ballistics calculator? Most of the time you use a 100 yard zero...

assuming all that's well and good...

Since it did dial 35 MOA at 50 yards (again, 70 inches of movement from 50 yard zero) accurately on the box test you did after the fact, it sounds like the erector just snagged on something the first time you dialed to 1000 yards.

One thing you can do with some scopes that have glitchy travel like that is you can watch an episode or two of your favorite TV show and turn those turrets end to end over and over and over again... especially the elevation turret, of course, but work with the windage turret this way some too.

This will "burnish" in the contact points inside the scope, and hopefully get the erector movement to behave a little better in the future.

The Millett's seem to be pretty decent scopes for the money... but work it in a bit and see if it doesn't do better next trip to the range.

Dan

 

[ajhardle]

Thanks, green 788. I will try to work the turret to burnish conact points. I have to correct you though. 35 moa would be close to 70" at 200 yards. Using 1.047" at 100 yards, at 49 it is almost exactly 18". Mine were 16.5 to 17"s.
And I use a 100 yard zero. It was convenient to shoot a grid at that range, and because I used plinking ammo, the zero was almost the same as my load's 100 yard zero. It just happened to work out that way.

 

[green 788]

you're right... had an aneurism I reckon...

but do work the turret in to see if you can get the consistency established... I do with even with expensive scopes, and have had good luck with the practice on even 200 dollar scope (Bushnell 10x Elite in this case).

Dan

 

[Browninglover1]

Hope you get it figured out.

 

[bruce_ventura]

Ditto green 788. I fixed at Bushnell 10X40 by running the turrets limit to limit - after it stopped tracking properly.