Elevation problems!

[LaHunter]

Hi everyone! Was wondering if anyone has had issues with elevation while shooting in normal conditions? I am shooting a browning 7mm A Bolt with a straight 6x Leupold fx3 gold ring scope that has a 1/8 minute target dot and 1/8 minute adjustments. So here's what happened, while hunting antelope in eastern Montana taking easy shots at 200, 250, 500, 550, and 600 yards which I am experiencing in all. I shot just over the backs of the 200 and 250 antelope, then the 5-600 yard shots were at minimum of 5 feet under while compensating with each shot. I am at a loss and going home meatless due to an issue I've never experienced.

This is not elevation related, as has been stated. There is not enough POI change from SL to 10,000 ASL at 200-250 to make you miss. Its less than 1" for my 7 mag with a 200 yard zero. If you are just 'holding over' for 500+ yard shots, in my opinion you are asking for missing and wounding shots. 500 and beyond, you need to be dialing (with a scope made for dialing), or have a good 'holdover' reticle that you have verified. Also, it would be a good idea to get a ballistic app on you phone. These are really valuable tools for shooting 500 yards and beyond.

 

[Mram10us]

I'm not sure if this will help but don't forget that you need to adjust for the ambient temperature outside. If you zero in mild weather and shoot in cold weather, you lose elevation at the rate of about one MOA per 20 degree drop in temp. and the opposite if you zero in cold weather and hunt in mild or warm weather. Also, your actual elevation as it relates to sea level. Rule of thumb is one MOA per 5000 feet of elevation change. I zero at close to sea level in mile temp. but hunt between 6,000 and 10,000 feet elevation in cold weather. The two issues usually cancel each other out for me along with the modern ballistics of the Berger bullet reduce the impact of these rules of thumb. This along with other factors could be contributing to your issue if you don't have any mechanical issues with your equipment.

1 moa per 20deg at what range? Shooter tells me about 2.5" at 1000yds per 20 deg. Don't blame vortex just yet. Sometimes we screw things up, aka, not mounting them correctly and allowing them to loosen (ask me how I know). Not a lot can go wrong with a duplex. Most turret type scopes that get repaired at vortex are due to people overtightening the rings and breaking internal stuff.

 

[436]

Hi everyone! Was wondering if anyone has had issues with elevation while shooting in normal conditions? I am shooting a browning 7mm A Bolt with a straight 6x Leupold fx3 gold ring scope that has a 1/8 minute target dot and 1/8 minute adjustments. So here's what happened, while hunting antelope in eastern Montana taking easy shots at 200, 250, 500, 550, and 600 yards which I am experiencing in all. I shot just over the backs of the 200 and 250 antelope, then the 5-600 yard shots were at minimum of 5 feet under while compensating with each shot. I am at a loss and going home meatless due to an issue I've never experienced.

Perhaps someone already asked I didn't read them all; are you shooting up or down angles? I've used Leupold 6x42mm scopes for many years clear back when they were called the M8 6x42mm scopes never had a problem with them they were well worth the money all the way around, so like others, I would suspect it might be the mounts or rings or perhaps the reticle is movement. The old ones were friction adjustments which I liked, especially with Leupolds Std mount/rings with windage.

 

[emp1953]

If it is the scope that milo-2 quoted in his post the I agree that it does not at all lend itself to scope doping. If you were holding over the dangers of parallax errors are all to common. Whenever I put a new scope on a rifle, after I'm zeroed and getting a good group I test to see if the scope tracks. I do this at 100yds on targets with 1 inch grid marks. I'll take a lower left target on the paper and click 8 clicks up. fire. make sure that the hole is 2 blocks high (if I have a 1/4in or 1/4 MOA adjustment) then I take the upper left target and dial 16 clicks down and fire. Make sure that the hole is 2 blocks below the target. dial it back 8 clicks and fire and make sure the hole is in the black. Then I'll shoot at the center target one shot in the black. Click left 8 clicks, fire, make sure the hole is 2 squares left of the black. 8 clicks down, fire, make sure the hole is two squares down. Click right 8 clicks, fire, make sure the hole is 2 squares right, click up 8 clicks, fire and you should be back where you started. Doing this you effectively transversed the 4 corners of a square and came back to zero. I had a new Leupold vx freedom 1.5x5 that wouldn't track. Sent it right back to Leupold, they sent me a new scope in 10 days. If a scope won't track, I don't want it on my rifle. Back to your misses on the longer shots. Do you recall if there was an heat waves coming up off the ground. There's no way to dope for that condition because it is changing every second.