scope alignment question

[WapitiBob]

This may be a dumb question but how do you ensure that the scope tube and rifle barrel are parallel to each other?
It would seem that you would need to shoot at close and far distances, tweaking the tube alignment to get it right, or maybe indicate the barrel and scope tube?
I am assuming you guys adjust the tube rather than just bolt the scope on and start screwing knobs...
I've seen the machine work on these guns and wouldn't trust that those mounting screws are in line.

 

[mt_archer]

If you use a good picatiny rail, front and rear rings should align fine. If you use two piece, especially with wind age adjustable rings, a steel lapping bar, or two piece alignment bar helps. Get things squared with those and scope will not get undo force. I have an old 722 action where I cannot use two piece bases, they just do not line up (tightening front ring lifted scope off back ring). I was able to mount one piece DNZ ring and base combo that fixed it. One other thing to do with wind age adjustable leupold rings is to center scope reticle in middle of adjustment range, and do bore sight adjustment with ring, then fine tune with turrets. Hope that addresses your question.

 

[shorty]

You are correct to be very suspicious of Barrel/Scope alignment! I put a Bench Source 20moa picatinny rail on my new Savage fcp-k and finally had to use Burris rings with inserts to get any left windage at all.

I'm using a Nikon Monarch 6.5-20 that I'd had for years and thought that might have been the problem, but the gunsmith said no. He said he'd had a lot of Remingtons as well as Savages coming in with the same problem. He said it was easily diagnosed with a collimator and easily adjusted for with most two piece rings and bases. I'm not complaining much because I've spent more on custom barrels than the entire gun cost, and I've been completely loving the accuracy.