signature ring problem

[cdog]

Hello all. This afternoon I mounted my 8x32 burris on my savage with the 30mm burris signature rings and the dovetail bases. Knowing my 223 has a bunch of drop at 600 yards and beyond I planned to use the +10 insert in the rear and the -10 insert in the front.
The problem was it took these inserts and a .011" shim behind the rear base just to get the scope zeroed on the bushnell bore sighter!?! The windage was not far off at all.
This was after I tried the "0" inserts and found the crosshairs about 12" high according to the boresighter.
Any ides as to what is going on would be very helpfull as I am kind confused at the moment. Could things have been this far off or should I be looking for another problem? I also swapped base locations thinking this could be the culprit but the change was very slight. Any ideas?? Thanks,

Cdog.

 

[goodgrouper]

Has the action been blueprinted? If not, your barrel could possibly be out of alignment with the centerline of the receiver. Or the top of the action could be machined wrong. It is actually fairly common.

 

[Fiftydriver]

Cdog,

Goodgrouper has asked good questions already and that may be the issue at hand. Have you used this rifle with a different mounting system with no problems?

I have seen several Savage receivers that had the rear mount location dramatically lower then it should be. In fact I see this enough not that I check every one that comes in. The easiest way is to put on a one piece base and just snug down the front two base screws and look at the clearance if any between the rear of the base and the receiver.

If there is any significant daylight between them, you should really shim the rear of the base. I have seen many Savage receivers that needed a 10 thou shim and a couple that needed 20 thou and one that even needed a 30 thou shim.

You can order shims from Brownells that are in uniform thicknesses and make this job much easier and higher quality then most other types of home made shims.

I had a personal Savage M111 receiver that I made into my lightweight 270 AM rifle. The rifle was amazingly accurate, still is, but I needed 30 thou of shim to support the rear of the base between the receiver. You can imagine the issues that you would have if you just torqued down the rear of the mount and dropped the rear of the scope 30 thou below the front!!

This is not uncommon and easily fixed, just get a thicker rear shim. To be honest, I would put the "0" inserts back in and play with the shims under the rear of the base until you get the scope level and then you can use the inserts for more moas if you want.

Good Shooting!!

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[cdog]

Thanks so much for the replies guys! I was really second guessing myself because I could not accept that the reciever could be the culprit. Most generally with these dilemas, I'm the one at fault! But .030" could easily do what I'm talking about, just can't beleive it!!! It kind of makes me wonder how well alligned things are inside!
At any rate I certainly will check this out tonite and get back with an update soon. .030"!!,lol, thanks again,

Cdog.