Tell me why I'm an Idiot

[treillw]

I sent my .243 out to get trigger work done and I had to remove the scope. I got it back, everything works great with the trigger. My dad and I remount the scope last Friday and I took it out and tried to sight it in. So I'm sighting it in and everything is going well, the scope is tracking well and I keep getting closer to the dot. Then I run out of elevation adjustment on the scope. So I think that it's a leupold that he had for 30 years, it mustn't have much adjustment in it. He has a few new ones laying around, so I just decided to try one of those for a quick fix, because I want to get a new scope for it soon.

Today I mounted the new scope. I take it out to the range, tracking perfect, hits the bulls eye at 30 yards. I move the target out 10 yards and it's 1.5 inches high. Move it out ~10 more yards and its 2.5 inches high. I'm thinking this is crazy. I put it out to 100 yards and it's 8 inches high. I don't believe it and shoot again and the second hole is .75" away from the first.

What do I have setup wrong? I'm 99% sure it's not my hand loads. The scope is tracking right and I shot that .75" group at 100 yards, so everything must be tight. I'm not dialing anything with adjustable turrets, so it doesn't matter if it's not perfectly level - right??

Everything is exactly the same as it was before I took it apart - same rings, same bases, I did not remove the bases. The only thing that could have changed would be if I swapped the front and rear top half of the ring when I remounted it, but that shouldn't make a difference anyway??

I'm sure somebody can help me figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Today I mounted the new scope. I take it out to the range, tracking perfect, hits the bulls eye at 30 yards. I move the target out 10 yards and it's 1.5 inches high. Move it out ~10 more yards and its 2.5 inches high. I'm thinking this is crazy. I put it out to 100 yards and it's 8 inches high. I don't believe it and shoot again and the second hole is .75" away from the first.

What do I have setup wrong? I'm 99% sure it's not my hand loads. The scope is tracking right and I shot that .75" group at 100 yards, so everything must be tight. I'm not dialing anything with adjustable turrets, so it doesn't matter if it's not perfectly level - right??

I'm sure somebody can help me figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks.

8" seems a bit excessive... However, bullets rise as they leave the muzzle on their arc. At 30 yards, your POI is lower than it is at 100 yards, because the bullet has not reached its arcing point.

Example, if I sight my 7mmRM in at 30 yards, dead center...My bullet doesn't reach it's arcing point until between 125-150 yards. At 100 yards, it's 2.1" high. It hits dead-zero at both 30 yards, and 250 yards without having to touch the turret, because the bullet has finally arc'd and dropped back into the same elevation at 250 yards, as it was at 30 yards.

I have a buddy who's an engineer, who uses a 25 yards sight-in on his .243 deer rifle for this exact reason. Because between 0 and (whatever his secondary zero is), his rifle will hit within a couple inches of where he aims.

 

[treillw]

8" seems a bit excessive... However, bullets rise as they leave the muzzle on their arc. At 30 yards, your POI is lower than it is at 100 yards, because the bullet has not reached its arcing point.

Example, if I sight my 7mmRM in at 30 yards, dead center...My bullet doesn't reach it's arcing point until between 125-150 yards. At 100 yards, it's 2.1" high. It hits dead-zero at both 30 yards, and 250 yards without having to touch the turret, because the bullet has finally arc'd and dropped back into the same elevation at 250 yards, as it was at 30 yards.

I have a buddy who's an engineer, who uses a 25 yards sight-in on his .243 deer rifle for this exact reason. Because between 0 and (whatever his secondary zero is), his rifle will hit within a couple inches of where he aims.

Hornady's website says a .243 is supposed to rise ~2" from 0 to 200 yards. Something is definitely off.

 

[Capt RB]

dial the scope to shoot dead on at 100 yds. Reshoot your close range targets and record it. By dialing dead on at 20 or 30 yds you've over compensated for the load. The 0-200 yds is the point blank meaning the bullet will hit within x inches from 0-200yds. It does not mean it will hit the x at all the different yardages from 0-200yds

 

[just country]

morning, did u torque the mounting screws? u r supposed to tighten all mounting

screws equally. what make rifle is this? on ruger m77's a person is supposed to

tighten the front screw first, torque. tighten the back screw and torque.

do not get annoyed. think everthing thru. u did not touched the bases. some rifles

have a different mount for the front mounting ring. 1 is higher than the other. as far

as the elevation of the scope. use a boresigther to zero the hairs in the scope. this

will normally give u a hit the target shot. take the rifle to the range. sight at 25yrs.

zero the cross hairs. move to 50yrs. shoot the rifle 2 shots. zero cross hairs.

more to a 100yds. shoot 2 shots. then correct. what is the power of ur scope? u can

not shoot what u can not see. mudrunner was right on in the sighting!! Contact

Russo is a very good rifle builder, see if he can help u.

I have a new 340 weatherby accu-mark. shoots .500 groups constantly.

Problem is the rifle shoots 3" low with the scope elevation maxed out.

I loosened the scope. put 2 .020 shims under the scope on the frnt ring.

shot again came to zero. took out .020 shims put in .045 shims. tightened.

plenty of height adjustment. the bases r warne steel, rings r high warne steel.

used aluminum beer can for shims.

u can correct this problem with knowledge u will find on this site. go to the search

mode. put in ur question. u will gain much knowledge!!lightbulb

 

[KillerBee]

You are not an idiot sir.

 

[ShootnMathews]

Maybe this is a silly question, but if it shot a 3/4" group 8" high at 100 yards, why not just adjust it down 32 clicks and shoot another group????

The clicks up close don't mean much but way out there could make a big difference. If your scope sits high up, like in high rings or see thru mounts I can definitely see it shooting 8" high at 100. Just adjust it down and "line it up" at 100.

I checked the numbers on one of my guns and if it's 1/2" high at 30 yards it's 6.5" high at 100. So it's certainly possible. I'd try lining it up at 100 before deciding something is wrong.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Maybe this is a silly question, but if it shot a 3/4" group 8" high at 100 yards, why not just adjust it down 32 clicks and shoot another group????

The clicks up close don't mean much but way out there could make a big difference. If your scope sits high up, like in high rings or see thru mounts I can definitely see it shooting 8" high at 100. Just adjust it down and "line it up" at 100.

I checked the numbers on one of my guns and if it's 1/2" high at 30 yards it's 6.5" high at 100. So it's certainly possible. I'd try lining it up at 100 before deciding something is wrong.

Yep. You are over thinking this. How far do you generally shoot? Sight in your normal zero. Then shoot the longer ranges. How much did you move the scope to get it to hit the 30y target? The only time I shoot a close target is if for some reason I can not get the bore sighting to work out longer. I shorten the distance just to get it on paper. Make adjustment so it will hit paper out farther. Then zero it.

Steve

 

[westcliffe01]

I have "bore sighted" (remove bolt and center target in barrel) out to 160 yards. I have no idea why anyone would want to sight at 30 yards except to verify that one is on paper. A small error at a short distance is magnified a lot when you get out to 100 or 200 yards. I tend to zero at 160 yards and verify at 320. The only thing to watch for is wind effect at 320, but the effect is very minor at 160. It pays to sight in at the longest feasible distance you have available. You will find you have no issue at all at being accurate at shorter distances. But the opposite scenario is not true.

 

[treillw]

Yep. You are over thinking this. How far do you generally shoot? Sight in your normal zero. Then shoot the longer ranges. How much did you move the scope to get it to hit the 30y target? The only time I shoot a close target is if for some reason I can not get the bore sighting to work out longer. I shorten the distance just to get it on paper. Make adjustment so it will hit paper out farther. Then zero it.

Steve

I wanted to have the gun be dead on at 50 yards - I've been doing a lot of fox hunting and that's roughly the range I can see in the woods at night. Their bodies are small and don't offer too much room for error. So I wasn't really concerned about 100 yards at this time.

I thought to change it to hit right at 100 yards, but I thought wouldn't it then be 8" low at close range? I think I see what's happening. The 8" isn't a constant. It's more linear (actually parabolic). Moral of the story: Sight it in to be closer at 100 yards and then go back to 50 yards and tweak it. Agreed?

Thanks!

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I wanted to have the gun be dead on at 50 yards - I've been doing a lot of fox hunting and that's roughly the range I can see in the woods at night. Their bodies are small and don't offer too much room for error. So I wasn't really concerned about 100 yards at this time.

I thought to change it to hit right at 100 yards, but I thought wouldn't it then be 8" low at close range? I think I see what's happening. The 8" isn't a constant. It's more linear (actually parabolic). Moral of the story: Sight it in to be closer at 100 yards and then go back to 50 yards and tweak it. Agreed?

Thanks!

Sight in at 100y and I am sure you will be inside 2" at 50y. If you move the impact at 50y 2" that will translate into roughly 4" at 100y. It takes a lot more scope movement at close yards to move bullet impact than at 100y. If your scope is moa 4 clicks at 100y is roughly 1". 4 clicks at 200y is roughly 2" and 3" at 300y. I think you will be best off zeroed at 100y.

Steve

 

[ShootnMathews]

You are way overthinking this. If you want it to hit dead on at 50 yards then adjust the scope so it's hitting dead on at 50 yards. It's that simple. Myself, I'd have it zeroed at 100 and take a few practice shots to see where it hits at 50. Then if I felt like it needed adjusted down some I would. Or zero it at 75 yards and you'd be good from 0 to 125 or so with still holding dead on those little critters.


BTW I have my critter gun sighted at 100 and I have no problem hitting foxes closer. I have a fox infestation here and they are constantly eating my chickens. I shot 9 foxes and a coyote last year around my yard. The last one was a fox pup at about 50 yards and still had no trouble nearly blowing it in half with a varmint bullet.

 

[el matador]

Sight in at 100 yards. Your bullet will hit within an inch of where you're aiming from 25 to 150 yards. All of the foxes I've seen, without exception, have been larger than one inch.

 

[Cuda]

First make sure the front base is not on the recoil lug! That can drive guys crazy getting the gun set up. Make sure the front base screw is holding the base tight you might have to cut it down so you do not mess up the barrel threads. You can shim it up or cut the screw. Inside the little white security things stores use are little strips of metal and they are .001" thick. You can use them for many things like under a base or inside a ring to help bite onto a scope that slips. Or any small shim job you can think of.