Hello everyone,
Thanks again for all the help I have already received from this forum. I am almost over the hump with my firearm but while perusing the forums once again, I believe I may have made a mistake mounting my scope.
Just a little background, I started this build in November 2014 by purchasing a Savage 111 Trophy Hunter in 7mmRM as a package deal from Sportsman's Warehouse. I kept the action, trigger group, bolt for the build. Purchased a thumbhole from Boyds and had it glass and pillar bedded by a well respected local gunsmith. Procured a Criterion 26" light varmint tube with the recoil lug and barrel nut from Jim at Northland (who is awesome by the way). Nightforce 20MOA base, Vortex Precision Matched Rings, Vortex Viper 6-24 FFP, and finally new Magazine and etc straight from Savage to replace the plastic ookieness that came with the weapon.
I mounted the base rings and scope using the Wheeler Engineering scope mounting kit complete with levels, hone, torque wrench, etc. When I leveled my action I used the spirit level designed to sit on the inside of the receiver, resting on the rails for the bolt. I set my relief, leveled the optic by resting a spirit level on the top of the turret for elevation and felt pretty good about it. I have a Vortex anti cant bubble on the weapon also and leveled that along with the action level and the spirit level on the turret. I picked the weapon up and shouldered it and noticed the crosshairs appeared to be canted at least (what I approximated at ) 6 degrees. I looked up at my anti cant device and leveled the weapon according to its readings and the whole thing felt freaky weird.
After consulting with a couple of friends who have had success hunting up to 600 yards with their home built guns, I was advised they had used the bottom half of the scope rings to level the rifle and not the rails for the bolt on the inside of the receiver. SO... I took the scope off, used a spirit level rested on the bottom half of the mounted scope ring to level the rifle and mounted everything up from there. I also used a plumb line at a distance of approximately 20 meters to level my reticle during this second procedure. I took the rifle out and while breaking in the barrel I shot some pretty decent groups at 100 meters (MRAD scope).
This morning I was reading the forums again and read "Leveling the Scope Reticle for Long Range Rifles" by Bruce Winker. It appears I have attempted to align my reticle using Method 5 (page 2 of article) "Scope alignment to the top of receiver", and the method is a "poor choice for long range shooting." I believe I may have encountered a situation illustrated in Winker's article, Figure 1, A: example C. where my reticle appears misaligned.
I am getting ready to drive a couple of hours to a range where I can shoot my rifle out to a grand if I choose and after reading Winker's article I believe I will encounter some issues when shooting past my sight in distance.
Do any of you have experience with this same scenario? Do any other shooters use the Wheeler Engineering kit or should I purchase another tool to use to minimize my mistakes? What tool(s) do you guys recommend for me?
I hope to have some images up soon. I appreciate the info from this forum and look forward to hearing your input.
Thanks again for all the help I have already received from this forum. I am almost over the hump with my firearm but while perusing the forums once again, I believe I may have made a mistake mounting my scope.
Just a little background, I started this build in November 2014 by purchasing a Savage 111 Trophy Hunter in 7mmRM as a package deal from Sportsman's Warehouse. I kept the action, trigger group, bolt for the build. Purchased a thumbhole from Boyds and had it glass and pillar bedded by a well respected local gunsmith. Procured a Criterion 26" light varmint tube with the recoil lug and barrel nut from Jim at Northland (who is awesome by the way). Nightforce 20MOA base, Vortex Precision Matched Rings, Vortex Viper 6-24 FFP, and finally new Magazine and etc straight from Savage to replace the plastic ookieness that came with the weapon.
I mounted the base rings and scope using the Wheeler Engineering scope mounting kit complete with levels, hone, torque wrench, etc. When I leveled my action I used the spirit level designed to sit on the inside of the receiver, resting on the rails for the bolt. I set my relief, leveled the optic by resting a spirit level on the top of the turret for elevation and felt pretty good about it. I have a Vortex anti cant bubble on the weapon also and leveled that along with the action level and the spirit level on the turret. I picked the weapon up and shouldered it and noticed the crosshairs appeared to be canted at least (what I approximated at ) 6 degrees. I looked up at my anti cant device and leveled the weapon according to its readings and the whole thing felt freaky weird.
After consulting with a couple of friends who have had success hunting up to 600 yards with their home built guns, I was advised they had used the bottom half of the scope rings to level the rifle and not the rails for the bolt on the inside of the receiver. SO... I took the scope off, used a spirit level rested on the bottom half of the mounted scope ring to level the rifle and mounted everything up from there. I also used a plumb line at a distance of approximately 20 meters to level my reticle during this second procedure. I took the rifle out and while breaking in the barrel I shot some pretty decent groups at 100 meters (MRAD scope).
This morning I was reading the forums again and read "Leveling the Scope Reticle for Long Range Rifles" by Bruce Winker. It appears I have attempted to align my reticle using Method 5 (page 2 of article) "Scope alignment to the top of receiver", and the method is a "poor choice for long range shooting." I believe I may have encountered a situation illustrated in Winker's article, Figure 1, A: example C. where my reticle appears misaligned.
I am getting ready to drive a couple of hours to a range where I can shoot my rifle out to a grand if I choose and after reading Winker's article I believe I will encounter some issues when shooting past my sight in distance.
Do any of you have experience with this same scenario? Do any other shooters use the Wheeler Engineering kit or should I purchase another tool to use to minimize my mistakes? What tool(s) do you guys recommend for me?
I hope to have some images up soon. I appreciate the info from this forum and look forward to hearing your input.
