How much reticle adjustment is too much?

[Longrifle2506]

I just sighted in my 25-06 with 100 grain barnes ttsx. Everything went well, the accuracy is 3/4moa from my sako 75 finnlight. But it was shooting in the dirt at first and I had to adjust 20 inches elevation. But thankfully I had enough adjustment to get a great 1-inch high zero at 135 yards. Do I really need to use a shim in this case? The erector tube is not close to being pressed against the outer wall. It is of course a little more to one side then the other. I believe the scope has 50 inches of adjustment if not more. We are talking about a Burris signature 3-12x50 made in 1994. It is an extremely accurate scope and it has helped me make some of the best shots in my life on prairie dogs. Is this asking too much of the springs or is it well within what it was made to do? Can I get some opinions here? I hate to take the scope out of the rings and shim it but if it is that important to have the erector tube centered then I am open to suggestions. Thanks in advance for anyone who helps out with my question. If it helps to know, this scope has two erector tube springs. When I look at the erector tube from the objective end, it doesn't even appear to be very far from the center. This scope may have more than 50 inches of adjustment. I just don't know for sure and I don't want to crank on it to find out because I love my zero right now.

 

[HuntFarther]

Most only screw with things when you don't like it or it don't work. Otherwise if you can live with what you have just leave it alone until something changes. Check a couple times when you are screwing around and make sure it is holding a zero. If it is you are fine, if not then you can start to worry. At least your mind will be at ease either way.

 

[deadidarren]

just put a 20 MOA rail on it prob solved

 

[cohunter14]

If it is adjusted more to one side then another, you will not get the full vertical adjustment out of it. A lot just depends on how far you plan on shooting with this rifle. What I would do is try to shoot at your max distance and see if you can get there with your current setup or if you run out of vertical adjustment. If you run out, just add a 10 or 20 MOA rail and call it good.

 

[Longrifle2506]

I ended up shimming the rear ring. Keep in mind these are ringmounts; no bases. But everything worked out perfectly. I only had to fire one shot today and thanks to noting my reticle location on the grid pattern before shimming the scope, It was dead on. I will include a couple pics.
http://s258.photobucket.com/user/wileykia2506/media/Mobile Uploads/image-1.jpg.html]

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To better explain things, I just drew myself a grid pattern and marked a little crosshair where my reticle was located on the boresighter grid; I took the scope out of the rings and shimmed the rear ring and then I put the scope back in the rings and torqued the screws Down(17-18 inch pounds). I used click adjustments to get my reticle to that exact same spot it was before on the boresighter grid. Thanks to the shims, i only needed 20 clicks to get my zero; where without the shims i needed 80 clicks. Then today I fired one shot and the target is pictured above. That is 135 yards and it is 1 inch high. It is pretty much a 200 yard zero and I am comfortable with it and I don't see any need to crank the adjustments at all with an impact that perfect. If I would have just put the scope back in and went back to shooting without using the grid to get me back to zero, it would have required several more rounds of ammo to get it to a satisfactory zero. Barnes vor-tx 25-06 ammo is over $2 per cartridge. I am very happy with the rifle now. the Barnes 100 grain TTSX is more accurate than 85 grain ballistic silvertips; at least out of my rifle.