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The Basics, Starting Out
Scope issues....help
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<blockquote data-quote="westcliffe01" data-source="post: 791337" data-attributes="member: 35183"><p>I always do a "dry fit" of the rail, scope and rings before going the whole 9 yards and loctiting the base to the receiver and then re-installing the rings and scope.</p><p></p><p>The thing is that you have now cranked the turrets to their limit and before you do anything else you need to re-center the turrets.</p><p></p><p>With that done, now do a simple bore sighting. Put the rifle in a gun vice or set it on your shooting rest system and shim it so that it it pointing at a clearly identifiable target at about 25 yards. If you can do it at 50, even better, but some people like myself have a tough time seeing anything clearly through the bore at 50 yards. Make sure when pointing the rifle that you are sighting through the center of the bore, ignore the scope for the moment. Get it lined up as best you can. I like to use one of my sighting targets which has a 1" diameter black circle on a white background.</p><p></p><p>Now look through the scope with all the movements centered. How far is the scope misaligned with what is seen through the bore ? If you are off more than 2-3 inches at 25 yards there is a serious problem with the rail to receiver fitup. 2" at 25 yards would be 8" at 100 yards and that is quite a bit. 3" at 25 is 12" at 100 so off by more than the width of a sheet of paper. Check this vertically and horizontally.</p><p></p><p>Most of the time, if you are out more than 3" and you are sure that the scope movements are centered (they usually leave the factory that way), then the underside of the rail may be machined skew, the holes in the rail or receiver may be out of place or the left and right side of the picatinny V section may be mismatched.</p><p></p><p>A few more things to check: Is the orientation of the front and back ring the same ? Take the rings off and mount them on the same tube of the scope next to each other and look if you see any height difference at the base when tightened hand tight ?</p><p></p><p>Look again at the fit between the the base and the receiver. Does it look the same front and back ? Is there any mismatch in curvature ?</p><p></p><p>Take the receiver out the stock and set it up so that the action is on its side with the ejection port facing down. Shim it so that a level placed lengthwise on the action shows that it is level. Now place the same level on the edge of the rail. Is it still level ? If not, it is off side to side. Rotate the action so that the rail is uppermost. Place a level against the bottom of the action bridging the magazine port and get it level. Now transfer the level to the top of the rail. Is it level ? If it is a 20MOA rail the front of the rail should be less than 1/2 a degree lower than the back. That is a very small amount. The front of the rail should not be higher than the back.</p><p></p><p>These are checks that just about anyone can do at home with the most basic equipment. The time to verify that things are lining up is before you head out to the range or even before you torque everything down. If it does not line up when hand tight, wrenching on it is not going to improve it.</p><p></p><p>Take a look at your rail where the holes are countersunk in the top. When you look down the hole, how much material is left at the bottom of the counterbore ? I have seen rails where the counterbore goes to within 0.010" of the bottom of the rail, so the bolt is just holding a wafer thin bit of material under it.</p><p></p><p>I have so far never had a receiver that was off, although I have heard of it on the savage forum. It seems that more often that not the action screws on the bottom were off so the entire receiver was rotated in the stock. I have had rails that didn't match the receiver and made poor contact and I have had the paper thin ones at the counter bores for the screws. All of these issues with aluminum rails. Never with a steel one. It seems that few manufacturers make steel one piece rails and they seem a bit more concerned about quality if they do make them. I switched to only Warne steel bases and rings and while the bases costs about double compared to an EGW, I have never had an issue. None of my scopes has needed more than a few minutes of correction when setting them up.</p><p></p><p>Do a few checks and get back to us on what you find. It would be pretty bad if the outcome of all of the recent zeroing issues is that Savage can no longer drill the holes straight into their receiver... Expensive for them to fix too.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="westcliffe01, post: 791337, member: 35183"] I always do a "dry fit" of the rail, scope and rings before going the whole 9 yards and loctiting the base to the receiver and then re-installing the rings and scope. The thing is that you have now cranked the turrets to their limit and before you do anything else you need to re-center the turrets. With that done, now do a simple bore sighting. Put the rifle in a gun vice or set it on your shooting rest system and shim it so that it it pointing at a clearly identifiable target at about 25 yards. If you can do it at 50, even better, but some people like myself have a tough time seeing anything clearly through the bore at 50 yards. Make sure when pointing the rifle that you are sighting through the center of the bore, ignore the scope for the moment. Get it lined up as best you can. I like to use one of my sighting targets which has a 1" diameter black circle on a white background. Now look through the scope with all the movements centered. How far is the scope misaligned with what is seen through the bore ? If you are off more than 2-3 inches at 25 yards there is a serious problem with the rail to receiver fitup. 2" at 25 yards would be 8" at 100 yards and that is quite a bit. 3" at 25 is 12" at 100 so off by more than the width of a sheet of paper. Check this vertically and horizontally. Most of the time, if you are out more than 3" and you are sure that the scope movements are centered (they usually leave the factory that way), then the underside of the rail may be machined skew, the holes in the rail or receiver may be out of place or the left and right side of the picatinny V section may be mismatched. A few more things to check: Is the orientation of the front and back ring the same ? Take the rings off and mount them on the same tube of the scope next to each other and look if you see any height difference at the base when tightened hand tight ? Look again at the fit between the the base and the receiver. Does it look the same front and back ? Is there any mismatch in curvature ? Take the receiver out the stock and set it up so that the action is on its side with the ejection port facing down. Shim it so that a level placed lengthwise on the action shows that it is level. Now place the same level on the edge of the rail. Is it still level ? If not, it is off side to side. Rotate the action so that the rail is uppermost. Place a level against the bottom of the action bridging the magazine port and get it level. Now transfer the level to the top of the rail. Is it level ? If it is a 20MOA rail the front of the rail should be less than 1/2 a degree lower than the back. That is a very small amount. The front of the rail should not be higher than the back. These are checks that just about anyone can do at home with the most basic equipment. The time to verify that things are lining up is before you head out to the range or even before you torque everything down. If it does not line up when hand tight, wrenching on it is not going to improve it. Take a look at your rail where the holes are countersunk in the top. When you look down the hole, how much material is left at the bottom of the counterbore ? I have seen rails where the counterbore goes to within 0.010" of the bottom of the rail, so the bolt is just holding a wafer thin bit of material under it. I have so far never had a receiver that was off, although I have heard of it on the savage forum. It seems that more often that not the action screws on the bottom were off so the entire receiver was rotated in the stock. I have had rails that didn't match the receiver and made poor contact and I have had the paper thin ones at the counter bores for the screws. All of these issues with aluminum rails. Never with a steel one. It seems that few manufacturers make steel one piece rails and they seem a bit more concerned about quality if they do make them. I switched to only Warne steel bases and rings and while the bases costs about double compared to an EGW, I have never had an issue. None of my scopes has needed more than a few minutes of correction when setting them up. Do a few checks and get back to us on what you find. It would be pretty bad if the outcome of all of the recent zeroing issues is that Savage can no longer drill the holes straight into their receiver... Expensive for them to fix too. [/QUOTE]
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