new scope question

ok all you snipers, expert marksmen, i have a scope question. i recently bought and replaced 2 scopes on my guns. i bought them at Cabelas for several reasons, gift cards, etc. they bore sited them supposedly. 1 was my 22 lever action browning. 8 shots that thing was zeroed in at 40 yards.

my issue is with my 30-06. its a vortex diamond back. i have 6 shots threw it at 50 yards and i an still about 8 inches low. i dialed the up/down at least a 1 1/2 revolutions up already to get to this point. i stopped at that point due to frustration and just needed a break, figure i got all summer.

so my question is this somewhat normal???? i’ve had this issue with another gun and scope and eventually got it sighted in. inquiring with others i’ve been told to take it to a real gunsmith and have them bore sight it, or the rings and mount could be to loose or to tight. i did not notice anything “loose” on the scope or mount! how many rotations to adjust does a scope usually have before something else has to be done??

thanks for any feedback. not looking for any Cabelas bashing! i know they’ve had there negative plublicity.

Before you fire another shot, bring it to a gunsmith to have them remount the scope/rings, level the scope to the rifle, and boresight.

I have had some that required that much adjustment to get them in and others that we only had to move a couple inches. It is possible that a better gunsmith could get it closer for you but you could adjust it until its close and see how much adjustment is left. That does sound like your pretty far off.

glenn57 wrote:

my issue is with my 30-06. its a vortex diamond back. i have 6 shots threw it at 50 yards and i an still about 8 inches low. i dialed the up/down at least a 1 1/2 revolutions up already to get to this point. i stopped at that point due to frustration and just needed a break, figure i got all summer.

There’s no way you should be that far off if they bore-sighted the scope after installation.

And even if they did, 8 inches low would equal 24 clicks of elevation assuming a 1/4 MOA indexing of the adjustment.

So if you turned the elevation adjustment a full 1.5 revolutions, you should have moved the POI way beyond where you needed to go and you should be shooting high pretty significantly.

Inspect the mounting job they did. Especially making sure the rings are exactly the same and that they didn’t somehow use 2 different rings. Also make sure the rings are correctly sitting on the mounts.

After that things get more interesting to diagnose.

Grouse

Thanks guys, think I’m going to do as some suggested and take it to a gunsmith.

Glenn, I was thinking about this and I have a new theory and something you can test.

My theory is that whomever at Cabelas did the boresighting, they didn’t change the collet of the boresight after they sighted your .22. The collet is what centers the boresight mechanism in the diameter of the barrel. Most boresights come with multiple collets for different barrel calibers.

So they sighted the .30 using the .22 collet and therefore the sighting was way, way off, but they adjusted the scope anyway, probably not realizing or understanding their mistake. So the scope is now way, way off as well.

To test this, turn your elevation adjustment and all the way toward low, AND COUNT THE CLICKS WHILE YOU DO THIS being careful to stop when you feel resistance. Again, be sure to count the clicks.

Now the tedious part. Count the clicks as you adjust the elevation all the way to the high stop.

Was the setting as you had it close to the center of the range of total clicks available? Or was the scope very close to bottomed out on the low elevation adjustment?

In general, if the scope was very low in the elevation adjustment, I’d suspect improper boresighting. If it was pretty well centered in the available range, I’d suspect faulty rings or scope.

WOW, thanks a bunch Grouse, thats alot of super good info i didnt know.!

i left the gun up at the cabin, and that info you just gave me has me more convinced willing to pay a good gunsmith to look it over and do it right!!!!!

after a certain amount of time i get frustrated and tend to maybe make things worse. i want this done correctly so …….

any ideas of a good gunsmith in the st cloud area????? i did a quick google search and di find a few.

depending on the rifle. Make sure the front and back rings didnt get flopped around.

Everyone should learn, and be proficient at mounting their own scopes. Its not difficult, however ive seen many a gun counter employee do it wrong or not take the correct steps.

All good info above. I lean toward 3 things to look at

1 bore sight was just that far off. Not t uncommon to get a scope out of the box that is turned way up or down for mOA. 8” feels like a mile when cranking the turret

2 mounts/rings are out of level. This can vary a lot pending on brand/type. OR the bases may be a mOA enhancement. Like a lift kit on a truck, there are base/ring kits that give you X amount of additional elevation for dialing in longer range targets. Some of them get a little tricky, especially the lower end type

3 bases are reversed if it’s a specific kit for leveling the contour of a rifle

Randy Wieland wrote:

All good info above. I lean toward 3 things to look at

1 bore sight was just that far off. Not t uncommon to get a scope out of the box that is turned way up or down for mOA. 8” feels like a mile when cranking the turret

2 mounts/rings are out of level. This can vary a lot pending on brand/type. OR the bases may be a mOA enhancement. Like a lift kit on a truck, there are base/ring kits that give you X amount of additional elevation for dialing in longer range targets. Some of them get a little tricky, especially the lower end type

3 bases are reversed if it’s a specific kit for leveling the contour of a rifle

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>glenn57 wrote:</div>
my issue is with my 30-06. its a vortex diamond back. i have 6 shots threw it at 50 yards and i an still about 8 inches low. i dialed the up/down at least a 1 1/2 revolutions up already to get to this point. i stopped at that point due to frustration and just needed a break, figure i got all summer.

There’s no way you should be that far off if they bore-sighted the scope after installation.

And even if they did, 8 inches low would equal 24 clicks of elevation assuming a 1/4 MOA indexing of the adjustment.

Since its 8 inches at 50 yards wouldn’t it be 48 clicks to adjust the true 8 inches?

Typically its going to be 1/4″ per click at 100 yards. so if you took the 8 inches x 4 its 32 clicks. Since the angular adjustment is greater at 50 yards than it is at 100 yards it should be double the 100 yard adjustment so should be 64 clicks to cover the 8 inches. The other way to look at it would be the amount you are off at 50 yards would be double that at 100 yards. So if you’re 8″ off at 50 you’d be 16″ off at 100. so I think it should be 16×4= 64 clicks to cover the 8″ spread.

In my experience if you just pull the bolt out (if 30-06 a bolt action) and visually bore sight it, meaning look down the bore and see where its pointing on your target, then adjust the scope so that it is aiming at that same spot you should be pretty darn close at that distance.

If youre having to dial a lot just to bore sight it the mount is likely off and youre not going to be able to dial much for distance if you need to in the future.

You haven’t said what the brand/model of 30.06 rifle it is. New or used?

guthook1 wrote:

You haven’t said what the brand/model of 30.06 rifle it is. New or used?

used Remington woodsmaster. I’ve had it 25 plus years.