Sighting in my gun HELP

[mike diesel]

Took my .338 lapua out for the first time this last weekend. I bore sighted it to get my scope as close as possible and yada yada...everything looked perfect. Shooting at a normal paper target at 100 yards, took my first shot...not even on the paper. My spotter said I was about 3 feet to high!!

Scope is a Vortex Viper PST 6x24-50 MRAD with a first focal plane reticle. After making ALOT of elevation adjustments and about 12 shots later, I finally got a bullet to hit the paper. Yea there went about $50 worth of ammo. But anyways I'm still way off. After a few more adjustments and shots I got it pretty close but soon found out I had bottomed out the reticle and had no more adjustment. Windage was perfect but I was still having to aim the gun 11 inches low to hit my bullseye.

The gun is a savage 110BA .338 lapua with a 26 inch 1:9 twist barrel. Read a little online and people seem to say it shoots high..but running out of adjustments on the scope just to sight it in at 100 yards is rediculous...right??

If you look closely on the upper elevation marks, I had to be on 3 to hit my target with the scope maxed out in travel in that direction. I can't even "0" it out at 100 yards.

Scope is mounted on the factory rail that came with the gun.

You can see the windage is fine but the elevation is maxed out.

After getting it as good as I could, and lining my target up on the #3 upper crosshair I could group this pattern. I took 4 shots...making 3 holes. Confirmed 1 bullet went through an already existing hole. I would say the gun is very accurate, but how in the world do I get my scope zeroed out in the middle of its travel??

 

[drhoyt]

not sure but would a 20moa base help or I think they even make up to a 40 moa

 

[mike diesel]

Raising the scope would make it worse. The instructions with the scope didn't say anything about how to correct this but they said to use the lowest base as possible. The lower the better. But even if I had the scope touching the barrel I would still be maxed out in elevation adjustments and would probably only drop me 1 MRAD compared to where its at now.

I'm no scope expert obviously so if I'm going about this all wrong, please let me know.

 

[mike diesel]

Ok wait, I rethought the taller mounting options and I believe raising the scope would help correct this issue, not make it worse..right?

 

[blue8135]

Will be most accurate with the scope as close to bore as possible. It's possible that it may have a base for long range shooting. Can the base be changed out?

 

[SgtKilroy]

What angle is the scope base? Try taking the base off and turning it around. If it's a zero MOA base try a 20 MOA base. Just make sure the rear of the base is the highest part relative to the center line of bore.

 

[Osubeaver]

I'm not familiar with the Vortex scopes, but I believe it has a "zero stop" type of feature where you basically set the mechanical bottom of turret rotation to your zero (or slightly above) so when you dial to zero you are at zero and don't have to worry about what rotation you're on since it's a hard stop. Is it adjusted correctly? In other words, is the scope out of mechanical travel, or is the turret just keeping you from dialing down to where you need to be?

 

[mike diesel]

^^^ yes it has a zero stop but the instructions say differently than what you just said. Once you get your zero set up, then you pull the turret cap off and shim the turret so it cant physically turn any further except for maybe 1 or 2 clicks. So I believe the turret it physically at it maximum travel right now...but I will deffinately check it out just to verify.

The mount can be removed but cannot be turned around as it is the big square rail sort of thing. How it is mounted right now is its only option. Which honestly right now is probably a 20 moa mount. I will look into a new potential long rang base. Thanks for the help so far!

 

[Osubeaver]

^^^ yes it has a zero stop but the instructions say differently than what you just said. Once you get your zero set up, then you pull the turret cap off and shim the turret so it cant physically turn any further except for maybe 1 or 2 clicks. So I believe the turret it physically at it maximum travel right now...but I will deffinately check it out just to verify.

Maybe I didn't explain properly, but that's exactly what I was trying to get across. We're on the same page.

You could count clicks to the max travel in the other direction from where it is now and that will tell you if you are out of mechanical travel of the reticle.

And I just looked it up, and if the link I looked at is right, you already have a 20 moa base on the gun. That means the scope points down from parallel with the bore so it moves your zero closer to the bottom of the scope travel to give you more "up" elevation.

 

[blue8135]

Seems that base is a long range base. 11" high at 100, is what? 500+ yd zero? with scope bottomed out. Need a standard base if you're looking for a 100 yard zero.

 

[Osubeaver]

Seems kinda weird to be bottomed out. That scope has 19 mils of elevation adjustment (65 MOA). Even if the base is 20 moa, that "should" leave some before it bottoms out I would think.

 

[mike diesel]

I would think that as well that's why I'm confused as to what I need to do to figure this out.

 

[SgtKilroy]

The other thing you could try is actually take a torque wrench to your scope rings. They should be tight and even. A couple in/lbs too loose in the front and you can be way too high down range.

 

[mike diesel]

The other thing you could try is actually take a torque wrench to your scope rings. They should be tight and even. A couple in/lbs too loose in the front and you can be way too high down range.

That's a pretty good idea. I will have to snag the inch pound screw driver from my work and give it a shot.

I guess my last resort is that I buy a bull nose end mill with the same radius as the barrel and put the mount in my mill and taper the mount a few thousandths to make up for it. That will probably end up being what I have to do but I will try any other suggestions first.

 

[Utahski]

Ok wait, I rethought the taller mounting options and I believe raising the scope would help correct this issue, not make it worse..right?

Raising the scope doesn't hurt a thing. Scope height has no bearing on accuracy. Line of sight has to work with your cheek weld, scope height will be what it is. Obviously the bell has to be clear of the barrel.

Being completely maxed out on the scope adjustment isn't good. At 100yds I'll preferably be a couple inches below center of mechanical scope elevation. Then be centered at whatever is zero.....200, 300, etc. Burris Signature rings will solve your problems.

 

[Subman]

Ever stop to think that there may be something wrong with the scope?

 

[mike diesel]

Ever stop to think that there may be something wrong with the scope?

Could be...but i highly doubt it.

 

[mike diesel]

Here's a little update for everyone.

I made these little H shaped shims out of aluminum to raise up the from of my scope mount rail. It is a solid rail so I wasn't hesitant to do it. I wouldn't have done it this way if it wasn't a solid full length rail. Shimmed it between the 2 front mounting screws and ended up making .024 worth of shims.

Got all the shims put in and everything buttoned back up. Scored some powder and snagged a bunch of 300gr sierra match king HPBT bullets to compliment the 94gr of retumbo powder. Loaded up 80 rounds to ad to my previous others.

First shot of the day on this 5"x10" ¾" thick steel plate with a cold bore without doing any new sighting in for the added shims @ 100 yards I was aiming for the gray dot in the middle of the plate. It hit the very far bottom left corner. Stoked as all hell at this point hitting the target first shot, I made some windage adjustments 1 full MRAD to the right and put the reticle right back on the gray dot. 2nd shot @ 100 yards dead center hit!

Don't mind the 7.62x39 and .223 splats on there.

SUPER HAPPY!! this gun seems to really like full bore loads with that retumbo powder and the 300gr SMK's. Was dead on every single shot. Let my brother and cousin let loose with the lapua and they had never touched the gun or had a feel for it and both of them hit bullseyes first shot.

At 100 yards the lapua just about punches through the ¾" plate. I put another bullet right in the center of the plate where the 2nd shot had already hit. It punched through the remaining steel, the weld and the bar the plate is welded to. Can't really tell in the pic but you can put your finger through the hole right above where the pipe is welded onto.

Big bubbles on the back side. LOVE IT!

 

[TexasRob]

I dont know about your scope but I know that on my Leapold you can use a small flat tip to take the elevation and windage knobs off and there is an adjustment under the knobs for zero. You adjust these until you find a good zero and put the caps back on.

 

[TexasRob]

if you find this is the case with your scope make sure when you put the caps back on they are set at zero.