Went to sight in a .270 today, scope would not adjust high enough to hit where i wanted it to. I maxed it out completely and it still just hits about 10 inches low. The scope is an older Leupold Vari-x II.

The scope was previously mounted onto an AR-15 and the scope sat on top of the carry handle of the AR.

Can anyone tell me what I need to do? I know there has to be a fix to this. I know it wasnt the .270 shooting low because I also mounted the scope on a 30-06 and it did the same thing.

Any help will be appericated.

When you turned the elevation adjustment before it topped out, did the point of impact move as you would expect?

Sounds like one I mounted on a friends rifle last week. I had to add a shim to get it to line up. Do a web search and you can find some good infornation on how to shim a scope.

" I know it wasnt the .270 shooting low because I also mounted the scope on a 30-06 and it did the same thing."

In that case it could be the scope. From a bench or vise how mych travel does the scope have?

When Shimming I prefer to shim it so the scope is close to center range of That or you could try another scope.

Try this with scop, if you have a bore sighter check the range the cross hares move when adjusting it from one end of adjstment to the other. If no bore sighter can do this with it stable in sand bags or vise type rest.

Call Leupold.Good people there, Over the years I have sent two back 1 was fixed for Free, The other was Replaced with a "new" comparable scope Free. If anything at all they will offer you discount Pricing on a new one. Good luck

are the rings/bases been used succesfully on that rifle before?

Sounds like a problem with the bases...possibly mis-matched or something.

Easiest fix is to shim the scope. Use slices from an aluminum beer can. Place the "shims" under the scope at the front ring.

Also, center the reticule before doing this so you have plenty of adjustment. To center it max it out to the top and then turn it down, counting turns as you go. The turn it back up half as many turns. In other words, from the top maxed out position turn it down to bottom max position but count the number of turns as you go. Then come back up half as many turns. Should be centered.

Now you're ready to shim it. Remove the bolt and place the rifle in a steady position with a target at approximately 25 yards. Look through the barrel and align it to the target. Now shim the scope until the barrel and scope are both lined up to the target. Tighten the scope down and zero.

What height rings are you using? Ideally, you want the scope to sit as close to the bore of the rifle as possible.

Easiest thing to do is to get a set of Burris Signature rings with the interchangeable plastic inserts that allow for elevation adjustments. And, no ring marks.

Nope. I did not understand why either.

Yes. But even still, the scope did the same thing on two different rifles. So I don't think its the mount set up.

I'm using Weaver mounts and Weaver detachable rings. medium hight

First, was everything tight/evenly torqued?

Second, did it bore sight properly before shooting?

When boresighting, did the cross hairs move correctly or reversely when tested?

When adjusting, were the adjustments working in the correct direction or backwards?

These are questions I'd want answered before I started shimming or anything else.

Crank it all the way down---tap the elevation turret sharpley with the handle of a screwdriver (dont damage your turret) Put your boresighter back on and watch the crosshair as you adjust...Remember, your boresighter is backwards as you look thru your scope so the further you go ABOVE the center line you are actually lowering you POI...
I had a Leupold that did the same thing..this worked for me, dont know if it will help your situation---you may have more internal problem with the scope....

Could be the bases, had a problem similar to this and turns out my bases were crooked. After they were fixed the problem was gone.

That sounds like a great thing to do.

Its not a Ruger 270 is it??? and possibly have the rings in the wrong place, yeah it can happen

Its a winchester model 70. Nothing fancy about it but it is pillar bedded.

I took it to the gunshop today and had it bore sighted.I can already tell by looking at the turret that its a lot lower than it was and I might be able to get the job done now. What he told me is since it was mounted on the carry handle of the AR it was just so out of whack that it needed to be reset (or something like that).

So I'll give this a shot and see how it works now. I feel like an idiot burning through all that ammo, and I have never taken a gun in to get bore sighted. After getting my rear end kicked with this one I guess I don't know as much as I thought I did.

But thanks everyone for the input, and I'll report back and let everyone know so that if they run into this problem maybe they can get help as well.

Sounds like they loosened the adjustment screw and re-set the index to zero, then bore sighted it. Either that or they loosened the rings and turned it 90-degrees to the right. (scopes have a lot less windage than elevation)

sounds like they used the screwdriver trick, i had a leupold target scope that got hung up when i ran it out of adjustment shooting long range, turned the turret the other way and nothing happened, a little tap and it jumped a mile.