Vortex Crossfire 3-12x44 problems!!!!

I bought this scope new off of Amazon about 3 months ago and had it on a 270 and it would hold a group. I now have it on my AR15 with Nikon 2 piece P Series rings. I went to the range today and could not get it on paper, it would shoot about 2 feet above the paper every time no matter where I adjusted. Where should be the first place I look?? I did notice that the return to zero mark on the windage adjustment moves but is not supposed to. I do not know what to do and do not have tons of money to spend on this. Any suggestions???

Start by getting it bore sighted.

First, make sure your rings are mounted properly in the slots on the picatinny rail (I assume a pic rail). Sometimes the rings will hang up and not sit flush in the grooves. Next, make sure the turret cap screws are tight so you are making an adjustment, and not free spinning the turret. Set the rifle up to where you can look through the bore and bore sight the scope in. For an AR, I pull the rear pin to break open the upper, and pull the bolt and mount the rifle (on bags and/or bipod) so I can see through the bore and bore sight the rifle in. This way I will not waste any ammo getting it on paper. Other than that, you should be able to get it on paper.

Another thing I forgot to put in the post was I adjusted the scope all the way up and still could not get it on paper I started at 50 and went to 100 and no change.

Hate to ask the obvious, but are you turning the elevation turret the correct way?

I tried both ways and no change. I am starting to think its the scope. Only thing that sucks is I dont know when Ill be able to go back to the range.

You shouldn't need the gun range to bore sight it. Pull the bolt like I posted, and you can sight it in without shooting it.

I'd try what Chad recommended. Make sure your mounts are mounted correctly and true. I've heard of a case where someone's rings weren't in perfect alignment and put the scope in a bind, not allowing turret adjustment. Not exactly sure how off they would have to be for this to happen, but I guess it's possible.

Looks like it's time for that awesome warranty...

I'm going to speak my mind for a second. As the title says "Vortex Crossfire 3-12x44 problems!!!!" So, is it the scope, is it the rings, rifle, or user error. Automatically it is ASSUMED that the Vortex scope is the culprit and is the problem. At this moment, it is unknown what the issue is. But I'm willing to put money on it that it is not a scope issue, but some other issue non-scope related problem. But forever in the internet world will this thread be "Vortex Crossfire 3-12x44 problems!!!!", even if it's not the scope issue. I have a problem with comments like this that imply a problem with a perfectly good product, and the implications that follows. If it's the scope, I'll eat my words, but I like to gamble!

Chad, it's almost like what you described may have happened before...

The comments I'm getting here is why I don't like to ask questions on this forum. I'm just telling what I've experienced and happened today. From what I see the rings are mounted correctly, I torqued them to spec and leveled the gun and then the scope. I aligned the eye relief from recommendations off of here by putting my cheek with my eyes closed on the gun in the comfortable spot and then adjusting the scope to that. Other then that the gun was not bore sighted but should still have been able to get on paper after I adjusted the scope as much as I did.

Try to bore sight it first. When it's "about 2 feet above the paper", you have to dial it back down (bullet impact down). You need to know if your adjustments are moving the bullet or if it's just spinning the turret with no point of impact shift. The scope shows to have 50 MOA of internal adjustment. If the rings are mounted straight level, you should be close to the middle of the scope, with 25 moa up and 25 moa down. I'd start there by dialing all the way up or down til the turret stops, and go the other way with 25 moa (or 100 clicks). This will put the reticle in the middle of the scope. Then try to bore sight it looking through the barrel and dial the reticle to where it matches the center cross hair. (If you bore sight this way, the adjustments will be backwards. If the cross hairs need to move to the right, you will need to dial the turret left, and vice versa) When you are shooting, the bullet is hitting high, you need to dial down, or the direction you want the bullet to go.

It works though. Chad took a rifle new to me and him and got it zero'd for the hunters challenge in February. I watched him use those exact same tactics and I didn't epic fail the event. It works

Any word on the bore sighting or zeroing?

Sunday I'll get to it and let y'all know

Alright I bore sighted it today and it was just about 6 inches high. Could that have been the problem??

Did it adjust? I thought that was your problem.

So is it bore sighted now? Have you shot it again to see if you are on paper or can get zero'd?

DS, it would help if you were more thorough in your comment. What, exactly, was six inches high?? I would imagine I'm not the only one who has NO idea what you mean.

When I bore sighted it, it was about six inches for center of the bore. I have not got to shoot it again Chad, unfortunately I have to rely on city ranges and weird work schedule. Ill get out hopefully the weekend after next and shoot it.

This

This^

No. When you bore sight, the target is seen right smack in the middle of the muzzle, and the reticle is adjusted to agree with that. If you did not adjust your crosshairs thusly, you did not boresight anything.

WTH is "about six inches for center of the bore"???

When I bore sighted it, the reticle was about six inches above the bore so I moved it roughly six inches down. Make sense?

Well...we now at least understand what's taken place. Looking out the muzzle and seeing the error is not boresighting.
You boresighted when you aligned your reticle to what you saw looking out the muzzle.

Hope it doesn't pull dirty tricks on you when you shoot it.

Sorry I just assumed y'all knew I adjusted it, geez

So the scope was "looking" six inches above what was seen looking through the bore? At what range?

We do now.

I didn't range it but guesstimate of 30-35 yards

And there is the smoking gun.

Being a quarter MOA turret, and since you were 6" high at 33-ish yards, you would have been 18" POI error at 100 yards.

Huh?? Six inches at 33 yards would be about 18 inches at 100.

17 hour day, I need to go to bed. I'll fix it.

+1