Posted By: J.G.
Lesson refresher for me, new lesson for another. Bad scope - 02/02/20 08:17 PM
Yesterday Earl shot his LaRue .308 with a Burris XTR II on top. The scope performed flawlessly all day, as I expected.
At the end of the day we went to zero a second rifle, brand new unfired rifle. I asked if he cleaned the brand new barrel and he had. I bore sigted it, reassembled the rifle (AR again) and told Earl lets fire one round at 100 yard paper. I was using my spotting scope, we had great lighting, and almost no wind at 100 yards. His first shot was a bit high and a bit left. I measure it in Mils, but this scope's turret was in MOA. So I converted my Mil correction to MOA.
(Mil value X 3.43 = MOA) We dialed in the appropriate MOA correction. I told Earl lets get 5 rounds down the barrel, take your time and make good shots, but we probably need to foul this barrel in some. 3 shots of 168 FGGM grouped .5 Mil tall and only .2 Mil wide. Cooled off a bit, and I said lets shoot 3 more. The group tightened up into a 1" triangle, but was right, and low. Dialed in the appropriate correction and the POI moved double what we told the scope to do. OK, this thing doesn't track for crap, took half the correction out, and finally got the scope zeroed. Then tried a 200 yard hold and he was .5 Mil high, maybe it's ammo, try another one, .5 Mil high. Ok, lets go back to 100 yard paper. Zero was high and way left.
Scope mount was tight to the rifle, ring screws were tight, rifle/ ammo shot consistently but wouldn't shoot where we told it to. All this equals a brand new bad scope. The lesson I think Earl picked up and maybe this is new information for some people, or a remidner for others, but when you're actually testing three things at one time, slow down and isolate two of them right off the bat. The two to isolate is rifle/ammo. Get it on paper, and leave the scope alone on an unknown shooting rifle. Your first bore sight shot, will be off where you want final zero, but if you're fairly close, don't start dialing on the scope right away. Lets see how this thing shoots before we try to make the scope perfectly zeroed. If the rifle and ammo are only capable of 4" at 100 yards, you're going to chase your tail cranking on the scope adjustments after every shot. In this case, we learned the rifle/ammo were capable of 1" at 100 yards, so once knowing that, then lets get the scope to come to zero. After that, we learned the scope was bad. What if all three were bad? You wouldn't know which one was the problem if you didn't isolate possibilities.
Scope was a Redfield Mil reticle, 1/4 MOA exposed turrets, which is an abomination in itself.
At the end of the day we went to zero a second rifle, brand new unfired rifle. I asked if he cleaned the brand new barrel and he had. I bore sigted it, reassembled the rifle (AR again) and told Earl lets fire one round at 100 yard paper. I was using my spotting scope, we had great lighting, and almost no wind at 100 yards. His first shot was a bit high and a bit left. I measure it in Mils, but this scope's turret was in MOA. So I converted my Mil correction to MOA.
(Mil value X 3.43 = MOA) We dialed in the appropriate MOA correction. I told Earl lets get 5 rounds down the barrel, take your time and make good shots, but we probably need to foul this barrel in some. 3 shots of 168 FGGM grouped .5 Mil tall and only .2 Mil wide. Cooled off a bit, and I said lets shoot 3 more. The group tightened up into a 1" triangle, but was right, and low. Dialed in the appropriate correction and the POI moved double what we told the scope to do. OK, this thing doesn't track for crap, took half the correction out, and finally got the scope zeroed. Then tried a 200 yard hold and he was .5 Mil high, maybe it's ammo, try another one, .5 Mil high. Ok, lets go back to 100 yard paper. Zero was high and way left.
Scope mount was tight to the rifle, ring screws were tight, rifle/ ammo shot consistently but wouldn't shoot where we told it to. All this equals a brand new bad scope. The lesson I think Earl picked up and maybe this is new information for some people, or a remidner for others, but when you're actually testing three things at one time, slow down and isolate two of them right off the bat. The two to isolate is rifle/ammo. Get it on paper, and leave the scope alone on an unknown shooting rifle. Your first bore sight shot, will be off where you want final zero, but if you're fairly close, don't start dialing on the scope right away. Lets see how this thing shoots before we try to make the scope perfectly zeroed. If the rifle and ammo are only capable of 4" at 100 yards, you're going to chase your tail cranking on the scope adjustments after every shot. In this case, we learned the rifle/ammo were capable of 1" at 100 yards, so once knowing that, then lets get the scope to come to zero. After that, we learned the scope was bad. What if all three were bad? You wouldn't know which one was the problem if you didn't isolate possibilities.
Scope was a Redfield Mil reticle, 1/4 MOA exposed turrets, which is an abomination in itself.
