Help! SOCOM 16 won't zero at 100

dannyair

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Hoping someone can help. I bought a SA SOCOM 16 and it shoots about 12-18" high with iron sights maxed out. I decided to get the SA Gen 4 scope mount and put my Zeiss on it but it also shoots high and leaves me with not enough scope adjustment to zero it at 100 either. Any suggestions? Thank You!
 
With iron sights a "shorty" M14 sometimes needs a taller front sight. I'm not sure if Springfield uses a different front sight on the socom...you might look into that...alternatively, get creative and modify one for your gun. I had to make a front sight taller on my shorty M14 by using really good glue and a piece of plastic trimmed to fit. Now my rifle is zeroed right where it's supposed to be...worked like a charm!....As far as you scope shooting high....hmmm...can't help you there.
 
First be sure your crown is not damaged, second check for bullet contact inside flashider/muzzle device. If all checks are OK , for the irons follow bongobob's advice and increase front sight blade height by using a taller m14 sight or adding an appropriate material to increase front blade height.
Many chinese front sight blades are much taller than SA and GI ones.
Your socom should have come with a taller sight to begin with... But perhaps they installed a standard front blade.
Another option is an adjustable "Tech Sight" but I have no info on availlability of that brand in Canada.
As for your scope and mount... That's something I'd have to see first hand to comment on and is why I mention checking crown and muzzle device to rule out damage or bullet contact.
 
Thanks guys. It's at the shop now so I'll have that checked for all those things you mentioned. The socom has a different flash hider for the shorter barrel but I'll look. It comes with a tritium front sight from Trijicon - not sure if that makes a difference.
 
Don't quote me on this but I remember one of the guys here doing a comparison on M14 front sight blade height and the Smith Enterprise NM was the tallest.
I have a spare one of those.
If you're interested, and your sight height turns out to be the problem, take your front sight off and precisely measure it for height then pm me so we can compare. These are not cheap so it would cost you 50 bones cad sent to ya (41 us at brownells before ship).

Just to be sure, you mean with rear sight bottomed out right?
 
... tritium front sight from Trijicon - not sure if that makes a difference.
Your Trijicon is probably the shorter front sight, intended for a standard 22" barreled m14.

The shorter barreled SoCom may require a taller front sight.

Also, as I've posted in the stickies on how to shorten an M14,
SOME shortified M14 rifles require the rear sight leg to be ground back a bit to allow the rear sight to get low enough to zero. Do not go too far with this grinding, or the rear sight can come right out the top at max elevation, and the cheek weld can get pretty tight with a standard stock.

PS: SOME shorty M14s do not require any sight mods at all.
I've BTDT many times, and found only a handful of M14 shorties that really Really REALLY needed the rear sight ground down.

As always,
with information posted on the internet,
YPMMV
LAZ 1
 
Can you group all your shots and it is the group that is too high, or are your shots all over the place and they are generally 12-18 inches high?

Since I've only shot it once with iron sights I can't be sure. I think I was too hung up on the fact that it was shooting way higher then my posted target.
 
... tritium front sight from Trijicon - not sure if that makes a difference.
Your Trijicon is probably the shorter front sight, intended for a standard 22" barreled m14.

The shorter barreled SoCom may require a taller front sight.
Hmmm...
This is odd?
I wonder why Smith Enterprise sells these then?
Smith Enterprise said:
M-14 Tritium Close Combat Sight (TCCS)
M14_Trit_Sight.lg.jpg
Smith Enterprise said:
m14se.008.jpg

Fig 5. MK14 Mod SEI with M14DC Sound Suppressor, Mark 4 3.5-10X40 LR/T Scope, and Lightweight QD MIL STD 1913 Bipod
Smith Enterprise said:
They have a lot more info in there sight just check it out.
Now that the BS is done with. Did you try laser bore sighting your rifle before you shot it to see if the rear sight can go low enough to start with. As I have noticed on most of my rear sight's I would have to file the bottom so it would rest flat against the reciever.
NM2.GIF
 
I have the Tech Sight on my 22inch M305, very nice sight, easy to ajust and probably not designed for the long barrel; because at my recent forray at the range, I decided to use the iron sight at 200m, had to ajust to the lowest possible ajustement (all the way in) and still was not able to to hit the figure 11. round were hitting the 100m berm in front of us...

So next thing to try, is to install the Tech Sight on the M14Doctor modified gas tube and see if that will make a difference... let you all know how that goes soon...
 
I have the Tech Sight on my 22inch M305, very nice sight, easy to ajust and probably not designed for the long barrel; because at my recent forray at the range, I decided to use the iron sight at 200m, had to ajust to the lowest possible ajustement (all the way in) and still was not able to to hit the figure 11. round were hitting the 100m berm in front of us...

So next thing to try, is to install the Tech Sight on the M14Doctor modified gas tube and see if that will make a difference... let you all know how that goes soon...
If this dosn't work please try the rear sight mod show in the pic below.
NM2.GIF

As for the M14Doctor front sight mod it works great for me on my 18.5" shorty @ 25 to 200 meter's but after that I just suck any ways on the iron's and even using glass I ain't that much better :redface:
 
Here's how I modded my front sight. I filed my Norc front sight down to NM width (.062) then super glued a piece of plastic (actually a piece of a zap strap) on top and let it sit and harden for about half an hour. Then I used a razor blade to trim the plastic to the same width as the sight. It works like a charm and the sight picture is great. Now my rear sight is where it should be (8 clicks from the bottom) and I'm hitting dead on at 100m.

IMG_0529.jpg
 
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