New Scope- Loss of MOA

J

jmcb

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Victoria, BC
Hi all,
I have recently purchased a Vortex Viper 4-16x44 PST to mount on my Tikka T3 in 223. While the scope/rifle combination shoots phenomenally (sub 1/2moa with factory ammo), I have lost almost 50moa of the available 72 just to zero at 100yds. I had hoped to shoot this rifle out to 500-600yds(?) but without some serious holdover, that seems like a pipedream right now. I've tried remounting the scope three times, all with the same results within 1moa. The scope is mounted with (torqued to spec) Leupold bases on a zero moa pic rail. When I first bought the rifle, I put an older Bushnell 3-9x50 hunting scope on it and this zeroed with maybe 10moa worth of adjustment. This leads me to believe the problem is in the new scope rather than the rifle. The windage is about 4moa off of centre (also 72moa of adjustment) which seems ideal but I can't believe a scope with 72moa worth of elevation would be centered that high. Has anyone else encountered a similar problem or have any suggestions as to what my problem could be?
Thanks to all in advance!
 
Since posting this I've been trying to post some pics. Is there something I'm missing? It seems to only let me post a picture URL rather than an attachment.
 
AAArgh. So here are some pics off dropbox. I know that the scope is a little high off the barrel but there is no way that accounts for that much of a height discrepancy.

Scope mounted on the rail:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/owgt0tmgko0elfh/20160208_160547.jpg?dl=0

Windage Turret:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qptae9cy6avxn94/20160208_160621.jpg?dl=0

Elevation Turret:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xuj3mheq5n4nxzj/20160208_160630.jpg?dl=0

Thanks again and sorry about the pics. I can't for the life of me figure out how to embed a pic in a post.
 
I also took the whole rig back into the shop from which it was bought, only to have them hum and haw and then try to sell me new rings and bases.
 
Maybe the Zero-stop needs to be adjusted?

Canted rail on backwards?

Did you remove the rail from the action and clean and reinstall?

Rings are clean and sit level on the rail?

Install the scope on another rifle and try it, that will eliminate some options and narrow things down if the above mentioned didn't work.
 
have you tried swapping ring locations? front to back ...

Or flipping them facing the other way?

If you slowly loosen the rings, does the scope tube move?

Doesn't take much alignment issues to cause big elevation changes.

If all else fails, I have ring solution that will cure this for you and ease any issues with scope stress.

Jerry
 
Vortex uses shims inside the turret as a zero-stop function to return to your zero after large adjustments. From what I can see this has little to do with the initial zeroing of the rifle. To my understanding its a zero rail. Having never seen one, would you be able to see the difference front to back on a 20moa rail? And also, due to an alignment pin on the rail itself, it will only sit one way on the gun. I removed the rail to make sure it was nice and clean and the rings were brand new. I don't have ring alignment bars but when only the bottom halves of the rings were mounted on the rail, the scope sat evenly across them and wasn't canted in any way. I agree that trying the scope on a different rifle is my next best option. Thank you for your time and suggestions, TikkaTac.
 
Hi Jerry,
First off, thank you for trying to help me solve this issue. I have one question for you. What is a normal natural zero for a scope like that? I just did the "mirror on the end of the scope trick" to line up the crosshairs with the reflection. In theory (at least according to the interweb) this finds where the scopes natural zero is. On mine it is almost exactly half of the 72 moa windage adjustment (which is ideal) but then it's almost exactly half of the 72moa elevation adjustment as well. Is this normal? It would seem to me that the zero should be on the end of the moa spectrum to give a maximum range of adjustment for elevation. Or am I out to lunch? I haven't tried switching the rings but that is next on my list of tests, along with trying the scope on another rifle.
Thanks, Jesse
 
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