Scope mounting 101

gitrdun

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We often see posts from new shooters asking for recommendations as to what gun or what caliber to buy and what scope to use. There is definitely no lack of recommendations, often we favour our own experiences and fine weapons of choice. But, one important thing that we often neglect to mention after we've cheerfully put down the money for the purchase is a most significant aspect of acurate shooting, I speak of the mating of the scope to the firearm. In the recent past I have seen front and rear mounts that did not line up in elevation and in fact was so severely out of line that the scope tube was permanently bent. I've also seen a brand new Remmy 700 XCR that would not shoot because the Leupold mounts use two different screw lenghts for front and rear bases. The long screw was located in place of the short screw and interfered with the bolt. Both of these scopes were mounted at the gun store by someone behind the counter after the sale was concluded. Let's share some of our experiences and recommendations here for newbies to refer to and hopefully alert them the do's and don'ts.
 
My experience... has been...

NO ONE cares as much as you do that the scope be mounted correctly... NO ONE...

So, take the time, do it yourself and learn...

Cheers
Jay...
P.S. Two "professionally" mounted scopes come to mind...

A buddy of mine had his fathers rifle set up at "The Gun Store" in McAdam, N.B.. They used "see through" scope rings as he requested... and didn't "hook" the rings together on the left side... SO, the scope/rifle combination shot about 2 foot groups at 100m... UNTIL... I had a look at the gun and "figured" out what the "pro's" had done...

Another buddy of mine, despite my insistance that I could mount his scope... Took it to a local gunsmith and paid to have his scope mounted... First trip to the range and it was OBVIOUS that the scope was "canted"... Anyways...
 
I hope this thread develops. I recently went through the new guy mounting a scope exercise and certainly a healthy CGN thread/discussion on the topic would have been a help. Hmm did you say canted Jay ? Think I may yet have a little adjustment to make :redface: , thanx.
 
HK Mark... Canting doesn't get noticed until you get out past 100 meters... Just visualize the scope's optical center not being "true" over the bore... It means that past 100 the optics "point" at the target, but the bore of the rifle points in a slightly different direction... This "error" gets worse and worse the further you shoot...

Cheers
Jay
 
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