Well folks, I thought I would post a good learning here today. Some one may find it useful. I see it has been discussed before in the forum but why not again. After 
my head against a wall at the range I found some useful tools on the net when mounting scopes, some good advice from Korth Group, and opened up my eyes to the fine details of scope mounting.
In todays scopes I found we have a lot of adjustment by design. I feel this allows users to quickly get their rifles up and running. But back in the day scopes did not offer this luxury. That is why we see Leupold base style offerings, zee rings, etc. The world is not perfect when drilling holes and we need some adjustment. So in the day, when my leupold was made (1960s vintage) it offered a total of 15moa of adjustment vertical or horizontal. Thats it
and you had to get the adjustment elsewhere.
So here is what I did to get my old girl up and running.
First, I completed a mechanical center, (max to max divide by half) In this scope max was 2.5 complete turns on the adjusters. I then adjusted vertical and horizontal to mechanical center. Good to go to the next step.
Second, I completed an optical center using a mirror. I was very surprised to see that the mechanical adjustment was scarily close to the optical. Lots of folks on the net found wide variations when doing this. This I believe outlines how well those old codgers did it in the day. In less than two minutes I had the recticle centered.
Then to the next challenge.....those damn bases. With the newer scopes we have so much adjustment (typically more in the cheaper ones) to dial out inconsistency it is easy to miss. So I purchased some new weaver bases to match my Savage 111 chassis, BTW i needed the extension bases to fit the scope body. I used millet style rings because I had them available. These offered some minimal side to side adjustment.
I bore sighted and found I was left a bit. So adjusted as far as I could go with the millets, still off a bit. So adjusted the scope about 3 minutes to center horizontal.
Now for vertical. When dialing up I bottomed out and the recticle stopped before getting near the target. So re-adjusted back to my base line. In my reading it was suggested to use shims. So I picked up some of my zinc shim material, cut to fit the rear ring. Placed it in the base and installed the scope. (Yes, to get more vertical you add to the rear base. You can get shims from Korth for placing below the bases. Risk increases for crushing the scope tube when placing a shim in the ring.)
Voila, Centered recticle for vertical and I now sit just above target. Perfect. I now have some vertial adjustment to play with at the range.
FYI, my reading suggests to obtain the best clarity and performance, you can center mechanically, optically, or do the box/spin adustment. These are some tools to explore. Google em, and you will see some good info out there. Where there is little adjustment in a scope (which is not a negative, better scopes typically have less adjustment) I have found it is important to follow the steps I outlined above to get on target.
I hope helps some one out there who are struggling to adjust their old scope. The oldies are goodies. They just need some gentle persuasion from time to time
Words of wisdom here. If you want the easy road, just get some Leupold style adjustable rear base and front base, with burris zee rings with 10 moa offsets. I believe you would be good to go with your old leupy using these. But what would be the fun in that.
Elky.
my head against a wall at the range I found some useful tools on the net when mounting scopes, some good advice from Korth Group, and opened up my eyes to the fine details of scope mounting.In todays scopes I found we have a lot of adjustment by design. I feel this allows users to quickly get their rifles up and running. But back in the day scopes did not offer this luxury. That is why we see Leupold base style offerings, zee rings, etc. The world is not perfect when drilling holes and we need some adjustment. So in the day, when my leupold was made (1960s vintage) it offered a total of 15moa of adjustment vertical or horizontal. Thats it
and you had to get the adjustment elsewhere.So here is what I did to get my old girl up and running.
First, I completed a mechanical center, (max to max divide by half) In this scope max was 2.5 complete turns on the adjusters. I then adjusted vertical and horizontal to mechanical center. Good to go to the next step.
Second, I completed an optical center using a mirror. I was very surprised to see that the mechanical adjustment was scarily close to the optical. Lots of folks on the net found wide variations when doing this. This I believe outlines how well those old codgers did it in the day. In less than two minutes I had the recticle centered.
Then to the next challenge.....those damn bases. With the newer scopes we have so much adjustment (typically more in the cheaper ones) to dial out inconsistency it is easy to miss. So I purchased some new weaver bases to match my Savage 111 chassis, BTW i needed the extension bases to fit the scope body. I used millet style rings because I had them available. These offered some minimal side to side adjustment.
I bore sighted and found I was left a bit. So adjusted as far as I could go with the millets, still off a bit. So adjusted the scope about 3 minutes to center horizontal.
Now for vertical. When dialing up I bottomed out and the recticle stopped before getting near the target. So re-adjusted back to my base line. In my reading it was suggested to use shims. So I picked up some of my zinc shim material, cut to fit the rear ring. Placed it in the base and installed the scope. (Yes, to get more vertical you add to the rear base. You can get shims from Korth for placing below the bases. Risk increases for crushing the scope tube when placing a shim in the ring.)
Voila, Centered recticle for vertical and I now sit just above target. Perfect. I now have some vertial adjustment to play with at the range.
FYI, my reading suggests to obtain the best clarity and performance, you can center mechanically, optically, or do the box/spin adustment. These are some tools to explore. Google em, and you will see some good info out there. Where there is little adjustment in a scope (which is not a negative, better scopes typically have less adjustment) I have found it is important to follow the steps I outlined above to get on target.
I hope helps some one out there who are struggling to adjust their old scope. The oldies are goodies. They just need some gentle persuasion from time to time
Words of wisdom here. If you want the easy road, just get some Leupold style adjustable rear base and front base, with burris zee rings with 10 moa offsets. I believe you would be good to go with your old leupy using these. But what would be the fun in that.
Elky.
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