Will I Need to Shim?

[Geppetto]

Recently went to the range to sight in a .223. I used a boresighter, but at 50 yards aiming dead centre of the target, nothing. I repositioned to the small diamond on the bottom right (using a Redfield sight-in target) and the bullet hit about 5" right, but roughly 10" high. My scope has 1/4 MOA adjustments.

My question then is given that I'm hitting so high, do I need to shim the base? 80 clicks seems like a heck of a lot!

Many thanks!

 

[Dogleg]

First off, I've seen some pretty crude bore-sighting jobs, enough that if the first shots hit the paper at all it's a roaring success. Next up, the calculated adjustment is 80 clicks. That's fine in theory, but in the real world it might be 80, or 40, or 100. Quality scopes can be amazingly precise, some others the increments don't seem to mean anything.
Sight in the gun, then see where you are at, then think about shims, if they are in fact necessary.

 

[Geppetto]

Many thanks.

I probably should have specified in my first post. The scope is a 4-12x40 Bushnell Legend and the boresighter I used is the standard Bushnell kit with arbour that slides into the muzzle.

Thanks again.