While at the NRA show, I had a chance to look at all of the nice glass there and the Vortex Viper PST F1 4-16x50 caught my eye. I decided that it needed to find a home on my 7 SAUM hunting rifle. So the saga begins.
Two years ago, I had LA Precision build a M700 LA into a 7 SAUM with a 26" #5 Krieger barrel. At the time, I did my homework and came up with Burris 30mm Zee rings on Burris 2 piece Weaver style bases to mount a Leupold 6.5-20x50 LRT scope. The rifle doesn't have an adjustable comb and I like my hunting scopes mounted as low as possible. All was right in the world.
Enter the Vortex PST. The first thing that I noticed was that it had less elevation adjustment in the scope so I decided to change the rings to Burris Signature Zee rings and use the offsets to give me some built in elevation. The next thing I noticed was that the scope tube is about 1" shorter than the Leupold bringing the objective bell almost into contact with the thicker part of the barrel (less than .010" clearance) using only a .010" offset in the rear (couldn't use the front offset at all). Not to be deterred in my objective of keeping the scope mounted as low as possible and wanting some built in elevation in the base, I went back to the drawing board.
New solution: I picked up a Warne 20 MOA rail and since I was using a higher mount, I decided to use the lowest rings I could find, the Seekins low 30mm (which are a work of art). Parts come in and I discover issue #3 - the power ring of the PST measures a very generous 1.760". In order to mount the scope far enough forward to provide proper eye relief, I had to mill about .075" from the top of the rear pad of the mount.
Now that all of this is finished, I have a set-up with which I am very happy. It looks good, functions great and fits my head position really well. But the journey illustrated that changing one little thing may not be so simple.
Two years ago, I had LA Precision build a M700 LA into a 7 SAUM with a 26" #5 Krieger barrel. At the time, I did my homework and came up with Burris 30mm Zee rings on Burris 2 piece Weaver style bases to mount a Leupold 6.5-20x50 LRT scope. The rifle doesn't have an adjustable comb and I like my hunting scopes mounted as low as possible. All was right in the world.
Enter the Vortex PST. The first thing that I noticed was that it had less elevation adjustment in the scope so I decided to change the rings to Burris Signature Zee rings and use the offsets to give me some built in elevation. The next thing I noticed was that the scope tube is about 1" shorter than the Leupold bringing the objective bell almost into contact with the thicker part of the barrel (less than .010" clearance) using only a .010" offset in the rear (couldn't use the front offset at all). Not to be deterred in my objective of keeping the scope mounted as low as possible and wanting some built in elevation in the base, I went back to the drawing board.
New solution: I picked up a Warne 20 MOA rail and since I was using a higher mount, I decided to use the lowest rings I could find, the Seekins low 30mm (which are a work of art). Parts come in and I discover issue #3 - the power ring of the PST measures a very generous 1.760". In order to mount the scope far enough forward to provide proper eye relief, I had to mill about .075" from the top of the rear pad of the mount.
Now that all of this is finished, I have a set-up with which I am very happy. It looks good, functions great and fits my head position really well. But the journey illustrated that changing one little thing may not be so simple.
