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Rifle Scopes Scope alinement with rifle

GONE BAD

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Full Member
Minuteman
May 8, 2013
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Portland
I have a razor 5-20x50 mounted on my rifle and want to know if it is true with the rifle. I have it sighted in with a zero at 100 yds. and when I check the windage I have 18.3 mils R and 20.7 mils L. The book says 36 mils total but mine has 39. Anyway if the rifle and scope were in perfect alinement shouldn't it split the graduations of the turret? My thinking is if its 19.5 mils to center but I dial R 1.2 to get to zero shouldn't that put me off by that margin at 200 and so on? Or is there something I'm missing here? It is really hard to check this at distance do to environmental conditions. It does seem as though I shoot more times to the right than I do to the left.
I guess what I'm wanting to know is, does this seem to be common and does it or can it effect bullet impacts at longer distances? Or does the fact that the reticel has been moved to the right, physically, brings it in line with the barrel? Or is it have to do more with recoil management?
 
So you have the scope mounted on your rifle and sighted in? That really isn't too much of a R/L difference. Stop overthinking and go shoot.

OFG
 
Have thought it might be your barrel that's off. It could be a number of things that's not aligned. What ofg said.
 
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Also, your ring/mount is always off. You are lucky if you get a ring/mount that is less than 5 clicks.
 
Practical precision rifle shooting is about distinguishing what matters from what doesn't matter.
 
Check to see if your scope rings have a windage adjustment at the mount. Some do , some don't. Most scopes do no have the exact windage and elevation that the book calls for. SOme actually have more clicks, some less. And mechanical center is not dead center of your limits.
 
As long as it isn't canted and your barrel isn't crooked I think you are fine. For all you know the reticule in the scope could be etched into the lens a millionth of a millimeter offcenter too.
 
My 1st Gen FN SPR was more then two feet off at 100yds with a centered Steiner 4-16x...Accurate Ordance is looking at it right now.....that aint right.
 
You are assuming that the reticle is perfectly centered in the scope, which it may not be. Even if the optical axis of the scope is in perfect alignment (in a vertical plane) with the bore center/bullet path of your rifle, you could end up with the erector not centered in its travel inside the scope tube once its been zeroed.

Your scope is closer to being centered in the windage travel when zeroed than any scope/rifle combination I own. I'd be ecstatic if mine were that close.

18.3 mils should be enough to correct for F4 tornado winds. I think you'll be fine. If you need a little more, you can always just shoot the rifle upside down :)
 
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So you have the scope mounted on your rifle and sighted in? That really isn't too much of a R/L difference. Stop overthinking and go shoot.

OFG

That's the answer. It will never be exactly perfect. You are worrying about something that doesn't need to be worried about or "fixed". You have plenty of wind. A 10mph wind at 1000 yard with a .308 is only about 2.5 mils of correction. You can shoot in a 70mph wind at 1000 yards now. You need to shoot in 80mph?

Also read what Graham said:

"Practical precision rifle shooting is about distinguishing what matters from what doesn't matter. "
 
OP: It's perfectly fine from what you described. As others have said, it is near impossible to end up with it perfectly centered. 1 mil or so is common. Some factory guns and commodity rails/ rings cause the alignment to be grossly out.