Rifle Scopes Switching optics between rifles

mop89

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
May 24, 2014
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Eastern PA
Hey guys, I took advantage of that minox deal and now have a 5-25 coming that will live on my 6.5 Swede that has a 20 moa base on it.
I also have a cz 457 mtr being delivered to my ffl soon and I was going to pick up an area 419 scope base for it. They make them in 15 moa and 30 moa versions.

If I go with either, how big of a pain will it be if I decide to switch the optic between rifles? Don’t have the funds currently to buy another optic for the .22

Any of you guys do this?
 
You are going to have to re zero each time you move the optic. People do it. Its not as nice as having an optic on each gun, but if that’s what you can afford you can make it work.
 
Yeah I understand I’ll have to rezero, guess I’m just wondering how big of a difference guys usually encounter, and which base id be better off going with, I’d assume the 15moa since it’s closer to that of my 6.5
 
I tried to do this. Move my razor between guns. That didn’t last long at all.

I also though I could buy just one high end stock and would swap barreled actions. Again that sucked and didn’t last long at all.

save until you can afford to complete each rifle with the needed items and then buy.

swapping shit around is for the birds.
 
I tried to do this. Move my razor between guns. That didn’t last long at all.

I also though I could buy just one high end stock and would swap barreled actions. Again that sucked and didn’t last long at all.

save until you can afford to complete each rifle with the needed items and then buy.

swapping shit around is for the birds.
A razor is the worst optic to move between two rifles by far die to the way it has to be zeroed. I like the scopes. One for each rifle only.
 
Thanks for the responses, eventually I will get a dedicated optic for it. Guess I’ll have to give it a shot and deal with it until I get tired of it lol
 
I believe if you keep good records things will zero very closely each time you swap if you have quality rings. Many are swapping between 6mm barrels and 223 barrels and the two zeros tend to be fairly repeatable. I am still waiting on my 223 barrel to show up to test it out but many years ago I put on a shot out Savage .243 barrel for deer season and switched back to a good 22/250 barrel to call coyotes. I didn't know how to get the headspace the same between swaps and simply see it between the go and no go gauges. Even then the adjustment on the scope was within a click every swap. It was an 8 moa change to the left or right. I doubt you're going to have issues using quality rings and taking notes. It may be a bit of a hassel though.
 
I swapped one scope between two rifles for awhile. A 22lr and a 6.5 Creedmoor. It really wasn’t bad and it was really quick to zero each time. I just kept track of the elevation setting for each caliber. I no longer do that now.
 
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Thanks for all the reply’s fellas, greatly appreciated.

Anyways, I called Cameraland and spoke to Neal, Doug was busy (go figure on Black Friday ?). Ended up picking up an Athlon Ares BTR 2.5-15. May not be like the ZP5 5-25 but it should do fine for blasting some groundhogs
 
So I have a Vortex AMG 6-24x in an American Rifle Co. 1-piece mount. I've tested the ARC mount before (and ARC rings for that matter with similar results) and have had good enough return to zero that I can't tell the difference between a single 5 shot group and 5 shots with the scope on/off each shot...

Anyway, with the way Hornady 4DOF app works, it takes into account "zero offset" if you will... and I'm going to attempt to swap this scope/mount combo back and forth between my 6mm Creedmoor Mausingfield and .300 PRC Nucleus. Will hopefully be able to proof this out this weekend. If all goes well, using 4DOF I shouldn't need to rezero between rifles. The only thing would be the windage difference, but I always hold wind so I'll just take note of what wind shift there is, if any, and apply it without rezeroing the turret.
 
So I have a Vortex AMG 6-24x in an American Rifle Co. 1-piece mount. I've tested the ARC mount before (and ARC rings for that matter with similar results) and have had good enough return to zero that I can't tell the difference between a single 5 shot group and 5 shots with the scope on/off each shot...

Anyway, with the way Hornady 4DOF app works, it takes into account "zero offset" if you will... and I'm going to attempt to swap this scope/mount combo back and forth between my 6mm Creedmoor Mausingfield and .300 PRC Nucleus. Will hopefully be able to proof this out this weekend. If all goes well, using 4DOF I shouldn't need to rezero between rifles. The only thing would be the windage difference, but I always hold wind so I'll just take note of what wind shift there is, if any, and apply it without rezeroing the turret.
Good luck I don’t think I would do that.

Zero offset is used when if you had say 1/2 moa clicks but need less data to put your POI in the 1in square, for instance. You then input the zero offset and that data is taken into account for the ballistic curve. (If it serves more purpose than that please someone show me).

Maybe if you absolutely knew between rifles your shift was .7R and .4D you could trick the solver into using that data. However, if your switching scopes between rifles or switching barrels between actions - you’re going to have to rezero, that’s where the data starts. In 4DOF the zero is particularly import for the cal axil fire form.

I would consider taking the 5 rounds to reconfirm at least.
 
Check out the zero angle feature in 4DoF it doesn't care how big the offset is. The biggest limitation is that the AMG only has .5 mils negative so I have to set the base zero on which ever of the two rifles hits higher. Maybe I'll do a post on it if it works... or doesn't :)
 
Check out the zero angle feature in 4DoF it doesn't care how big the offset is. The biggest limitation is that the AMG only has .5 mils negative so I have to set the base zero on which ever of the two rifles hits higher. Maybe I'll do a post on it if it works... or doesn't :)
Question; if you know your offset or difference between one setup to another, why don’t you slip your scales to to that initially? Why input that zero offset into the 4DOF solver?

To know the offset I assume it’s either completely predictable or your going to shoot it at 100 and put that data in once you’ve switched setups.

I think I’m misunderstanding how you’re doing this process lol.
 
So if I zero elevation for the higher-hitting of the two rifles, and record my windage offset, then set the files up accordingly for zero angle in 4DoF, then I can swap the scope between the two rifles without ever rezeroing a turret, and all of the elevation I dial will be "up". 4DoF will give me corrected elevation data, and I hold wind so I won't mind if the turret is off of "0" by a few tenths.

And the biggest beneft--- Vortex AMG on all my precision rifles :)
 
So if I zero elevation for the higher-hitting of the two rifles, and record my windage offset, then set the files up accordingly for zero angle in 4DoF, then I can swap the scope between the two rifles without ever rezeroing a turret, and all of the elevation I dial will be "up". 4DoF will give me corrected elevation data, and I hold wind so I won't mind if the turret is off of "0" by a few tenths.

And the biggest beneft--- Vortex AMG on all my precision rifles :)
Hey right on if it works for you and you’re confident. Go for it.

Personally, if I knew the difference between rifles I’d leave the solver zero offset alone and dial the zero on. Even then I don’t think I’d move my scope and not confirm my zero.
 
If you want to do this time, patience, and recording your settings are going to serve you best. Marking the rails where you install the rings, setting the scope to "zero", adjust to the rifle records from a true zeroing session. After a the ground work is done this is going to get easier.
 
Take pics of your setup for each rifle and make a folder on your phone. Heck, I do that whenever I disassemble anything too. It’s amazing how fragile memory is.
 
It's pretty repeatable. Use a blue paint parker for witness marks on the rings (the bolt that tightens the mount to the rail) for one gun and like yellow for gun 2. It'll still feel better to confirm, but you'll be very very close each time. Have it Z'd for one gun and just know where to dial it to for gun 2.
 
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So I got around to testing it out, was kind of in a hurry so no pictures.. But moral of the story is between the two guns there's about .3-.4 mils windage change and .8 mils elevation. I zeroed the scope out for the higher hitting rifle (6mm creedmoor), set up the 4Dof profile for it, then swapped the scope over to the 300 PRC, and set the 4Dof profile for it with the .8 mil low impact at 100.

Swapped back and forth 3 times between the two shooting the same aiming point for all shots (10 per gun) and produced 2 nice round groups at 100. 6CM was about .5 MOA, the .300 was ~.75 (I flinch with the .300 if I don't force myself into a zen state first, 7 of them went into 1 ragged hole).

So yeah, I just have to remember to set the windage offset on the turret when swapping between rifles, and 4DoF takes care of the elevation offset. This way I never have to re-zero the scope turrets.