Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics 20 MOA rail, Good idea? How do you know?

So I have a Tikka CTR and a new Weatherby Accuguard.

I have been using an HD5 on the Tikka, but just pulled it off to put that on the Accuguard, and a new HST on the Tikka.

I am taking a course where shooting will eventually be out to 1100 yards. So I am thinking of replacing the rail on the Tikka with a 20 MOA one, and also putting the same on the Accuguard.

But when I look at the numbers, I can't figure out how to tell if this is a good idea or not. It appears that it is possible that with a 20 MOA rail I might have to bottom out one or both scopes to get them on at 100 (where I want to have my base zero).

On the Tikka, I have mounted the HST on the rail it came with, so as soon as I recover from surgery, I can go shoot it with the stock rail and I'll know whether it will work or not. No problem.

But on the Accuguard....it seems I would have to buy a rail, mount the scope, see how many MOA I had to use to get to a 100 yard zero (either up or down), and potentially have to eat the cost of a rail that won't work for me, so that's $60 tossed away, potentially, when I have to go buy a different rail.

Am I missing something here, is there a better way to tell?

Just an example....the HD5 on my Winchester took like 9 MOA up to get to center at 100, IIRC. The Tikka took 2.

If the Accuguard took, say 5 down, lets say. I measured my HD5, it has 75 MOA top to bottom. So 5 down would mean I'd only have 27.5 left on the downside. If I put a 20 MOA rail, then I'd be only 7.5 MOA from the bottom, which I understand is a bad thing?

And if it took, say 15, I would not make a 100 yard zero at all, and even shooting a 200 yard zero, I would be somewhere near the bottom of the adjustment range most of the time.

How do you guys determine what rail to put on without just buy, trying and tossing the cash. Some of these rails are well over $100, and it seems there must be a better way I just don't know about than risking just throwing them away.

Thanks!

Maybe my math is wrong but it seems like you'd have more than that. 75/2 = 37.5. 37.5 -5 = 32.5. 32.5-20 = 12.5

At any rate, I've got 20 moa rails on three different rifles and have had no trouble zeroing any of them at 100 yds. One of the scopes is a nitrex 6.5x20 with less elevation travel than yours. If I were shooting out to 1100 yds I'd want the 20 MOA rail. I don't think you'll have any trouble zeroing at 100 unless something is really off.

Run Burris rings with inserts and you can tweak it as needed if you can't get it low enough.

200 yard zero is plenty low enough for anything I've ever shot.

Used to head shoot deer inside of 100 with a 300 yard zero on a 300 mag.... hold 5 inches low and you are fine....

Thanks for the response!

I just got a similar response on a cross posting. The Tikka, I already had some Vtx PMR's laying around, so I want to utilize those, but it's mainly a range gun for longer range practice anyway. So I think the 20 is going to work for that.

But the Accuguard 300 win mag is mainly a hunter, with some use in shooting classes that go to 1100, so I could just put a 0 MOA rail on and then utilize the Burris rings, putting in the inserts I need based on shooting it. I have a set of TPS rings I was going to use, but I think they might be too high anyway, so I guess I'll just hold them for some other project or sell them.

How well do those Burris rings and inserts work with the recoil from a 300?

catorres1,



I have a .375-.416 Rem Mag with a 28" barrel. I mention the barrel so you know why I am able to get 3,185 feet per second with Barnes TTSX 250's. The Burris Signatures hold the 18 ounce scope just fine. No slipping or changing point of impact.

Wow, that is smokin'! I usto have a 375 h&h, got my 250's up to 29 or 2950, can't remember. Never did hit pressure signs, but did get a headache and decided that was quite enough.

I never could get the accuracy I wanted from that rifle, regardless of the load so sent it on down the road.

Anyway, I know what kind of recoil you are experiencing. If it works on that, it'll be fine on my little 300.

I was just on their site looking at versions of their signature rings. I like the look of the aluminum XTR signatures. But they list the minimum height as 1 inch. That seems really high for the shortest ring. Once that mounts on a rail, that's gotta be really tall if they are measuring the same way Vortex or TPS measures their rings (top of the base to center of the ring).

The lowest steel signature zee shows .77.

Which set do you have and what height and how's it working for you?