Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What to do--Scope Adjustment

My wife won a Ruger American rifle in 17HMR. She likes the Vortex Crossfire scopes ,anyway we mounted the scope and went to sight it in ,but ran out of left adjustment. If she holds on the 3 slash (windage) the right hand in the crosshairs she'll hit the bulls eye. There is no more moving the crosshairs to the left. So my question is what to do?
Thanks for all answers

Have some one else shoot it to make sure it is an actual sighting issue and not a mounting issue or paralax. Then try a different scope. If it adjusts normally send it to Vortex to get it fixed. If not, it is most likely the mount on the rifle and Ruger will take care of you.

Just curious what rings are you using? Are they adjustable horizontally?

Sounds like a mounting issue. Are the mounting holes aligned with the receiver? Are the bases correctly attached to the rings? Everything look straight without scope installed?

Leupold bases and rings with windage adjustments if they make them or Burris signature Zee rings with the off set inserts. I have a Ruger 10-22. It’s the only Ruger I’ve ever owned, so I may be speaking out of turn.

I used the Burris offset inserts on a Savage 99-358. The windage adjustment ran out on it also, offset inserts took care of it.

Everything seems to line up right,and looks straight. They are Weaver rings. I ordered a set of the Burris rings. Thanks guys

Has the scope been zeroed before on another rifle? If so, un-mount it, put it up to a mirror and return it to factory zero. Re-mount it.

Follow jac3ks advise and use a mirror to center the scopes adjustments, then remount the scope, then boresight the rifle and see where the scope is pointing. That will tell you if you have a mount problem or a scope problem.

Thank you guys ,its a new scope. I never heard off the mirror thing ,but I did take the scope off and zeroed the crosshairs in the mirror(pretty slick) . I'll remount and bore sight tomorrow. once again thanks for all the help

Buy a Leupold 😜

The mirror trick is a new one on me, too. I always assumed (yeah, I know what happens when you assume something) that the cross-hairs were centered (zeroed) when you had the same amount of adjustment (clicks) to move the cross-hairs left and right or up and down.

I got a new to me scope last week and haven't mounted it on a rifle, yet. I gotta go give this a try.

Re: The mirror trick. Mule Deer (Barsness) points out that this depends on the front of the scope houlsing being perfectly perpendicular to the tube, and this is not always the case.

Counting turns or clicks is another good way to center a scope.

A method I have seen mentioned here on the 'Fire, but I don't recall by who, is to put the scope in a pair of smooth "V" blocks. You then adjust until the center of the reticle stays centered (does not travel in a small circle) as the scope is spun in the "V" blocks. This sounds like the most "optically centered" to me, but I don't have enough knowledge of scope construction to say.

I suspect that any of the three methods gets you "close enough."

I find it funny that some think centering the crosshair is going to help in any way help with the problem of running out of adjustment.

rick,

It won't, but it helps determine if the problem is in the scope, mounts or rifle.

Often scopes get blamed for running out of adjustment, when the most common problem these days is in the mounts (or how it was mounted), and sometimes in the rifle itself.

I said the same thing in the optics forum and the attack was on. When running out of scope adjustment some seem to think that centering the reticle will some how magically adajustment.




Spot on.

I had a custom 6.5x55 and a Model 99A that could not be adjusted to POA and both problems were caused by the screws on the receivers being off. If the scope tube isn't obviously damaged and it is responding to adjustments the odds are it is a mounting issue. I can see how centering the crosshair might point out problems with the scope.

A windage adjustable mount should do the trick easily.

Guy

Or Burris Signatures.

Advanced Scope Mounting by John Barsness - BuckMasters GunHunter

J.B. wrote an article identically titled, but not verbatim the same published in the Dec. 2008 issue of American Rifleman, and another article titled, The Straight Story On Scope Mounting in the Aug. 2011 issue of American Rifleman.

The best option.