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Scope Reticule Alignment

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 4:23 pm
by JM.
Hi

I have just had a Vortex Viper PST 6-24x50 FFP M.rad scope fitted to my Remington 700 .308 rifle on top of a 20 MOA rail. The mounts are a vortex matched pair.

I have zeroed the scope to 100m using factory match grade ammo.

Now, when looking through the scope it is immediately obvious that the reticule is not centred, when zoomed in to just below 24x mag the reticule if off centre by around 0.5 mil rads as read from the reticule graduations. Is this considered a normal amount of reticule movement after zeroing?

The scope also has an option to 're-index' the turrets to make counting complete rotations easier. The turret is released with 3 grub screws however the caps '0' marking is unable to align with the scope body '0' marking (I suppose due to the amount of rotations required to achieve zero), the caps zero mark is currently in line with the number two marking on the scope body-showing 2 complete revolutions of the windage turret. It requires 100 (mil rad) clicks to make the turret '0' and the scope '0' index lines align.

Am I correct in stating that at any distance other than my zero of 100m that I will always have a windage error (even without any wind!)?

Has anyone got any experience with this possible problem?

Not sure at the minute wether it is a scope related problem, or possibly misalignment of the rail to the rifle bore. Unfortunately-I do not have another scope to try.

Any suggestions?

Cheers
JM

Re: Scope Reticule Alignment

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 7:15 pm
by Matt
Hi

I'm sure someone will jump in if I'm wrong (feel free to tongueout ) but here goes

In general the ret should be level, if its not then its probably that the scope has been put on wonky, it's hard to tell from the photo though - depending on how good at measuring you are you can measure the gap on either side of the scope from the flat underside of the scope to the top of the rail, there are some nice scope levelling devices available from the shooting shed that will do this but if its that far out and you have a good eye you can normally tell. I've had a scope that the ret removed around in when zooming in..... Knackered scope!!!

In terms of the windage turret, looks ok to me, all the scopes I've had do the same, you only normally zero the turret to the zero line on the main body of the scope, remember that windage goes both ways so you won't get it to what I think you might be looking at for zero.

Hope this helps and if I've not answered very clearly others will chip in :grin:

Re: Scope Reticule Alignment

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 7:17 pm
by ovenpaa
To me it looks like the vertical is offset, does it move further if you wind the windage on and off? If it is new I would say send it back

Re: Scope Reticule Alignment

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 7:24 pm
by shugie
Are there some sort of inserts in the Vortek rings, like the Burris Signature ones? If so, perhaps these are not correctly positioned, so instead of 20MOA elevation it's gone on sideways. You could do that with the Burris inserts were you so minded.

Re: Scope Reticule Alignment

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 7:28 pm
by ovenpaa
The thing is the vertical looks significantly displaced to the left which no amount of jiggery pokery with rings will cure.

Re: Scope Reticule Alignment

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 7:31 pm
by Matt
I think the ret level looking left is probably just down to the way the photo is looking at how much black scope is on either side in the photo

Re: Scope Reticule Alignment

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 7:59 pm
by JM.
The scope was positioned into the rings at the shop whilst the rifle was supported in a clamp, it looks level to me-however....I agree the picture doesn't show it!! I agree with the zero's not quite lining up on the windage turret-I would however like to at least reach the number '1' marking as the elevation turret did-that way it would show rotations either Left or Right from zero.

The vortex rings did not appear to have any type of insert-they appeared just a fully machined matched pair.

The scope is brand new, and I would like to exchange it, currently waiting to hear back from the shop regarding that one-not particularly impressed with the service from them at the moment-but they have still got chance to redeem themselves.

Moving the windage turret does move the vertical line more to the left/right.

Looking at the markings on the horizontal line, you can see that on the left hand side shows 7 mil rads from centre and right shows 8 mil rads-so 0.5 mils off the centre of the scope seems too much to me.

Cheers
JM.

Re: Scope Reticule Alignment

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 9:00 pm
by Matt
Could still be that the scopes a dud but don't get caught up in wanting it to zero on 1 on the windage this probably won't happen as it hasn't on mine and I've loads of scopes :good:

The elevation could be on 1 by coincidence depending on if you've got a 20moa base or not and depending on how many moa elevation your scope has..... The difference is you can't add moa on windage in the same way as you can on elevation

Good luck with the shop, it might just be that they've made a bit of a mistake that they can put right ;)