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Scope mounting/sight in trouble shooting

I got a .030 shim in my Mossberg right now, but it's about twice as thick as it needs to be.

I can deal with relieving .015" off of the kwiksite base. It's already a custom installation.

I already drilled it & notched at least a quarter inch out of the ejection side.
 
So don't use the scope as a wrench. Got it! :)

I'll get a 1" dowel to turn the rings. Also, my wife has a free trial of amazon prime. I asked her to order a $13 laser bore sight. I had thought I might be able to pull the bolt and actually look through the bore but the .223 bore and a 25 yard target isn't going to pan out for my eyes.

I went with those particular Leupold mounts and rings because it says they're reversible so with the offset on the one mount, it should give me enough to get the scope back where I need it. I measured last night for clearance between a one piece rail and the receiver to see if I could get my thumb in there to load. I don't see anyway that would work which is why I went with what I did.
 
Here is my trouble shooting analysis.

Bore scope alignment:
Bore
Barrel
Receiver
Rail
Ring
Scope housing
Glass
Reticle

My bet for you is at Receiver/Rail.

But I'd like to take known good pieces and swap them w/ the unknown. For instance, if you have a known good scope and ring from another rifle, mount it on this one. Then mount your suspect on the known good rifle and see what happens. Repeat as necessary.

If you narrow it down to bore/barrel or barrel/receiver you are screwed.
 
Lol, if its barrel/receiver it's going back to Savage! But I otherwise suspect, and hope, you're right about where the problem lies.
 
I normally only bore sight by eye, at a dot on the garage door, so about 7 yards distance.

That gets me on the paper at 10 yards OK at the range, and I can work out from there.

But my last attempt was hopelessly off. I just went overboard with the shim.
 
Ok, another question;

In the absence of a torque wrench, how does one properly tighten scope rings?
 
Stolen from: http://www.opticstalk.com/how-hard-to-tighten-scope-rings_topic14951.html

A torque wrench is something expensive but probably very useful to install optics.

But it's possible to build a precise torque wrench with just few $$.

I used 2 ball bearings and two 1/4" bit holders.

In my wrench lever length is 6 inches, if you put 2.5lbs of water in the bottle you get 15in lbs of torque when lever is horizontal.

How to use this wrench ? Hold the lever horizontal and insert the hex bit in the screw head. If lever rotates (clockwise) it means wanted torque value wasn't reached.
Remove the bit from the screw, put the lever horizonal and start again.
When lever remain level it means you have reached wanted torque value.

Otherway you can leave the lever vertical (zero torque)insert the hex bit in the screwhead and rotate your gun counterclockwise till the lever will go horizontal (just mount this wrench on a table so that you can freely rotate your gun)
 
and: http://www.shootingtimes.com/optics/optics_st_mountingmistakes_200812/

Consider: Available at http://www.amazon.com/Warne-Scope-Mounts-Torque-25-Inch/dp/B0053FPHJG
for less than $20.
51hY7keRWoL._SL1500_.jpg
 
That's a pretty good deal on that. I'm just wondering if 25 isn't too much? Still gotta be better than way over tight.
 
The consensus is 15-18 in-lb. Read as much as you can because I admit this is not a field I have any personal expertise in. I just passed on what others were saying about scope mounting.
RTFM.

edit: I just noticed that the wrench pic showed 25 in-lb as you said. Get the right size. I missed that.
 
Doing some reading and people are all over the place on torque wrenches, how much, and just plain flat out tighten it ALL THE WAY and with loctite. Some say not enough difference to matter between say 20 and 28 inch pounds, others say split the difference. Someone inquired about the specific rings I'll be using and the recommended value is a max of 28 so I'm going to call the Warn wrench good to go and try the the free trial of amazon prime.
 
I've been watching some of the Leupold scope mounting videos. Leupold-Stevens, also Redfield.

The guy goes through mounting scopes on different systems using basic tools and does it in a way that doesn't make one feel like YOU MUST BE A GUNSMITH to properly mount a scope, rings, and bases. In fact, doesn't use a torque wrench at all and even says that the recommended torque is 18-22 inch pounds and that his is probably over torqued after doing it simply with a torx driver.
 
Just tried to mechanically zero the scope as is shown in Leupold videos using a mirror. I maxed out the elevation and crosshairs are still significantly off.
 
I set the scope in the new rings. I'd still have to raise the font of the scope a quarter inch to make it right. At that point, the scope is obviously misaligned to the receiver.
 
1/4"??? Holy cow!

Are the rings a matched pair?

If the gun was off that much you could see it with the naked eye just looking at the gun.
 
1/4"??? Holy cow!

Are the rings a matched pair?

If the gun was off that much you could see it with the naked eye just looking at the gun.

The rings are a new matched set in the package of Leupold STD high rings and bases. I have the benefit of having irons as well, not that they co-witness but I adjusted the irons to the laser bore sight which didn't require extreme adjustment. Then I set the scope in the rings and didn't have enough adjustment for either windage or elevation. Both were maxed. I took the top ring off and raised the scope till it was on the laser dot and checked height which was a quarter inch.
 
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