I just recently bought a Savage 11/111 Long Range Hunter in 300 Win Mag. I put Weaver bases on it with medium height rings and mounted a Zeiss Z600 scope on it. Before putting the scope on, I counted the click through the entire windage and elevation range and centered both within the range. After getting the scope squared up, I tightened everything down and began bore sighting the scope. Here is where the problem began. The scope was just slightly off on the windage, which I corrected with just a few clicks, but I ran out of range before I could get the elevation adjusted. It was reading high and as I adjusted it downward, I simply ran out of adjustment before getting to zero. Has anyone else had the problem? How did you fix it. BTW......the Zeiss has a total range of 280 clicks, so from the middle it has 140 clicks of adjustment. That's 35 inches! That is a lot of adjustment and I still couldnt get there.
Sighting problem on Savage Long Range Hunterrrecte
- Thread starter Carman
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
geargrinder
Well-Known Member
Is it a tapered base? Did you put it on backward?
Centxshooter
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2011
- Messages
- 281
Couple of things you could do
- If you have a bore sighter / borrow one - check to make sure you are getting actual tracking (vertical)
- Disable everything and check to see if base is binding (install front screws and see if rear has daylight) if so search scope base bedding
- Measure the thickness of the front and rear to make sure you dont have some odd MOA base
- if neither of the two I would suggest another base (EGW, etc...)
It is not a tapered base. In fact it is a two piece base (Leupold) and both are exactly the same (the eaxct same model number Weaver style base). After seeing the problem with those, I Tried the STD bases with the rear base having windage adjustment. Had the same exact problem. Going to try a 20 MOA base and see if that works. If so, it is going to throw all of the functionality of the Z600 scope right out of the window, but I can put that scope on a different rifle and go with something else on this one.
geargrinder
Well-Known Member
When you try the 1-piece base, attach the front two screws first. See if there is a gap at the rear.
If there is, contact Savage.
This has been an issue before.
If there is, contact Savage.
This has been an issue before.
Dr. Vette
Well-Known Member
Consider re-aligning the scope using a mirror. To do this:
- Lay a mirror flat on a table. Having a light source shining at the mirror from the side or at an angle also helps.
- Place the scope objective flat onto the mirror. No Butler Creek caps or similar should be in place, as you want the metal of the objective right on the glass of the mirror.
- Now look through the eyepiece. You will see two crosshairs, the real one and a "ghost" one reflected in the mirror. Move your windage/elevation adjustments so that both crosshairs are on top of each other. Your scope is now optically centered.
Personally I much prefer this method of scope centering as it's faster and easier than counting and keeps the optics aligned. Ideally with a Z600 you don't want to vary much from the optical center anyway when mounting the scope, so your best bet may be an angled base or Burris Signature Zee rings that allow you to add some adjustment to the scope without touching its internals.
- Lay a mirror flat on a table. Having a light source shining at the mirror from the side or at an angle also helps.
- Place the scope objective flat onto the mirror. No Butler Creek caps or similar should be in place, as you want the metal of the objective right on the glass of the mirror.
- Now look through the eyepiece. You will see two crosshairs, the real one and a "ghost" one reflected in the mirror. Move your windage/elevation adjustments so that both crosshairs are on top of each other. Your scope is now optically centered.
Personally I much prefer this method of scope centering as it's faster and easier than counting and keeps the optics aligned. Ideally with a Z600 you don't want to vary much from the optical center anyway when mounting the scope, so your best bet may be an angled base or Burris Signature Zee rings that allow you to add some adjustment to the scope without touching its internals.
Going with the canted 20 MOA base. It should take care of the problem, and the guy at the place I got it, who has probably forgotten way more about guns and scopes than I have ever known, told me that it will not affect anything concerning the bullet drop compensation of the Z600 reticle, which is great. I will let everyone know how it turns out, but he basically told me that even though the Zeiss Z600 has every high quality glass, the range of adjustment for windage and elevation is one of the lower ranges found on scopes. Good info to know.
Dr. Vette
Well-Known Member
Don't forget to re-center it...
And, no matter what the adjustment range on a scope you should never have to move it as much as you did to get it near zero. I suspect there's still another issue - which the new base may compensate for or may not.
Keep us posted.
WildRose
Well-Known Member
What range are you trying to boresight at?
Here's a suggestion.
At 25 yds fire one shot on paper. Adjust to where you are 1" low at 25 and fire a second shot.
Repeat at 50 yds adjust for .5" low. Fire second shot again to confirm.
Move to 100 and repeat.
If you don't have enough adjustment to do this then either something is wrong with the reciever, wrong mounts, mounts improperly installed etc.
I read somewhere that there was a difference in some of the savage's depending on the year of manufacture which required a different mount than others.
Problem solved. It was the bore sight itself. Never buy Redhead brand anything from Bass Pro Shop. Bought it 2 years ago and have used it twice and the grid inside the bore sight came loose......to add insult to injury, Bass Pro Shop told me I was out of luck. If anyone in management at Cabela's reads this, please build a store here in Oklahoma City and put BPS out of everyone's misery!
Does this mean you never took a shot? Were you trying to adjust your scope against a collimator (boresighter) instead instead of adjusting the scope to actual bullet POI?
