just a little question about scope height and excessive use of moa to zero in at 100 yards

[acudaowner]

hello , i am a relatively new shooter , i had a sightron s3 10x50x60 30mm that on my 224 worked like a dream i took it off to give it to my father for his 22lr , it has a dove tail conection for the scope . The scope was previously used with rings for a pickatinny rail to switch over for the 22 lr the local shop suggested a dove tail to pick rail peice , ok we did it and its on not too heigh you cant look through the scope and allowing about 1/2 inch for the bell of the scope to clear the barrel my problem is to zero at 100 yards the scope is using 33 moa of elevation just to find the bore sight in my mind this just sounds excessive maybe i am wrong and since it now shoots the target nicely am i wrong that it should not take that much elevation just to get to zero at 100 ? or am i missing something else ?

 

[2aBaC̶a̶]

What is the total elevation for the scope? Is that 33moa from the middle of the turrets overall travel or from previous setup?

 

[acudaowner]

from the top of the barrel to the center of the scope is only 1.5 inches there is a 1/4 inch gap from the scope bell to the barrel and 2 inches from the base of the barrel to the center of the scope. the 33moa is how much up i had to travel in the elevation turret to get the bore sight high enough to be seen inside the scope on the target other wise it was about 3 feet difference between the center of the target and the bore sight green dot beam. The dove tail to weaver rail piece is 1/2 inch high from the dove tail to the top of the rail piece. visual it looks no higher than it did on the other firearm .

 

[2aBaC̶a̶]

What im asking is what is the total travel in elevation of your scope. If you turned the elevation knob all the way down how many moa would get you all the way up? You got to zero you should be fine. Some say if ypur at the extreme ends you could have issues.

I recently went through something similar. Bought a scope Burris XTR2 with advertised 90moa total elevation. So i thought center would be somewhere around 45 moa (middle of turret adjustments). Wanting to use the whole 90, qI bought a 20 moa base rail and 20 moa scope mount thinking i could push the zero to one end and have 80moa of adjustment to really reach out far.

Little did i know Burris already puts its reticle off center with a 20moa rail in mind so the 90moa was split more like 30/60. My 40moa left me short and wouldnt let me zero.

 

[acudaowner]

funny enough this is the page from the company it did say that wind and elevation travel was 50 moa , https://sightronusa.com/product/siiiss1050x60lrmoa/ and yes the local gun shop recommended so i purchased the 20 moa Burris mount it did not work but i already have a 20 moa la rue 104 mount for my other gun , that made it so high i could not see through the scope with my cheek on the rest . I did see a video where the guy used taped pennies to measure scope height and for my 224 that worked pretty good as i now have rings that work on it .

 

[2aBaC̶a̶]

Try counting how far up and down from zero it will go. youll know how much usable elevation you have left. Its good to know where your zero fell on your scope anyway in case it gets bumped.

I plan on getting the Burris XTR signature rings, they have inserts that can give you up to 40moa in either direction with lots of options in between.

 

[acudaowner]

there is only one complete turn and its a hard stop on the 4th elevation ring at number 9 24 clicks after the one full turn . I really am not trying to buy another mount i already have 3 20 moa mounts two burris one 30mm one 34mm and one larue 30mm that will not work on either gun. with either scope i mean it will fit the 34mm scope just the bell hits the rail on the rifle and vise a versa for the 30mm it hits the barrel on the 22lf it still may work on the ar but i am thinking it will hit on that as well have not tried switching to check .

 

[2aBaC̶a̶]

So 1 revolution is 10moa, 24 clicks is 6moa. You only have 16moa of adjustment left out of a 50moa scope. Ouch. In a perfectly aligned world you would have zero with 25moa up and down.
So you're really only 9moa off center to zero. Not 33.

Its fine if you dont plan on shooting out far enough that you need 16+ moa of elevation. If you want more, something has to change.

If that's the case I would say find the right rings. Sell the ones you can't use.
They make fairly inexpensive scope rings that mount right to the weaver rails and just get rid of the pic rail adapter. 10 moa of Cant would be good for you. Or check out the Burris Signature rings if you want to squeeze every bit of elevation out the scope.

https://www.burrisoptics.com/mounting-systems/rings/xtr-signature-rings


There is an article here https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/ring-height-info-how-to-measure-correctly.20706/ choosing scope ring heights. Basically compare ring height with half of your objective outer bell.

 

[acudaowner]

thank you for the link