Rifle Scopes Millett TRS-1 Elevation Range Problem,,

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I have a quick question about range of elevation adjustment. I just put a Millett TRS-1 50mm scope on my Remington 700PSS in .308.

While the Millett is a very inexpensive scope, it should serve well for my backup gun. My Nightforce F1 is on my TRG-42 in 338LM, so this 700 is my backup rifle for long range shooting.

My primary use is 100-1000 yards, with the focus on 500+.

With the NF on the 700, using a flat picatinny rail and the F1 rings I had no problem getting the scope zeroed at 100 yards, and had plenty of elevation travel to make it out to 1000 yards (~11.2 mils/40MOA up).

When I put the Millett on, I quickly notice I would not have this much range. Much to my surprise at only 100 yards it took about 18 of the 20 mills of total up adjustment to get zero. I have only 2 mils adjustment left. This is leaving me very puzzled. Of course I could put a 20 or 30 MOA base, but I should not have to.

With the centerline of the scope about 1.5 inches above the barrel, it should take about 1-2 mils from optical centerline to get a zero at 100 yards (bullet will drop 2-3 inches). Even if the scope was manufactured to have half of the adjustment above and half below the centerline, I would still have 4-6 mils of range up elevation range left.

Is this common on the cheaper scopes? I can’t see a reason you would manufacture a scope with so much range in the down direction? It would seem the scope is biased toward more down adjustment then up. With the addition of a 30MOA base, I would still only be able to get to 37MOA, which is not enough for 1000 yards.

Could it be I have a bad scope?

Anyone else have a TRS-1, and if so, how much up adjustment do you have beyond your 100 yard zero?

Jeff

 

[fdkay]

Re: Millett TRS-1 Elevation Range Problem,,

I have a Millet. I have not had the problem you are having.
A new scope should come from the factory optically centered.
If memory serves, it was advertised to have about 80 moa of travel, that would be 40 up and 40 down.
Are you using angled rings/inserts and have them backwards?
A two piece angled base with the wrong one on the front of the action?

 

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Re: Millett TRS-1 Elevation Range Problem,,

Great questions. I too wanted to confirm it was not a mount problem, so I switched from my single flat Picatinny Rail and F1 rings to an older Rem700 2 piece ring set, also flat. As with the rail, it isn’t possible to reverse the mounts due to the screw spacing. On both mounts the behavior is the same.

You can see the total range of adjustment in the pictures below:

This is the scope at maximum up elevation (pushing the scope down). The red laser dot is from a barrel alignment tool, so that represents the line of the barrel.

This is the scope at maximum down elevation (pushing the scope up).

Distance to the ruler from the optic center of the scope: 10 yards (30feet). From max down to max up is 8.3 inches, which at that distance equates to ~80MOA. That sounds about right.

The problem is not the range, it is the offset. The scope optic axis is just a bit less than 2 inches above barrel axis. That means when the scope is at the center of the range, the crosshairs should be right at 2 inches from the laser. Based on what I see, the scope at the center setting is about 4.2 inches above the barrel axis at 10 yards. It is like the scope is biased to about 20MOA of extra down elevation (and thus leaving only 20 MOA of up elevation)

Given that the bullet always drops from the line of the barrel, if anything you would want the scope to be biased the opposite way.

I assume that this is a bad scope, although I am curious what would be the actual internal problem.

I assume I am not missing something obvious?

I did pop on an old AIMSport scope I had, and did the same test. It has a range of about 70MOA, and when set at 40 MOA up it was right at 2 inches above the laserdot. That isn't perfect, but it does leave about 30 MOA of additional up range. Of course you will use about 5 MOA to zero at 100 yards, so you really only have another 25 MOA, which can't get you to 1000 yards. That scope would need the 20MOA base at a minimum.

I'll get a 20 MOA base either way, but even with the 20 MOA base I could not get 35MOA of adjustment.
Jeff