Thank you for this wealth of information! I think my my best bet right now is to keep the 20MOA rail on the T1X and go with a 0 MOA mount. As you said that gets me out to 300+yards on the turrets and then 400+ yards with the reticle. I believe that is more than far enough for the 22LR shooting I would ever do. This still allows me a good zero at 50yrds.
For my next longer distance rifle (thinking of a 700), correct me if I'm wrong, but get a 20-30 MOA rail to put on the rifle and then have the 0 MOA mount? Does this make sense? Is there a combination that will work for both this 22 and say a 6/6.5 out to a mile or am I just going to have to have to get different set ups to make it work?
Also these are the mount I'm looking at.
@supra_medic13
I agree, I think the best bet is to keep the 20 MOA rail and choose rings/ a mount that are 0 MOA for the Tikka 22lr and the Viper PST Gen 2 that you have.
Personally, I agree with Eoddave27 that I do not like sharing optics between rifles. especially those of different calibers. When you swap them back and forth you will not have the same POI and will have to re-zero the optic each time. This isn't a major deal for some, but with 2 little kids at home I have a limited time available to shoot. I don't want to spend that time and ammo swapping scopes and re-zeroing each time I want to take a certain rifle out.
I agree that the ADM SL mount is better than the "recon" AR mount I was originally thinking. I just saw you said ADM Recon and remember their mount I had on my AR. That said, I am also not a fan of QD mounts for precision rifles. I still have an LPVO and red dots in QD mounts for ARs, but those are really 2-3 MOA or "Minute of Man" rifles and not 0.5-1 MOA guns. Almost all QD mounts are not perfect return to zero when tested with a precision rifle. I have tried ADM, Larue, and Bobro mounts. I will continue to use them, just not on precision platforms. Regardless, with my post above, no matter what mount height you go with, you will most likely need a cheek riser on the OEM stock with the 50mm objective of our PST scopes.
Next is you are looking into Remington 700 for your centerfire. You will see tons of data out there on them, however their quality has really dropped since 2007 when Remington was bought out by Freedom Group. If you are wanting a good companion to your T1X I would consider a Tikka T3X rifle. This will allow the T1X 22lr to act as a trainer so you can keep the same ergos, trigger, and bolt feel between your centerfire and 22lr rifles.
If you still want a R700 footprint rifle then Bergara are highly recommended and well reviewed. You can also go down the path of custom actions (ARC, Bighorn, etc.) and do a "RemAge" barrel on it. This is a Remington 700 pattern barrel but can use a barrel nut system like a Savage. This allows you to swap your own barrels in your house with minimal tools required.
Do you actually have access to an area where you can shoot a rifle a mile? I only ask since I am limited locally to 600 yards on private property and 1000 yards at rifle clubs/matches. We don't have state land where we can freely shoot long distances.
I will again completely agree with Eoddave27 in his below quoted posts. I have a 6.5 creedmoor with a 20 MOA rail and 0 MOA rings and the same PST Gen 2 5-25x50 scope. This combination is perfect for my 600-1000 yard use cases and I do not need additional elevation with this setup.
Lets again consult a dope chart for a 6.5 Creedmoor load and see what this means for MOA and our scope. The below table was created in Applied Ballistics using a current handload I am still needing to refine. The details are:
26" Criterion 6.5 Creedmoor barrel
147 gr Hornady ELD-M bullet using AB custom drag curve (more accurate than G1 or G7 numbers)
40.5 gr H4350 powder
Averages 2650 fps muzzle velocity with a Magnetospeed
Note:
Sound barrier is 1125 fps at typical conditions at sea level
1 mile is 1760 yards
We know the PST Gen 2 5-25 has 70 MOA of total travel, split to 35 up and 35 down. I have a 20 MOA rail which estimates I now have 55 MOA of turret travel.
The below chart you can see my load crosses the sound barrier at roughly 1200 yards and this requires 45.8 MOA of scope travel. So up to the soundbarrier, my setup has enough elevation in it that I can adjust 100% with my turrets.
Out to a mile I need roughly 96-109 MOA of travel and the round is traveling between 877-846 fps. This is not ideal as now at 1 mile the round has slowed down back through the sound barrier. This has the capability of destabilizing the round and it is much more difficult to calcualte the ballistics of where that round will impact.
To sum that up: Eoddave27 is correct. 6.5 Creedmoor excels in the 1300-1400 yard range with 120-140gr projectiles before it hits the sonic barrier. If you want to push past a mile you will need to look at a different cartridge. If you are ok playing in the range up to 1300-1400 yards then the 6.5 creedmoor is an excellent round and you will not need more than 20 MOA total of cant on a mount with your scope.
If the image doesn't show up, its at below link.
Link Here
The SL is the mount you will need and if the prices are all the same I would probably get a 20moa. Some of the matches I shoot go out to 400 yards which require me to dial all the way up and still use my reticle. I wouldn’t try to use the same mount for both rifles though. I will admit I’m not a fan of shared optics though.
I have a 20moa rail on my 6.5 and that is all I need. With a 6.5 you should be able to get out to 1000 yards with less than 10 mil which will be no problem. As for shooting reliably to 1 mile. I would look for a different caliber. I’m not saying a 6.5 can’t shoot to a mile. I know quite a few people who have done it but it but it is far from ideal for that.
I currently have a 20 MOA rail on my T1X and it will get me to just shy of 300 yards. I plan to buy a set or the Burris XTR rings eventually which will give me another 20 MOA.
For the creedmoor honestly if you want to shoot accurately to 1 mile I would invest in another rifle. It just isn’t the right tool for the job. 6.5 creedmoor is a very capable round but beyond 1300-1400 yards it will have gone transonic and have very erratic impact points. Now if you plan to shoot the Creedmoor inside it’s effective range a 20 MOA rail should be all you need.
Quoted for truth with the above statements.
