Cold Bore Shots, POI Shifts, and Canted Scopes

[ResearchinStuff]

Forms approach is the way to go

Torque depends on the screw size. Ring cap screws are almost always 8-40 and do well with 18-23 in-lb. Base screw size varies, and it's always best to glue the rail on to help the screws:

Bonding a picatinny rail to an action

I’ve been asked a bunch on how to bond or glue a rail to an action. I had one today to do, so… This is a Tikka T3x and Leupold Backcountry Rail. The has a lip around the edge of it, it’s not flat with the action. So you lose all friction that would come when the rail and action are mated...

rokslide.com

Cross bolts to hold the ring to the rail take about 60 in-lb.

 

[huntnful]

Youre right, that I can do. For that process, do you recommend backing out one screw on the ring at a time and retorquing it to manufacturer specs or backing out all the screws on one of the rings, while leaving the other attached, and then retorquing them down together?

And do you think I should torque them to 18in-lbs for ring to scope, 30in-lbs for rings to rail, and 20in-lbs rail to action or is there another value people are going by?

Edit: The gun does have a 20MOA rail that is included with it, factory installed.

Thanks

I would personally just torque the ring cap screws to 20in lbs. no need to loosen them first.

Then torque the rings to the rail at 50in lbs.

The rail to the action at 20in lbs with blue loctite.

The action to the stock at 60in lbs

 

[AM_Hunter]

I would personally just torque the ring cap screws to 20in lbs. no need to loosen them first.

Then torque the rings to the rail at 50in lbs.

The rail to the action at 20in lbs with blue loctite.

The action to the stock at 60in lbs

Gotcha, that seems to track with what ive been reading.

Thanks!

 

[huntnful]

Gotcha, that seems to track with what ive been reading.

Thanks!

No problem!!

 

[wind gypsy]

Where is the thread from the dude who sent back 3 Christensen MPRs that were defective so they sent him a ELR instead? And when the ELR was marginal he ponied up for a MTN forged build.

 

[AM_Hunter]

Where is the thread from the dude who sent back 3 Christensen MPRs that were defective so they sent him a ELR instead? And when the ELR was marginal he ponied up for a MTN forged build.

Lol dont say that, I dont need those ideas in my head

 

[willfrye027]

Lol dont say that, I dont need those ideas in my head

Torque it all down night before the match. Zero at 100 with 10-20 shots before the match. Start with box MV, maybe toss the first stage getting your dope correct and fix it on your app before the next stage. Probably will have a much better day, but I understand your hesitation to change things. Long range just works when you have a good zero.

 

[Harvey_NW]

The rail to the action at 20in lbs with blue loctite.

Shoot I go at least 30-35 on rail or base screws lol. That's pushing it with a 6-48, but I like to party.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

6-48's are a total joke. anywhere i run into those i also use an adhesive.

 

[huntnful]

Shoot I go at least 30-35 on rail or base screws lol. That's pushing it with a 6-48, but I like to party.

Yeah I was just assuming it’s the tiny screws. It may be the 8-40 screws. It honestly should be with a newer model rifle now that you mention it.

I personally bed the rail to the action, then the screws don’t matter much haha.

 

[AM_Hunter]

Update:

Torqued everything down Friday and went out and shot 15 rounds at 100, and was able to confirm I was hitting 1.75MOA hit with good left right. Re-zero'd and was good to go.

Next morning, my first shots were at 200 yards. Dialed my dope for 200 yards and while my elevation was good my first shot was left 2 MOA and then my next 4 shots were right about 2 MOA. Its possible I pulled hard on my first shot but how did I end up so far right on my next 4 shots... especially after confirming zero at 100. I adjusted about 1.5 MOA and left it there for the remainder of the competition.

My next shot group was at 800 yards. I dialed to the dope I had gotten the week before and managed to hit all 5 shots within the points ring. Not a great group but part of that is on my as a shooter as well as a bit of mirage at that range.

My next shot group was at 400 yards. I adjusted for the dope I had come up with the week prior and while elevation was good I only managed 2 on target. For some reason no body was hitting good on this target. Could have been due to the wind swirling causing some weird stuff at that range.

My next shot group was at 1000 yards. I adjusted for the dope I had come up with the week prior and managed 4/5 shots within the point ring and one just outside on the left edge. Most of my shots were on the left edge, there was intermittent wind blowing left which may have caused this.

My last shot group was at 600 yards. Again I adjusted for the dope I had come up with the week prior. I ended up getting 2 on target with a third that would have been on target but I got in my own head and thought I was hitting low right so I held top left of target and ended up hitting top left of target. No Idea where my other two shots went.

Take-aways:
I have no idea how I was hitting good at 100yards and ended up so far off to the right at 200 yards... Maybe by zero was off on windage and I just didnt notice it at 100yards. Once I adjusted after the 200yard zero left right seemed mostly good aside from windage factors.

My dope seemed to be good and the scope was holding up, at least for 800 and 1000. Doesn't rule out the scope as the issue.

Need to do more practicing, a lot more practicing, shooting groups on paper at ranges.

Now that the competition is done I am going to take apart and retorque and properly install all the components.

I need to send my strike eagle in to vortex potentially. I found a potential issue right before shooting the 400y group. The indicator on the base of the elevation adjustment that you count your moa clicks against is moving... I didn't even know that was possible as I thought it was built into the base so I need to take the scope apart and figure out why its moving. May have to send it in to get replaced/repaired. If I do I may just sell it and get the tenmile. When I saw this I lost a lot of confidence in my dope but I just counted MOA from my zero stop and it seems to work. At least for 1000 yards.

I will probably start developing a load for the 300, maybe shooting the 212s or 200s, something with a little less recoil to improve my ability to shoot it.

Learned a lot from everyone but the biggest thing I learned is that I still have a lot more to learn

For what its worth I still came 3rd out of 12 shooters in the competition.