Scope Alignment Issue?

[Silveroddo]

Sooo, long story long. I picked up a Weatherby Vanguard in 300 Win mag last fall and put a Nikon 4.5x14 I had laying around on it and it shot well and everything was right in the world. Took it out this fall to shoot it and the scope wouldn't hold a zero. I had a bunch of Cabelas points so I ordered a Leupold VX-Freedom CDS 4x12x50mm. When it came in I realized the tube was to short to use the rings I had so I had to get a cross slot base and medium rings to go with it(Leupold). I mounted it, checked alignment and torqued all the hardware to spec. I'm trying to do more of this stuff myself just to be able to do it and have the understanding. When I went to sight it in it took about a box to get it to 2" high at 100 yards and I ran out of shells and couldn't check it at 200. Today I tried it at 200 and instead of being slightly high at 200, it was 4-5" high at 200.
I double checked zero at 100 and it was still 2" high, I proceeded to drop it 8 clicks and the new zero was dead on at 100. I shot again at 200 and it dropped to 3" high at 200".
I'll upload a few pics of the ammo and the target.
Black Circle is the initial 3 shot group at 200 yards
Red circle is one shot to check 100 yard zero
Green is the adjustment down 8 clicks and a shot at 100 yards
Blue is a shot at 200 to see where things landed.
I was dealing with a cross wind while I was doing it so I'm not as concerned about the windage. Targets were set with a range finder.
I'm guessing I've got a vertical alignment issue and need to double check level with the mounting plate, the action itself, and the rings?
I'm about 2.5 boxes of shells into this so far for the year and just trying to figure out what exactly I have going on before I just blow through another box for the sake of blowing through another box.

 

[Silveroddo]

Target

 

[Silveroddo]

Scope, base, rings

 

[Silveroddo]

Ammo

 

[hereinaz]

You shouldn't be shooting higher at 200 than 100, so something is wonky. Wind shouldn't blow the bullet laterally that far at 100 or 200 if you were aiming at the center. Something seems really off. I can't think of an alignment issue that can make a further shot land higher.

I would shoot at least a 3-5 shot group at 100 and a group at 200. When something is wonky and when I used to try single shots, it seems that I always chased my tail.

 

[Silveroddo]

I’m guessing my windage is off to the left by an inch but the elevation is what’s throwing me off. The scope almost has to be sitting slightly higher than level to make this happen. Probably just going to have to start from zero again and double check the base and mounts.

 

[Hectocotylus]

I’m guessing my windage is off to the left by an inch but the elevation is what’s throwing me off. The scope almost has to be sitting slightly higher than level to make this happen. Probably just going to have to start from zero again and double check the base and mounts.

I chased this type of problem for several years thinking it was me being stupid, my reloads sucked, the vibes were off etc. Changed rings, remounted, did all the things to fix it. The problem was my leupold scope. Switched to a drop tested model and had zero issues after that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hereinaz]

What do you mean by "higher than level"?

My scopes are not level to my barrel when I have a 20 moa base on it, because the scope points downward. That's what I mean by there isn't a vertical alignment issue that would cause a bullet to hit higher at 200 than 100, a bullet is always dropping. I think it is actually impossible to do based on all that I know.

 

[Silveroddo]

Just grasping at straws and trying to figure out a scenario where it’s holding zero but shooting higher at 200 Than 100 yards. Going to have to put a few more rounds through it and probably hit up Leupold.

 

[HuntHarder]

Did you torque the ring caps to the same lbs? Front ring has a lot less gap than the rear. I am guessing that scope is in some kind of bind.

 

[Silveroddo]

I see what you’re saying, they were torqued in the pattern and to the torque on the sheet in the box. 22 or 25 in lbs? I can’t remember off the top of my head. I had put a set of alignment pins in and torqued them and they lined up pretty nicely. Something is clearly off though,