Scope Zero Check Thread

[Justin Crossley]

Drove to Cody WY with the 25 CM in my Decked drawer in a soft case.



First three shots were impacts on a 10" plate at 550 yards.

Next was three shots on paper at 100 yards where all three landed inside a 1" bullseye.

Then I went 3 of 5 on a plate at 1110 yards. Two went off the left edge due to wind shifts.



This rifle now has 665 rounds on it without a cleaning or a zero shift. Not a single fastener has moved.

 

[2-Stix]

Drove to Cody WY with the 25 CM in my Decked drawer in a soft case.

View attachment 893432

First three shots were impacts on a 10" plate at 550 yards.

Next was three shots on paper at 100 yards where all three landed inside a 1" bullseye.

Then I went 3 of 5 on a plate at 1110 yards. Two went off the left edge due to wind shifts.

View attachment 893431

This rifle now has 665 rounds on it without a cleaning or a zero shift. Not a single fastener has moved.

Do you lock tight, paint pen or nail polish all fasteners; action screws and ring assemblies?

Also do you adjust parallax for each shot at different ranges? Do you have the distances somewhat close and pre marked?

I have a Tikka, NXS and UM rings.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Do you lock tight, paint pen or nail polish all fasteners; action screws and ring assemblies?

Also do you adjust parallax for each shot at different ranges? Do you have the distances somewhat close and pre marked?

I have a Tikka, NXS and UM rings.

I de-grease everything, use Loktite on all the scope mounting/ring bolts and the trigger bolt, and torque.

Actions bolts are just torqued.

No, I adjust parallax if I notice a focus/parallax error but not every shot.

Nothing is marked on the scope.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Rifle: Tikka T3X Chambered in 22 Creedmoor. McGowen 20” stainless barrel. Suppressed with Polonium K. Wood Rokstok. High Desert Bottom Metal. Waters Magazine.

Scope: Maven RS1.2 SHR MIL.

Scope Mounting: UM Tikka Low Rings and Bases (using the provided threaded pins). All degreased, torqued, and paint penned in per @Formidilosus specs.

Shooting Position: Prone from a Walmart sleeping pad. Had to use the Jeep for shade as it was already 90 degrees by 7 am.

Spartan short bipod for front rest. Very low fill, lightweight rear field bag. Off hand controls the butt stock, bag used to "fill the void" is all.




Time/Activity Since Last Zero Check:

This ammo lot was first shot and zeroed on 4/22/25 during load development and 500 more rounds were loaded the same spec.

It’s since been on a plane ride and back from Wyoming, bounced around in the backseat of my Jeep and Truck for hundreds of miles, packed around for dozens of shooting days, and was used for the CBC last weekend and this week.

The barrel and suppressor now have 300 rounds through them and seem to have stabilized nicely. Neither has ever been cleaned sorry.

For the nerds like me… I have 3275 FPS loaded into my current ballistics profiles and used for hard dope cards. Today I shot 8 shots early morning off the hoof of my Jeep before “going for a group” of 5 shots later in the morning. Note the average velocity from both sessions. This lot of ammo has maintained 1-2 FPS for every 5-20 shot string average I’ve chrono’d so far.







Zero Check and Target Results:

No surprises.

 

[huntsd]

This zero is after 4 flights, riding in a truck for 1,000 miles, being hiked with, dialed, and shot with.

Tikka 223 in Stockys VG
77TMK handload
Trijicon Tenmile 3-18 mil ffp

View attachment 805853

what rings you running?

 

[Schmo]

what rings you running?

UM Tikka rings

 

[sargent]

Tikka T3X Lite .223, SWFA 3-9, Talley rings
I shot the four AAC 77TMK rounds that were left in the clip after hunting season.
Not the best group ever, but still zeroed (2" dot)

The zero on this rifle hasn't been touched since early October of 2023. Since then the rifle has ridden thousands of miles in the truck, shot around 750 rounds, and killed an elk and five whitetails.

Something happened and I had a wandering zero. When I mounted the Talley rings I didn't degrease or loctite, so I figured it was just a matter of time. One shooting session the gun was shooting about an inch low. The next session, it was an inch left.

I took the opportunity to change rings to Sportsmatch T084 rings, degreased and nail polished all the action and scope ring screws and established a 5 shot zero just in time for the CBC. I got out today and shot a couple of ten round groups.



The top group is ADI 69 grain SMK. The bottom is AAC 77 grain TMK. I think I'll adjust U.1 and L.1. Hopefully, I won't have to change anything for a while.

 

[Ucsdryder]

I’ll play. I didn’t mess with a 100 yard zero, but here’s a 936 yard group. 3 shots on the left were the group, 5 total shots on target, but 2 were from a different rifle. I’ll include a picture of the wind adjustment that I didn’t hold for.

Tikka 7saum
Ag composite
Talley lightweight rings
vortex LHT 3-15x42

By all accounts this setup shouldn’t hold zero from the gun cabinet to the pickup truck but it’s going on 4 years now without a shift.

 

[wind gypsy]

picture is of a zero board from a 1 day club level PRS match that took place yesterday.

 

[9.3koolaid]

picture is of a zero board from a 1 day club level PRS match that took place yesterday.
View attachment 896837View attachment 896838

"My mk5 rocks!"

 

[ResearchinStuff]

The ammo still sucks, but the zero on my 223 hasn't changed. Same 223 I posted earlier in the thread. 4 rounds yesterday, 6 today.

 

[Formidilosus]

picture is of a zero board from a 1 day club level PRS match that took place yesterday.
View attachment 896837View attachment 896838

No no- it’s all BS. People that shoot PRS prove that all these scopes (and rifles) hold zero….

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

Looks like what, maybe 5/30 that didn't adjust zero at all and maybe 10/30 that were within 2 MOA? Assuming those are 1 MOA dots.

 

[wind gypsy]

"My mk5 rocks!"

No no- it’s all BS. People that shoot PRS prove that all these scopes (and rifles) hold zero….

To be fair this is a far cry from a national level 2 day Match. I’d totally show up to one of those casual 1 day matches without a zeroed rifle and plan on zeroing it right before and grabbing a velocity. I’ll probably do that next weekend at a similar 1 day match. Rifle is zeroed for 140 JLKs. I’m not sure I even have 100 left so fair chance I’ll load up some 135 ATips and zero/chrono immediately before if that’s an option.

Wouldn’t want to go into a match without a cluster on the sticker first though!

 

[SDHNTR]

6GT shooting a 90 Hammer HHT over a case load of Varget. 10 shots. Inner square is 1/2”.

 

[Nine Banger]

My rifle had an FOB this morning. Fell Outta Buggy. End over end and again.

View attachment 854841
View attachment 854842
View attachment 854840

I have a hard time concentrating and am prone to mishaps and I had another FOB that someone with a higher IQ could have easily avoided.

We have a lot of warm season invasive grass here and it grows fast and tall so I was shooting off the roof of our Kubota. I left my stuff up there to slowly move a short distance to a different position and one of the live oaks we are known for in my AO swept my rifle off the roof.

It bounced once off the windshield frame and landed hard in the brush guard on the scope.


Got a nice deep gouge on the bell of the scope.



Zero shift was better than expected.

I adjusted the windage turret .2 right and we're back in business.

 

[littlebigtine]

Mcmillan accidentally made me an extra mountain tracker LR so I decided to throw the 6cm in the new stock inletted for ctr.

Lumley ctr aics bottom metal fit perfect.

Tightest group out of the gun so far

Tikka 6cm
Omr 18” carbon barrel
UM mods + nitride
UM rings
Swfa 3-15 gen 2
tbac magnus s rr

Corrected .1 mil left for the new stock. We will see if it stays zeroed through hunting season!

 

[Wiscgunner]

Got a new Proof 6.5 Creedmoor prefit barrel from Stocky’s last Black Friday. Thought I was saving a bit of money. Won’t do that again. Spun the barrel on in April to get ready for NRL Alaska. No big deal, just a 6.5 Cm, easy to load for, have numerous barrels already. Long story short, numerous weekend trips to the range and Tons of reloads later still tryin to get it to shoot only to realize Proof was nice enough to include an extra small chamber requiring the purchase of neck turning tools. Nothing like turning 800pcs if brass to get a barrel to shoot decent.

Anyway, here is a 30rnds group once I got ammo to shoot decent. Still think I should turn a smidge more off but ran out if time farting around before heading to Alaska.

Rifle:
Bighorn TL3
ARC rings (lapped and torqued to spec)
Razor Gen2 4.5-27
XLR Element 4.0 magnesium
C6 buttstock
40.3gr H4350/CCIBR2
147 ELD-M
2690fps
Graphite in necks to avoid increasing ES over the next several weeks.
ES in the teens

Best accuracy around 2500fps

Easy to load cartridge turning into a giant PIA but oh well.

 

[Wiscgunner]

Practiced a bit in Alaska with my shooting partner. Final zero check on Wed before the match after adjusting scope further forward from the compromised position I usually have it in where it mostly fits me fully extended but also fits my little nephew when the stock is fully collapsed. Figured I would taylor it to me for the match.

On a bench at local range.
1/2” grid for reference
Standard fill OG gamechanger as front bag
Gitlite OG gamechanger as rear bag
A bit high but fully aware position changes POI

 

[Wiscgunner]

Left my scope attached to the rifle for the flight back to Wisconsin. Figured it would be a good time to test my system with the Razor against the impact standards of Delta package handlers.

Nothing like a free labor to test your gear.

First up
AG Fat bag for front bag, OG Gamechange gitlite for rear bag