Scope Zero Check Thread

I had previously relied on a ten shot group for zero, but decided to see what a 20 shot group would reveal. Rifle is a Jon Beanland built Zermatt Origin in a McMillan CF Game Hunter stock with a 20” Bartlein 3B chambered in .308, with a US Reaper suppressor. Scope is an Athlon Helos BTR Gen 2.



1st shot was encouraging.



Next 19 were fired five at a time, letting the barrel cool long enough for me to walk down and check the target.


Indeed, the higher sample size, though close, is not a perfect match to the 10 round zero. I adjusted .1mil up, slipped my turret to zero and called it good.

John
 
Are you sure the image displacement from a hot barrel creating mirage didn’t cause the downward trend, we see this all the time here shooting f class and compensate accordingly.
 
did a zero check on my 6.5 for the first time in a year, last time out showed 1 click low and I wrote that off as shooter error. this time it was 1 click low and 1 click right shooting prone off my pack + bino harness. I'm gonna call it a loss of zero and take it apart to make sure everything is still good to go, mildly disappointed since I have put a lot, a lot of effort into making this setup bullet proof and it did fine on the drop tests in ~2023.

factory tikka stock heavily modified, area 419 rail jb welded on, burris xtr signature rings (likely the culprit, pretty sure the caps are only at 18 in-lb, SWFA 5-20, CGS hyperion.

image_cropper_1770747063592.jpg
 
did a zero check on my 6.5 for the first time in a year, last time out showed 1 click low and I wrote that off as shooter error. this time it was 1 click low and 1 click right shooting prone off my pack + bino harness. I'm gonna call it a loss of zero and take it apart to make sure everything is still good to go, mildly disappointed since I have put a lot, a lot of effort into making this setup bullet proof and it did fine on the drop tests in ~2023.

factory tikka stock heavily modified, area 419 rail jb welded on, burris xtr signature rings (likely the culprit, pretty sure the caps are only at 18 in-lb, SWFA 5-20, CGS hyperion.

View attachment 1019828
Lateral shifts wit those rings are not uncommon, the key to eliminating that is to lightly lubricate the angled camming surfaces so that they pull down evenly, running them dry will often make those surfaces offset.
Lateral impacts will then re seat them.
 
Yeah , I would, I have gone off them a bit.
These days I work out exactly what cant I want and bed it into a good set of rings.
 
Zero Check: 30 shots

Maybe next time I'll try 3 shot intervals over a day or a couple days.

42.5 gr H4381sc 2.680” 88TMK 22 Creed PVA 1:7 14.5” bbl 2750 fps

1030am 5 shots, light rain, mirage on shot 5

1115am 5 shots, light rain, breeze, mirage on shot 5

1150am 5 shots, rain, breeze, mirage on shot 5

5PM 5 shots, wind, mirage and smoke on shot 5

526PM 5 shots, rain, mirage and smoke on shot 5

613PM 5 shots, still, mirage on shot 5




IMG_0097.jpeg
 
Couple zero checks on a Tikka 243 Improved. Heavily modified and bedded Manners EHT, but it was bedded to a different Tikka action and is a smidge loose on this one. It has shown minor shifts like the one below with this action before. UM Tikka rings and a SWFA 5-20, which both previously passed drop tests on the action this stock was bedded for.
Zero check on the right was before a bear hunt. Some riding in the truck, one day out hiking and shooting for practice. Probably 100 rounds since the prior check.
Shifted check on the left was after dropping off the hood of my truck onto soft/muddy ground, then 4 days of spring bear hunting. It was .2 mil high. Going to swap everything back over to the SS action this stock was bedded for after bear season.PXL_20260504_174416319.jpg
 
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