Getting mounted

It's been one of those days; No, not a bad one, I mean one of those great days spent doing bits and pieces around the house and in the workshop and one that ends with a self-satisfied feeling of achievement. If only every day was like this.

A week ago I wrote about having the opportunity to test a new rifle scope which I jumped at; You can read about it here. So one of my jobs today was mounting the scope to a long range gun of mine.

I'll be honest with you, mounting scopes is not my favourite thing; It's not difficult, just kind of fiddly. It's a critical part of being able to shoot well using a scope, and if incorrectly fitted no one will be able to do so. It probably doesn't help that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to firearms and accuracy. So, I like scopes mounted perfectly, or as close to it as can be humanly achieved.

The issue with mounting a scope is really two-fold, although there's a few little tricks to it that can come into play also. Basically though the following are the main issues.

• Operator ease of use (i.e. can the shooter see properly)
• Is it level to the Earth when mounted

The first simply revolves around where on the picatinny rail, the mounting rail, the scope is in relation to the eye. As we are all different this is usually different for each person, certainly this is the case on a long range weapon. This position is also dependent upon having the scope sitting in the scope rings, the rings that hold it all to the picatinny rail, correctly as in, in the right position to subsequently allow the correct position on the gun to be found. So, positions within positions.

The second is critical, as is almost everything when it comes to shooting I guess. The level.

The idea is that the scope needs to track perfectly up and down when elevation input is added. If the scope is not level it will end up dialling away from the target as more and more elevation input is added. I wrote a post about this a little while ago which you can see here. It's interesting, trust me.

The scope needs to be mounted level, and the gun needs to be level, or the cant accounted for in the firing solution. This can get complicated so, go see that post I mentioned above.

So, the two non-negotiable's of scope mounting.

It's pretty simple to understand the importance I guess, so why then do I hate doing this job? That comes back to all those tiny movements I make on the scope and rings to get it all perfect...Again, my OCD nature doesn't allow for minor errors.

Above are the bits and pieces I use. You can see a t-bar torque wrench, two bubble-levels, an M10 Torx wrench and next it a plumb-weight and string. Pretty simple stuff.

The levels are to ensure the gun is level to the Earth in all directions meaning, pitch and roll essentially, prior to anything else happening.

Generally I put the rings on the scope first but leave them loose so the scope will slide slightly left to right and back and forth, just a little.

From there I mount the scope to the picatinny rail in a position I presume to being close to be correct based on my past experience. This is done with the rifle on the ground.

I then get behind the gun, settling into a prone shooting position, and play around with the scope to make sure it is located in the right position for my eye. It may need to go forward or back slightly. Once I have a good target image, i.e. the entire ocular lens offers a perfectly complete picture, then I lock it down using the t-bar torque wrench which is pre-set at the correct and appropriate setting.

This is where one of the little tricks come into play.

When the rifle is fired the recoil forces the gun backwards, so when I mount my scopes to the picatinny rail, and before tightening and torquing them up, I push them forward so they sit flush up against the closest ridge on the picatinny rail. If I left a forward-gap between the scope rings and the picatinny rail the recoil over time could end up moving the scope mounting position slightly. Remember, shooting is a game of very small increments and this scenario is a shooters worst nightmare: I mean inaccurate sights. It can render a great shooter useless.

So, that all has to be done with the gun completely level. Now the scope needs levelling within its retaining rings. This is done using a plumb-weight and line. The silver thing with the pink string.

I hang it up at about 10 metres away, normally on a door handle, and line the scope cross-hairs up on it by looking down the scope without actually touching the gun or the scope other than to move it slightly as needed to line it up. This needs to be done in a wind-free environment so I usually do this in my house.

When the vertical plane of the cross-hairs is perfectly in line with the pink string I check everything is level again. Then I check it's lined up with the string again. Then I check everything is level again and then that it is lined up with the string...You see my problem folks? Damn my OCD nature! You see, when moving the scope left or right to line up with the string it could also move it forward or back my mistake...It's a very fine balance to get it all perfect.

Anyway, after a lot of that checking and rechecking rubbish it's time to tighten things up. Some scope rings have four screws, two each side, and some only two, one each side. Of course the rings need to completely break in half so the scope can be placed between. The ones I was using today had four screws...And cue the issues again!

Clearly having everything done up tight is required. Again, if something moves the rifle will not be accurate. So in this step it's really important that the scope is sitting snuggly and both sides of the rings are done up exactly evenly, not all the way down on one side and partially down on the other as the retaining screws could work loose. An even gap must be present, which means an even amount of force distributed throughout the surface of the rings, therefore keeping the scope perfectly in place. It's annoying!

A little bump here or there, even the suspicion of a bump, and the whole process starts over. Hate it!

So, once it's all done up tight the shooter is good to go...After checking and rechecking then checking again, that everything is level and true, tightened up correctly and checked, for the one hundredth time!

That's the process, in a really basic format, of mounting a scope. There are other ways of course and some may not go to the effort I do, others maybe even more! Either way, like with anything with shooting, if it is not done right the result down range will suffer.

Scope mounted...Now for some shooting.

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Be well
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_{This is not meant as a tutorial or a how to, merely a very loose description around the method of mounting a scope in the hope of demonstrating that shooting guns isn't all about blowing up watermelons down by the creek with a carton of beer.}