Photon RT Zero Help Needed

Patterdale31

New Member
I have a new photon RT on my Howa 1500 22-250 rifle. The mount is a one piece reach back(cantilever ) so i could move scope back for correct eye relief.

The issue i am having is zeroing the scope as it is perfect all the time left/right but when trying to sort the elevation it was hitting the floor 15 yards in front of target and the target being 2ft off the floor. i tried shimming rear mount with 2 strips of tin with no change so i used a 1mm plastic packer for trial purposes and still had no where near enough adjustment on photon y axis. I am seeing if anyone has had same issues or can help or if anyone uses bore lasers and find they work. Or if i am doing something completely wrong.
The day scope i took off was bang on zero.

Thanks for any information in advanced.
 
I have read many people have similar problems. Adjustable Sportsmatch mounts have been one of the popular solutions.

With my Yukon XT I also used a one piece reach back mount because I wanted to swap the scope between different rifles.

I ended up having to slacken the four clamping screws on the split rings between the tube body and the camera section. The camera body has a spherical section / gimbal and can be swung around a little...just enough for me to get to zero with the electronic adjustment on the 22LR Finnfire.

On the XT the screws heads are covered with paint which comes out easily.

Alan
 
My 5x42 Photon took 2mm of brass shim under the rear mount to zero then it was fine till i dropped it ,but its replacement zeroed with no shim at all .A common tail every Photon zeros different and all say what Alan said adjustable sportsmatch are best option if yours wont play ball.
Try contacting Fizzbangwallop he,s on here and n.v forum and knows his way around these issues atb
 
Likewise. I had to shim the rear of my Photon RT using aluminium coke cans in order to get on target. It's absolutely terrible that this is needed an in my eyes you should send it back and swap it for another. Hopefully the next one you receive wont need any shimming.

Although people use adjustable mounts, in my eyes thats just another thing that can go wrong or get knocked out of zero. The less to go wrong the better!
 
I had the same problem with my Photon. I used old 35mm film leader. You find in with the negatives in your photos (remember them :)).
Two or three layers sorted the job. They are fitted under the scope tube in the rear mount.
 
If shimming doesn't work, you can either release and adjust the clamps as mentioned, voiding the warranty, or get some adjustable rings/mounts. I've got Sportsmatch om the rimfire, and Burris Signature on the .308.
Are you zeroing with or without the end cap in place? ie, through the pinhole!
 
I have a new photon RT on my Howa 1500 22-250 rifle. The mount is a one piece reach back(cantilever ) so i could move scope back for correct eye relief.

The issue i am having is zeroing the scope as it is perfect all the time left/right but when trying to sort the elevation it was hitting the floor 15 yards in front of target and the target being 2ft off the floor. i tried shimming rear mount with 2 strips of tin with no change so i used a 1mm plastic packer for trial purposes and still had no where near enough adjustment on photon y axis. I am seeing if anyone has had same issues or can help or if anyone uses bore lasers and find they work. Or if i am doing something completely wrong.
The day scope i took off was bang on zero.

Thanks for any information in advanced.

Forget the bore laser, you already know the elevation zero is way off. I packed my Photon rear mount with .25mm brass shim and now my .22lr zeros at 50yards at an elevation setting of -17 (of 50) so good enough for me. I would have suggested something amiss with the mounts, but as the day scope zeroed perfectly I doubt the mounts are the problem. As a long shot (no pun intended) you could try swapping the mounts front to back but to be honest I think there is something else amiss here if packing the rear mount by 1mm didn't improved things noticeably.

Edit: Should also have said, go careful packing the mounts as, depending on the distance between the mounts, it's easy to distort the scope tube.
 
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Edit: Should also have said, go careful packing the mounts as, depending on the distance between the mounts, it's easy to distort the scope tube.

For this reason, I used the one-piece Sportsmatch adjustable mounts.
 
Never use any other type of mounts other than adjustable mounts with photons in future, majority of the time there isn't enough correction within the scope and you need mounts that can do the majority of the work. Not normally so much with rimfires but with centrefires usually. I will only use Burris XTR rings and inserts when mounting a photon to a pica rail on a centrefire rifle. Then there is never any issues...bore-sight at 25 yards using the inserts to get as close as you can, the rings come with instructions...then at 100 yards with live-firing you are getting on target and have saved money on ammo. Also worth noting that the inserts don't work like shims, especially not make-shift ones and can in no way harm the scope but resolve the zero issues.
 
I have a new photon RT on my Howa 1500 22-250 rifle. The mount is a one piece reach back(cantilever ) so i could move scope back for correct eye relief.

The issue i am having is zeroing the scope as it is perfect all the time left/right but when trying to sort the elevation it was hitting the floor 15 yards in front of target and the target being 2ft off the floor. i tried shimming rear mount with 2 strips of tin with no change so i used a 1mm plastic packer for trial purposes and still had no where near enough adjustment on photon y axis. I am seeing if anyone has had same issues or can help or if anyone uses bore lasers and find they work. Or if i am doing something completely wrong.
The day scope i took off was bang on zero.

Thanks for any information in advanced.
Just buy a set of hawke scope shims of eBay. Done this with my last 2 photons
 
Do all these photons require adjustable mounts. I’m thinking of getting one and would like to know if I need to look at getting adjustable mounts
 
Do all these photons require adjustable mounts. I’m thinking of getting one and would like to know if I need to look at getting adjustable mounts

It seems to be pot luck on how they were clamped together/assembled. I think you can fix it yourself by releasing and adjusting the clamps, but that will void the warranty.
 
The XT’s are notorious for needing adjustable mounts....the go to’s are the Sportsmatch ATP66’s for dovetail rails and the Burris Signature XTR’s for Picatinny rails.

It was definitely pot luck as to whether you got one out of the box that suited your rifle that didn’t need adjustable mounts or fart-arsing about with the C clamps and the ball-joint to get it to zero.
I’ve got 4 XT’s upstairs... (2 x CF’s, 1xRF & 1xAirRifle) and on all of these, the factory had angled the camera housing to the right when collimating by adjusting the ball joint...evidenced by the amount of housing visible outside the C clamps.

Three zeroed ok but the one that’s ended up on the .22rimmie was a complete pita! I ended up taking it apart and shimming the camera board with 1mm washers on the 2 screws on the left to get it to point in the right direction. (Nb it’s easy to over-tighten these 4 backward facing screws that hold the housing together and distort it..not much more than light finger tight before its difficult to screw the lens back on). All of mine have been Xtreme’d with 105mm lenses on the 2 centrefires and 55’s on the other two.

But.....and it’s a big but! In my opinion, somehow we’ve been ‘sold’ on the idea that the way to go has been to use adjustable mounts rather than just sending them back as unfit for purpose until we get one that fits the rifle. Having got us down this path they haven’t addressed the issue into the RT’s.

I know it can happen but I find it hard to believe that there’s that many rifles out there that aren’t put together straight. Ok, there aren’t many scope/rifle combinations that don’t need final zeroing adjustment when the scope is fitted...or are there? Some of this is down to the mounts/ barrel/ammo harmonics but is there that much variation in manufacture?

The other downside is the limited amount of clicks x & y on the Photons that can be dialled in to the display screen for the pixel size etc.

Perhaps, out of all the XT’s and RT’s sold... we only hear of the small proportion that need adjustable mounts.

That’s me 5p’s worth! :evil:

Cheers

Fizz
 
I must have been lucky with my RT as it zeroed on two rifles, and so did the N355.
I hope you get it sorted?
Let us know how you get on.
Ray
 
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