Something is definitely not right with my scope

urban

Well-Known Member
I have a Schmidt and Bender Stratos in a DNZ Game Reaper mount on a Tikka T3X. The scope has an indicator that shows where you are through the total travel of the scope. Mine, in elevation, shows that I have to wind it above the normal operating range (marked in green) when zeroed at 100m. That can't possibly the right!

Does anyone have ideas of what to check? There are no shims anywhere and the mount is tight down on the receiver as far as I can see. I mounted it myself though, and I don't really know what I'm doing. There is very, very little clearance between the scope bell and the barrel - I don't see how this could be causing it, but it makes me nervous. Scope, rifle and mount are all less than a year old.

I suppose I may need to take it to someone who knows what they are doing. Can anyone recommend someone in SW London or Surrey?

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Assuming you are happy with scope positioning in terms of eye relief then the fact the objective is so delightfully close to the barrel is unlikely to be the cause of your problem. If indeed there is a problem.

Is it possible to reverse the one-piece mount or does it have an injection port cutout on one side?

K
 
To be honest, as long as you can get it zeroed, keep it zeroed, and have no need to be continually messing around with the turrets I'd say zero it and forget about it. And your scope clearance is the envy of many!
 
...the fact the objective is so delightfully close to the barrel is unlikely to be the cause of your problem.

And your scope clearance is the envy of many!

Mounting your scope close to the barrel is not a benefit!

It will mean the moderator obscures half the objective lens and disperses mirage over the sight plane of your scope, this is NOT a benefit!

Additionally, it will make fitting objective covers difficult, and in extreme cases can cause the scope to be bent.
 
Not a problem. It's not a dialing in scope. Just zero it and job done. I think those are just indicators to stop you from over winding the turrets and causing damage.
 
Mounting your scope close to the barrel is not a benefit!

It will mean the moderator obscures half the objective lens and disperses mirage over the sight plane of your scope, this is NOT a benefit!

Additionally, it will make fitting objective covers difficult, and in extreme cases can cause the scope to be bent.
Have to disagree with you on this. As long as there are no mechanical clashes, and you can get a decent cheek weld, you can't mount a scope too low :thumb:
 
Additionally, it will make fitting objective covers difficult...
This is very true!

To be honest, as long as you can get it zeroed, keep it zeroed, and have no need to be continually messing around with the turrets I'd say zero it and forget about it.
I'll be stuffed if I ever want to take it for a play on the 600m range though. But more importantly, I'm reasonably sure that it's indicative that something is wrong - either with the scope or the mount - and I'd like to get to the bottom of it.

Seems like a common view is that I should rotate the mount through 180 degrees (which is feasible - it has no cut-out). The mount is not meant to have any inclination, but it's worth trying.
 
Hi Urban,

I would certainly try the mount rotated 180, just to see what happens.

You can get a rough idea by bore sighting it to see what if any difference there is.

Ideally you want the erector tube in the centre of the scope for the very best image. If it's a long way off centre, then the image will deteriorate as it's looking through the edge of the objective lens.

It might be something as simple as the dial indicator, not correctly indicating. At the moment it is indicating that un-adjusted the rifle is shooting very low, so either the scope is running uphill...or the barrel is drooping downhill.

Another possibility is a very light bullet strike on the moderator. I've seen guns with this that seem to shoot fine, but have a very odd POI.


Cheers





Clive
 
As Clive says, it is better to set up the scope so you are looking through the middle of the lens when zeroed for whatever range you need. I suggest you first take the scope off the rifle and centre the reticle using the mirror method. Then play around with various mounts so until when you look down the bore at the target the centred reticle is approximately on target. If you want to shoot longer range then you can get little plastic shims from Hawke that give you 25moa of tilt.
 
Upon recoil that scope could hit the barrel, seen that before and is not good for the scope. S&B scopes often have issues when they run in the red area of the posicon. Try reversing the mounts as others said. I would toss em in the bin and get a Spuhr one piece hunting mount that goes on the rail. 0 MOA as S&B Zenith don't have huge travel. Sometimes one runs into issues with 20 MOA setup.
I also saw the H... Hinten? Rear.

edi

ps, worst case one can measure the distance of the scope tube from the top of the T3 action, front and back.
 
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