Who

I have had a winchester 30-30 with a side mount scope. It still has the sights on it so makes a nice brush gun.
I can use the open sights with no problem but when I start trying to use the scope all heck breaks out.
Cant hit the target. I even aimed at the bottom of the target, still cant break paper.
Adjusted a lot with no improvemen. I placed the rifke on a bench and looked down the sights, looked over at the scope and its about a foot low and a foot and a half to the left.
Is their anone that can offer any tips on how to sight in this rifle?
Thanks

tykempster

Did you tap the scope adjustments after you made changes? Someone who knows alot more than me should see this soon and help better than I can.

ChumleyHunts PA

A lot of the time when they side mounted a scope, they would have to turn the scope so that what is marked as your "Up and Down" knob actually becomes your "Left and Right" knob to allow room for shells to eject. Whichever one is on the top of the scope will adjust your up and down point of impact, no matter what it is marked.

Hope this helps.....

Who

What is messing me up (I think) is that my point of aim for the open sights will be so far off from the ones for the scope. Bore sighting is out. The only thing I can think of is to come up with a very large target backstop and then shoot at it. Right now on the range targets I am not even cutting paper.

eldeguello

It is IMPOSSIBLE TO ADJUST a scope, or any other sights, if you have no idea where the gun is shooting to begin with!!

We are asssuming here that your scope is functioning OK, and you have a good, solid mounting job, no loose screws, etc??

I suggest you go to the local gunsmith, and have him boresight the rifle and scope combo for you with his borescope. Keep in mind that this will cause the line of sight to cross the line of bore because your scope has some offset due to its mounting setuop. BUT this boresighting WILL allow your bullet to hit the target paper at 25 yards, which is the next step!

Now,using the ammo you plan to use in hunting, start off firing at 25 yards, and get the rifle zeroed at that range. After a good boresighting job, this should only require three shots or so. Use a big target frame at all ranges, so you are guaranteed to catch the bullets somewhere on paper!

Since your scope is offset to the left of the rifle bore, adjust the scope so that the bulletstrikes about an inch or so to the right of your point of aim at 25 yards. This distance will depend on how much horizontal offset there is between the centerline of your scope and the bore of the rifle.

When you have thescope adjusted dead-onfor elevationat 25 yards and hittingto the right of the bullseye the amount of the scope's offset at that distance, it SHOULD be at least on thetarget paper SOMEWHERE at 100 yards WITHIN MEASURING DISTANCE OF THE 100-yard POINT OF AIM.

Now move to the 100 yard range and complete zeroing the rifle.

Remember that an offset scope means that the bullet not only rises and falls in relation to the line of sight, but crosses it as well, IFthe rifle is zeroed to strike dead on the point of aim at some distance downrange! For example, if the scope is mounted with a 1" offset to the left from the line of the bore and you zero it dead on for windage at 100 yards, the bullet will strike 1" to the left of the point of aim at 200 yards (approx!!) since it has crossed the line of sight at 100 yards enroute to the 200-yard target.

In addition, remember thatscope sight adjustments are only worth 1/4 of their nominal value at 25 yards as opposed to 100 yards. This means that if you have 1" clicks on your scope, each click is only worth 1/4" when making adjustments at 25 yards;and it will take 16 1/4" clicks for a 1" change at 25 yards, etc. etc.

Good luck!!

mossy33oak

so eldequello, in laymans terms your bullet and scope line on an offset are forming an X (sort of) down range and his job is to get the place where they meet (the center of the X) in the bullseye of the target?

eldeguello

Sort of, yes. The line of sight and line of bore will indeed form an X if the line of sight is adjusted to cause the line of the bore to cross the line of sight at some distance. Another way of adjusting such a rig is to set the line of sight and line of bore parallel to one another, so the bullet's point of impact always remains offset to the side of the line of sight by the distance between theaxis of the boreand the optical center of the scope. Then for example, the bullet would strike 1" to the right of the point of aim at 100, 200--------1,000 yards if that was the horizontal distance by which the bore and scope are offset from one another.....

stubblejumper

Boresighting side mount scopes is not easily done.I would set the rifle on sandbags and line the sights up on target.Then without moving the rifle,carefully adjust the scope until the crosshairs and sights both line up at the same point of impact.I would do this at whatever distance that you want to sight the rifle in at as the windage will change with distance with a side mounted scope.

Who

The rings and scope are in good condition and I know of the gunsmith that did the work and know he would have did it right. I would take it back to him but he moved away several years ago.
I am going to get some butcher paper and take it with me next weekend. Will take two of the range target backs and make one big back and then place the target in the middle. This way I can see where its hitting and adjust it. This way I know which way to adjust it.

eldeguello

That should do it, if you can catch the bullet on a target! The reason I suggested starting out at 25 yards is that is pretty difficult to miss the whole target at that distance!