Rookie mistake - check your rings!

[Newtosavage]

I've been working up loads for my new-to-me Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel. Looking forward to my 2nd trip to the range, I wasted no time once I got home from work and grabbed my rifle and range bag to head out. I had picked up a box of Hornady factory ammo, just to see how it compared to my hand loads.

I fire the first two shots at 200 yards (I had sighted in two days prior during my initial load testing) and couldn't see any holes in two 8.5x11 sheets of paper. So I pulled the bolt and bore sighted only to discover my crosshairs were way left of the target. I was perplexed. I had never had a Leupold scope move on me like that! So I bore sighted at 25, got on the bull in two shots and went back to 200. First three shots were a nice little 1.5" group with the factory ammo. All seemed well but then I had that sinking feeling of "what just happened to my scope?"

I let the barrel cool while I thought about it, and then fired two 3-shot groups with my hand loads, only to see them walk down the paper until they missed. Now I really knew something was going on with my scope.

A gentleman who was there saw I was frustrated and asked what the issue was. I told him and the first thing he said was "you might want to check your bases and rings, I've never had a Leupold scope move on me..." Of course, I replied that I always mount my bases and rings with great care, specifically to avoid an issue like this.

So I left the range shaking my head - which many of you know is not a good feeling, and very frustrating.

Once I got home, I looked things over and like the fella suggested, checked my bases and rings. Sure enough, I had forgotten to tighten the rings to the bases. They were only finger tight.

Just goes to show that no matter how much experience you have, you can still screw up. In a way, I was happy to discover that, as that particular scope has been very good to me over the years.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share - as a reminder.

 

[Legionnaire]

Friend of mine was having the dickens of a time sighting in a scoped SKS. I mean, he was all over the backer board. Hitting the 50-yard target seemed little better than chance. I asked him if I could look at his setup. When he handed me the rifle, the scope literally came off in my hand. Turns out he had installed the rings with the "claw" portion upside down so he wasn't getting good purchase on the Weaver-style bases. Simple fix and he was good to go. Yep, gotta check the rings and bases.

 

[sparkyv]

Been there, done that.

 

[FL-NC]

I have some TBI issues from a blast that result in short term memory loss. I try not to rush jobs like this, changing oil, etc. Also I take a couple of minutes to write down the steps before I start gathering my tools, etc. and make a checklist. It makes things take a little longer, but I screw up less. TBI sucks.

 

[dagger dog]

At 70+ years my short term memory is shot, one reason I stopped auto repair, didn't want to forget to tighten a bolt !
I like to use my camera along with a digital voice recorder to help me "remember" when I have to.

 

[WelshShooter]

I did that once with a scope mount for a Lee Enfield. The scope mount fixes to the rear sight using the existing screw holes but the front is mounted through the clip charging bridge, with a hex screw on the top and a wedge underneath. The idea is to tighten the screw and have the wedge, well, wedge the scope mount in place.

In my haste I had only hand tightened the front screw down and after five rounds I couldn't hit anything worth a darn. I picked up my rifle and the scope was flopping about. A bit red faced at the range, but an easy fix and a lesson learnt

 

[bearman49709]

I saw the opposite at the range close to 20 years ago.
Two guys were at a bench when I got there doing a lot of shooting with one rifle. After a while I started to pay attention to them, they would shoot adjust the scope shoot adjust the scope then look at the scope and fiddle with it some more.
So I asked them what was going on, one said they would get the scope sighted in then shoot again and it would be way off, I asked them about the screws and they said they were tight.
I watched them shoot it a couple of times and I don't know why but I saw the one piece base spread apart when he shot it, I told them what was going on and they couldn't believe it so they took turns shooting it so they could see it. I told them to take it back to whoever mounted the scope and they said they did and they didn't want the base to come loose so they tightened it down so much they split the base without knowing it.