Did I offend you sot_II? I read the other postings and offered what I thought was pertainent advise. It had not been mentioned that bases not designed for a rifle may fit on it. I agree that shimming is not the way to go by all means, and especially shimming the scope rings themselves. I have seen bases shimmed with success but still do not like the idea. My point is that if he is out of elivation and is not even at a 100 yard zero something is wrong. Correcting the problem then adjusting the rings slightly to obtain optical zero makes sense. How much ring do you think the smith will have to remove to get a 5 MOA elivation correction or say 10 MOA? That still would not put the scope even close to optical zero.