Sighting in trouble?
 

I went and shot my .308 today. At 50 yards I was hitting about an inch high and all fives shots were touching. I was happy and thought, if I'm an inch high then I may be dead bull at 100 yards. No, I was hitting 3 inches low at 100 yards and the fives shot were almost all touching.Why would I be hitting so low changing 50 to 100 yards? Should I sight in for 100? Would that make me 4 inches high at 50? I only had one box of shells and it was federal fusion 150 gr.. Should I test different ammo? Please, any advice would be welcome, thanks!!

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

Sorry Chuck,

Something don't add. But yes sight in at 100 or farther. Honestly when you sight in at a given range, you can only guess where it will hit at another, educated guess but guess. Want to know where hit 300 shoot 300, 50 shoot 50.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

That sounded a little strange, so I pulled out the trusty old book.
On "paper" if you are an inch high at 50 yards,you should be about 2.5 inchs high at 100 yards. With a 100 yard zero, you should be about 1/4 of an inch high at 50.
Granted, this is "book" stuff, so there is a little wiggle room. But if you are high at 50, you should be higher at 100, not lower.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

The 30-06 is a similar round. If mine is dead at 150, it's an inch high at 100 and right on at 50 also. So if you sighted dead on at 50, you'd be 1 inch high at 100. something is really wrong with this. An inch high at fifty would be around 2-3 in high at 100.

What kind of scope you have?

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

Check scope mounts and make sure they are the correct ones.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

Of course ring heightis a big factorhere,as is the particular load used.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

The only way this would be possible is if your ammo is only loaded to about 1400 fps.And this would be with thelow rings - only 1.5" above the center of the bore. Taller rings would only cause the point of impact to be higher at 100 yards with a 50 yard zero. Something just isn't right here.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

With a 5 shot group, "all touching" would be a 1.5 inch group maximum!
At 1 inch high at 50 yards, moving out to 100 yards, the POI shifted 5 to 6 inches, but held the group! Amazing!
It could happen, but the scope would likely have to be moved, and then retightened, or else the group would have started to open up.
A hot barrel could account for some of the shift, or the scope moved, but then stayed put throughout the second group.
If everything is tight on the scope you've got a big problem, and I would not trust the scope for hunting!

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

I am not saying that the ring height or load explain this particular situation,rather I am pointing outthat they are factors that people neglect when they make assumptions where the point of impact shouldbe.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

Good point stubble. Wonder what height his scope is? It is truly amazing thoguh either way. We need to know more. :D

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

I bought burris high rings because the scope has a 44 mm objective. I took a chance on a millett scope4-16x44. I guess I might be paying for it.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

Check out your scope and the mount, make sure everything is tight and it's mounted correctly.
Since the groups are holding, once you figure out whats wrong, you should have an accurate rifle.
Good luck.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

What is the model and make of your gun? What rings (exactly) did you buy for it?

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

Voere titan II .308 Burris Zee rings medium matte. Millett 4-16x44

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

Don't jump to any conclusions, but be suspect of scope. Shoot a couple of groups with no adjustments at all. If groups hold then adjust power OR AO and shoot another group. Make small changes 1 at a time until you see an event.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

If the groups are consistant and small,I would not suspect the scope at all in this situation.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

I would sight in at 100yds the best I could and get it dead on at 100, then try it at 50 to see where it hits.

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

Thanks so much everyone!!!!! I am going to try to zero in at 100 yards and see where I am at 50 yards. I appreciate everyone's help and ideas. I love this forum!!!

RE: Sighting in trouble?
 

I would not suspect the suspention/crosshair of the scope in this case, I think it has a lense/alignment problem. I have seen MANY scopes that move point of impactwhen power is adjusted. Most areminor, maybe the width of the crosshair, but some are quite bad.For those that do not have a vise this can be hard to troubleshoot.You will see exactly what this gentleman describes if you were adjusting AO or Power while you were shooting. Those of us that sight only on the highest power would not have a problem once AO is adjusted.

Again not saying jump to any conclusions, just my best guess from info so far. But what ever the problem, good notes and observations coupled with logical/systematic approach to a fix is what it will take.

Which brings me back to shooting several groups with no adjustment of scope at all.