Setting up a scope on a rifle

Been working on some rifles lately and setting up some scopes and with everything out there on the internet I thought I would show my way to set up a scope on a picatinny rail from lapping to torquing the screws.

 

Before starting any gun work make sure the rifle is unloaded.  That means checking the magazine, chamber (visually and with your finger) and removing the bolt if a bolt rifle.  Gun safety is priority #1.

First off install the picatinny rail with supplied screws.  Make sure you torque to the correct in/lbs usually somewhere around 20 to 30 in/lbs.  I also used a little purple locktight but blue could be used as well.  I would avoid the red unless you want to have to call a gunsmith when you want to get that base off.

Next install the lower scope rings. After loosely fitting the bottom halves on the rail and placing the scope in the bases to look at eye relief it will be time to tighten them down.  A few comments on eye relief and how to determine if yours is correct.  Your eye relief will change depending on your shooting position.  I don't shoot much out of the prone and neither will Dad I will set his rifle up for bench eye relief.  This means that when I get into a bench rest position the scope is set perfectly in focus if I take my position with closed eyes and open them and quickly focus down range.  Though not as critical on a lighter caliber such as .308 and below you can still get in trouble if you put your scope a little too close and get a blackeye or worse if your not careful.  With big rifles eye relief is important and a scope with 3.5 inches or more of relief is probably wanted.  It comes with practice to feel comfortable with eye relief and recoil and I've even gotten comfortable now shooting with only one hand touching the rifle.  So now that you have the bases where they will most likely be mounted go ahead and secure to the rail.

When securing to the rail make sure to push the ring bases as far forward as you are tightening them down.  When the rifle recoils the rings will want to go forward so go ahead and lock them in that way. On these Millet rings the cross bolts need to be tightened to 65 in/lbs so I tightened them down using my Wheeler Fat Torque Wrench. One quick tip mount the bases where the tightening bolt is on the opposite side of the action.

Next, if your going to lap the rings this is where you would use your ring lapping set up. It's a pretty simple process but it does take a little time and patience. Lapping ensures that there is maximum coverage of the rings on the scope and reduces the chance of slippage.  On high dollar rings this may not be necessary but on the Millet Rings I found I needed to perform a little work on them.  Lapping kits come with a couple of parts and the first to start with is the two steel bars with the points on the end. Place the correct size (1inch or 30mm) into base and tighten to spec.  Hopefully they will line up but if not like Dad's rifle didn't, it might take a little work to get them a little closer to square.   

So, to start the process take the proper size lapping bar and lapping compound. Apply liberally on the rings and around the rings.  Start by tightening the top of the rings to the bases but only tighten enough to allow some movement of the lapping bar.  Start by making figure 8's with the lapping bar to start removing some of the material on the rings.  It will take some time and as the tension is eased on the bar continue to tighten up the screws on the rings.  Continue to put a little lapping paste around the rings as well.  I usually lap for a few minutes and then remove the top halves of the rings to check coverage. Your looking for upwards of 70% of the material taken off, but try to avoid taking off to much.  Less is better. 

After working for a few minutes remove the lapping bar and place the 2 pointed bars back on the rings and tighten down.  Hopefully the points will be close to aligned and then you finish mounting the scope.

Next, remove the bars and set the scope back in the rings.  Hopefully you made a mark on your scope on the proper eye relief but if not follow instructions above.  After you have the scope in place put the top ring halves back on the mounts paying attention to ring halves and orientation.  Make sure you place the correct top on the bottom and with the right orientation after lapping.  Tighten down until almost snug so there is a little play in the scope so you can make adjustments on the cross hairs.  Then you get out your bubble levels from the scope mounting kit and place one in the action and one on the top of the scope. 

Get them level and then take the rifle out of the vice and check with your own eyes against something that is near vertical.  If you don't have a fancy bubble level you can use a plumb bob (string with a weight) hanging from some where in the house and line up the Y-axis.  Yep it's that simple.  Next tighten down the scope rings.  While doing so take notice that you are tightening down the rings in a way that leaves the same gaps on each side of the ring during the tightening process (some rings actually have you tighten down one side but I believe that is a very isolated case).  This will take a little patience and once you get them mostly snug go ahead and give a final torque down to anywhere from 15-25 in/lbs depending on the recommendation from the ring manufacture.  I like to torque down screws in a criss-cross fashion.  After that check the rifle again by looking through the scope and making sure everything looks square and eye relief is perfect.  I always check the action screws as well and make sure they are tight and then it's time to head to range.
 

 
You can bore sight at this time but it only takes a minute at the range and why not bore-sight on the target you are about to shoot.  There are a few different ways to bore-sight and some require tools or gadgets.  I don't use those when sighting in bolt rifles since it's pretty easy to pull the bolt out of the rifle, secure the rifle in bags and aim the bore of the rifle at a target and adjust the scope to the center of where you think the bore is pointed.  I usually start at 50 yards and put a few on paper and then move back to 100 to get the final zero.  Should take 4 or 5 shots to get everything dialed in.  Well that's it to my public service announcement.  Enjoy.

Long Range Shooting Update

It seems like since Sam has gotten here I haven't had a lot of time and with our fence being down for most of that and me moving the boat to a storage place until I got it back a few weeks I finally got into getting a easier kicking rifle and doing a little long rang shooting.  I started setting up my new Remington 700 Varmint in .308 right after Sam was born and it gave me something to do during the downtime that didn't take a heck of a lot of time away from the house.  I've sent quite a few rounds down range since then and Dad and I worked on his shooting lane at the farm to create a pretty cool shooting range with steel out to 600 yards. 

For Christmas Dad got a nice shooting bench so we have something to sit at and launch lead down range. 

I've done a little work on my 700: Upgraded Timney trigger, Bell and Carlson stock, Harris bipod, lapped scope rings, cheek rest, KRG bolt lift.  The scope is a SWFA Super Sniper 10x Mil/Mil.  It shoots under .75 MOA and probably lower now that I've gotten everything done to it.  I just haven't shot any groups with it that I would call consistent enough to call "groups".

At the public range two weekends ago down here in Florida I was consistently ringing the 600 yard silhouette even though the wind was gusting pretty good.  I was testing out some Black Hills ammo and both the 168 and 175 grain was shooting well through my rifle.  By the time I got shooting some groups I had shot my 7mm quite a few times working on getting a new scope dialed in so I was a little flinchy so I decided to call it without getting a nice group. 

I am headed to Tifton and will shoot with Dad in a few weeks and will get on the 100 yard target and see what I can do. Shooting out there a long ways it's pretty fun and I've had the opportunity to do a little learning and little teaching as well. Dad is getting into it as well and I've built him a rifle as well that we will be breaking in the next few weeks as well.  It's exactly like mine without the extras but with much better glass.  It looks like a shooter and we haven't sent one round down the tube yet.

2014 Hunting

So needless to say since it's March and I'm just now getting around to putting the blog together for the fall deer hunt I'm a little behind. Well it was probably one of the best couple of weekends I could ask for as far as weather and hunting go.  I usually time my trips to Georgia around Veteran's Day as that's when we see the majority of our deer up on their feet.  The peak of the rut on our property is a little off from the GON map and I like to be there early anyways to see more of the chasing/seeking phase and avoid that breeding phase.  Sometimes later in the rut, the bucks get tied up with the does so if the ladies aren't going to club the men don't either so we've always had better hunting a little before the peak.  So I got away for a few days on the weekend of Nov. 6th-9th.

First afternoon had a does walk up under the stand:

A little later the wind/rain picked up as the front was coming through and I splashed a bullet right under a buck way out there at the end of the shooting lane.  I really need to get a better idea on how far those trees are since I've only missed two deer in the past 10 years that I can remember and both have been on that stand.  He wasn't a monster but was pretty wide and was worth shooting. But I completely misjudged the yardarge and wind and splashed low.  We gave a good look but never found any sign of a hit.

Well, the hunting got way better after that and we saw plenty of cruising bucks.  Two mornings later the wind was right and I found myself in my favorite oak tree in my climber in the creek looking back up the ridge through the set pines.  It's a really nice set up and I have taken more bucks than I can count now out of this stand.  Well not 15 minutes into the hunt I was able to take this really great video of an 8pt walking right under the stand.  He just didn't have everything I was looking for and got the pass.

After that the action was steady through the morning until a nervous doe came out of the trees at the far end of the lane.  She crossed very quickly and 2 minutes behind her here comes a buck.  He was moving at a pretty fast walk so it was a quick assessment (TALL TINES) and find a shooting lane and let fly.  Well he buckled pretty hard on the shot and in hindsight I should have realized that I shot a little forward but after some tracking I was able to recover him about 75 yards away in the thickest set pines on the property.  After grabbing some help back at the cabin we were able to sit down and get some good pictures with him in front of the pond.

Needless to say I was pretty excited about taking my largest buck to date and one of the tallest tined deer that I've seen taken on the property.  Now if only he would have had width and tine length.  Well maybe his sons will have his genetics plus that width.

We had a pretty cool moment the following weekend with Dad and Dr. Schuster as we were setting up our shooting range and about to launch some lead at a 400 yard target when out walks a nice 8pt at about 175 yards.  Dad made a great shot and within 20 minutes we had him found and loaded up in the truck.  I don't think I've ever been with Dad when he's taken a deer since it's usually me shooting so it was a great experience to see him take one esp. since we were all right there.

Unfortunately, we didn't find the right deer for Dr. Schuster but he was able to take a pig and so was Dad which means Dad is 2 pigs up on me.  I've yet to even see one up there but he finds one every year.  So, it was an absolutely great season and Uncle Bob killed his first deer as well.  Congrats Uncle Bob!

So it's been a while.  We've been busy and I haven't taken the time to update this thing in a while.  Lets see I haven't probably fished much since July but for a couple of trips and one memorable trip to Pine Island where we caught an insane number of redfish with Capt. Corey from Falling Tide Charters.  Give him a call, you'll have a great time. 

After that well Kate and welcomed Sam into the world in Oct.  We've been busy raising him over the past few months and it's been pretty cool. 

I did get to go deer hunting for a couple of weekends during the rut and I'll get a post up on that since I had some video but for the cliff's notes version I took a really nice South Georgia whitetail.

Deer scored mid-130s with some really crazy tine length.  I was pretty happy.  Dad took a couple of nice deer as well.  I've also got into shooting long range rifle so I'll see if I can't make a post about that as well.  Hopefully the stars will start lining up on the tides, weather and health so I can take the boat out. 

Fishing with Patrick - still early summer patterns

We had Patrick down here this past weekend for some fishing, World Cup watching and beer drinking.  We started off Saturday morning at Cockroach looking for snook up top as we had Patrick up on the bow with the fly rod casting to the mangrove points.  We didn't have a single taker unfortunately so we ran north to fish another couple of shore lines and look for some trout.  We fished Schuster's hole with no takers but a missed flounder that followed a shrimp off the sand and missed the shrimp the second time when Patrick stopped the bait.  We started seeing a lot of activity off the mangroves as the tide was falling out so we turned and started fishing the mullet and started catching a few trout.  Well it wasn't long until we found quite a few fish with some larger fish mixed in. Both of us connected on 22-23 inch fish and with the 19 inch fish we had in the cooler already we had dinner before 9:30.

Well you shouldn't "leave fish to find fish" but we wanted to see if we could find some reds and snook.  So we made a quick run back south and set up along some of the outside mangroves and started working the edges.  We caught a quick snook and had a couple of other bites but nothing consistent so with the tide finally rolling in we moved inside to set up on some inside mangroves.  Well my first hole didn't really produce much off the bat other than a catfish so we moved down to the cut and first cast in we were rewarded with a nice snook.

Well I thought that was going to be the beginning of something good but we really didn't get any more bites even though the current was just getting up and moving.  We putted around there for a little while longer and had some lunch and let the cut rest and ended up a smaller red after a little break.

After another long break and a finish up with lunch another first drift through the cut produced a quick bite which peeled off line back underneath the mangroves and took a couple of jumps.  Well after a quick 20 seconds of horsing it out of the mangroves Patrick was able to pull the fish down and out of the mangroves.  As he was getting the fish back to the boat it decided to turn and head back to the mangroves which in turn sliced right through the leader.  Either it was frayed from the mangrove roots or the gill covers when right through it since more than likely it was a solid snook.

The point of a lost fish.  

From there it was getting later in the afternoon and we were getting low on shrimp and still had plans on fishing that evening if the weather cooperated so we decided to load up and head back to St. Pete.  Well unfortunately after a great dinner the weather turned ugly so we decided to visit Cycle instead and have a couple of Doug's great beers. 

The following morning we decided to throw all the eggs into the tarpon basket with an east wind and ran off the beaches early looking for rolling fish.  Well it didn't take long to spot our first fish but without it coming back up again we really couldn't get an idea on where it was headed.  We moved a little further north to more boats and caught a couple more fish rolling as well but they all looked like they were on their way very quickly to Key West as they were making serious time down the beaches.  After that we waited a little while longer and saw one more possible roll but it was time to make our way back to the launch to load up to make sure we got Patrick back to the airport.  Overall it was a great way to spend the weekend and we accomplished everything we set out to do even though we didn't hook up on the tarpon.

Fishing with Vance - Early summer patterns

Fished with Vance a few weeks ago out of Cockroach Bay under some early summer patterns.  We started early throwing topwater to snook and had a few blow ups right off the bat but not hook ups.  Finally after moving a little into the back country did we get a taker and get one to the boat though it was pretty small.  So as the tide was slowing down we made a run north to catch the last part of the falling tide at Schuster's hole.  Well it was occupied so we figured we could find some trout in some of the pot holes and we weren't disappointed.  The trout seemed to be hanging off the holes though and some of them came from the thick grass around the holes.  The big trout of the day was one that jumped out of the water chasing bait 15 yards from the boat and took the shrimp a few seconds after it hit the water.

We caught a couple of nice trout and decided to run back south to fish some mangroves for snook and reds.  We got back and set up in some of my favorite summer holes and did pretty well. 

Some smaller reds and a nice snook at the first stop throwing up under the mangroves.  We moved to a summer cut and first cast in Vance hooks and catches his first snook. 

So by that point we had the boat slam all sealed up and were looking for enough fish to take home so I suggested we take a shot at one more hole out front where I've had some success in the summer and high tides.  It wasn't long before I got on a nice red that made a really good dinner fish for Redfish tacos. 

After that it was time to call it an afternoon and get back to clean fish and get the boat all cleaned up.  Good day on the water with a couple of slams and some solid fish with some diversity as well. 

Catch up post

So it's been a little while since my last posting but I've been busy fishing and playing a little golf. 

I caught my first tarpon in April down in Pine Island.

I've been snook fishing a couple times with Dr. Schuster and got out with Dad as well with Dr. Schuster. 

Overall an ok spring as far as the fishing went as we've had some really up and down weather but you can't complain at all with fish in the boat and time on the water!