need help!

[sffguitar]

Hey everyone. Well heres the dilemma. I just had a brand new nikon 3-9x40mm prostaff scope mounted to my marlin 336 30-30. I had it mounted at a local sporting goods store...they said they mounted and boresighted the scope. My dad and I went to the range today to zero in our rifles....My dad just bought a weatherby vangaurd in 270, and had the same exact scope mounted on his rifle from the same place I mounted mine at. So I sit down and fire a shot.......nothing hit the paper (at a 100 yards) hmmmmm, I fired two more just to be sure, and got the same results NO HOLES IN THE DARN PAPER! So I grab my dads gun and shoot the same ammount of shots, well I get a nice little group right below the bullseye. I take my gun to range master, he says he can bore sight it for me for free. he also says that hes had problems before with scopes being mounted on marlin rifles before and he has seen this same problem before. He boresights it for me and when I shoot 3 more shots it still isnt even on paper. Im pretty pissed at this point so I take matters into my own hands....I aim about 6 inches to the right off the target and a hole appears center and 6 inches high above the bullseye. heres my question.

what do you think is wrong? note that I have shot the gun many times with no scope and it is very accurate! another question....do you think the scope is crooked. the scope looks very strudily mounted...so Im not sure. please get back to me and let me know what you think!!!

[boneaddict]

Bore sighting is what it is.   The ole timers used to look down the barrel.   Start closer and move your way back, or get a bigger target.  Probably nothing wrong that can't be fixed readily.  Try to zero it and move back.  THis is a process, not an instant thing.

[WDFW-SUX]

The ole timers used to look down the barrel.

Im not that old

[jackelope]

i have no idea where you were shooting, but if it was the range master at kenmore...that guy knows his stuff. he has boresighted a couple rifles for me, the last one was 3" high at 100 first 3 shots.

the way bone mentioned is popular with bolt rifles, but kind of tough to do correctly with your levergun as you can't really look down the barrel.

start at 25 yard targets, get it zero'd then move out to 100 yarders.

[sffguitar]

yeah it was kenmore! Yeah...heres another quesion. Before I left I actually started to get it on paper by cranking the windage about 7 or 8 inches to the right. My quesiton is, is it ok for the scope to do that? I got it on paper at 100 and it was about 8 inches high at 100 yards...it was grouping that high though. so could I zero it now...or does it need to have an original boresight to zero off from. hope that makes sense.

[MountainWalk]

like has been mentioned before, shoot closer.
cranking the adjustments to their max is not good on a scope's guts. lots of stress on the inner workings.. is your scope canted any? thats no good either. any kinks in the tube from highly torqed rings? thats no good either. are they good mounts? some mounts leave one end or the other slightly higher than the other.

[jackelope]

you might start over with someone else mounting the scope...try putting a level on it. set the gun up so you know it's level then put the level on the scope. i have mounted my own scopes and would love to have a real scope level set, but have cobbjobbed my own way to make it work with a regular old small level. you should be able to eye it up close enough to make sure it's square. was it consistently shooting in the same place?
i'd pull the scope  and start over myself, and look closely at it once i got it off.

[ICEMAN]

you might start over with someone else mounting the scope...was it consistently shooting in the same place? ...i'd pull the scope  and start over myself, and look closely at it once i got it off.

Agree, start from scratch. If the round moves around on the paper after re-mounting....at maybe 25 yards to start, you probably have a scope issue.

You need to eliminate all variables first. You know the gun is accurate. You know ammo varies a little, but not a lot.... You just had a new "thing" done, this is probably the issue.

Check your scope out fully for any little mounting issue, they happen...

[Head-shot]

start at 25 yard targets, get it zero'd then move out to 100 yarders.

Yes that would be my advise as well.  I bought the bore sight kit from Cabala's with a bunch of different calibres that I have. I've put on and taken off a couple of scopes myself and it just made it more convenient to do it myself. Plus anytime I want to check the zero without going all the way out to the range I can just do it at home and get it close.

[DeKuma]

I bought the Magnetic Leupold Bore sighter.  You stick it to the barrel, and then look through your scope.  It has a level indicatior and a grid you see through your scope.  It will center and range your scope in a few seconds.  Then take it off, tighten scope and shoot a round.  That will show your zero point.  Put the unit back on, look through scope at where you shot, and adjust scope so that crosshairs align with the hole.
Works on some sort of paralax principle so that you see the grid, but you see through it to the target too.  Awesome little piece.  Cost about $60, but worth every penny!

[Gobble]

I'd pull everything off, scope, mounts , etc. and start over. I had a cheaper scope do that to me before where I had to crank the adjustments all the way to the right. The scope was toast and wouldn't hold a zero. If it turns out to be the scope the Leupold folks are great and will do whatever to fix it.

[sffguitar]

Thanks guys...I think Im gonna have it remounted...the range master recomended a guy up in everett so Im gonna do that. thanks for your replies Im so glad there are still good forums out there like this one...I sure get alot of help from you guys. thanks!

[Sagedawg]

Did you center the reticle before it was bore sighted? Thats when you count all the adjustment in each knob and then come back half way. For example if you had 200 total clicks, come back to 100. This will center the reticle and loosen the adjustment springs inside the scope. Also set your target at 25yds, and make the adjustments to be deadnut center bull, then move out to 100yds and fine tune. What kind of rings and mounts are you using? Could be something as simple as a loose base or screw. Hope this helps.


  Sage

[jackelope]

was the gun shooting groups or was it all over the place?

knowing that would eliminate some of the potential problems.

[sffguitar]

Jakelope! it was shooting groups.