Rifle fit? UPDATE

[velocette]

Well; maybe my face should be red. I could not get that Annie to group no matter what I tried. I had decided that the rifle just didn't fit me.
I had tried different ammo from the cheap to the very expensive, different rests, different slings, taken the scope off & re- torqued the mounts, changed the action screw torque, all to no avail and no improvement of the patterns it shot.
last night, in a last ditch attempt, I changed the scope, from the 4 ~ 16 AO scope to an old Burris 2 ~ 7, 100 yd parallax scope I had on the shelf that was at least 30 years old.
Today at the range the rifle shot nice little groups. I could call every shot when it broke and the hole was where I thought it would be.
Now my problem is that I will have to buy a nice expensive scope to go on it.
Damn, I feel better today, I now have an accurate Annie.
My thanks to all that offered advice.
Roger

 

[csmsss]

This is yet another reason to mourn the passing of iron sights on American bolt rifles. If you had iron sights on that thing, you'd have known straight away your scope was bad - not to mention should your scope ever fail in the field (or at the range, for that matter) you can just take it off and keep going.

 

[HKFan9]

Why not keep the scope it shot nice with?

 

[velocette]

hkfan9;
The scope I used to prove the original was defective has wide wires & only 7X
at 50 yds, the crosshairs covered a large part of the target. I was able to learn that my problem was not rifle or me, but scope.

csmsss
I have irons for the rifle & did try them. Unfortunately my eyesight will not allow me to see the sights clearly enough to make a determination. Truth be told, I prefer iron sights, they add to the challenge of shooting a rifle well. Perhaps in my next life.

Roger

 

[HKFan9]

Ahhh I see. For the money... I would get a Nikon Monarch. They won't break the bank.... sorta... but for the money they are a great scope.

The rule of thumb I've been told, and follow... is spend roughly the same amount of money on the optic, that you did on the rifle. I try to follow this rule as it seems to never fail me. I went the cheap route a few times. Through a nice looking BSA scope on my .17HMR, I think I got the scope less than $100. Sighted it in and it shot well and held its zero at 100yards, OK cool. Well I moved up to the 200 yard range... which the .17HMR proved capable, but the low quality optics became a lot more apparent.

Least you can rest easy the gun is not defective. When ever I am "window shopping" for a firearm when I don't particularly NEED another one... I get overly excited about the "low" cost of some rifles compared to some handguns, then I remember the rifle is going to be about double the price tag when I need a scope and hardware for it.