Mounting and Sighting the new Pew Scope

When I went to the rifle range a couple months ago, I was surprised by a catastrophic failure. I had taken my stepson out to sight in his rifle and took one of my favorites out to shoot as well. Imagine our surprise when I picked it up and couldn't see a thing through it!

Apparently, the scope was damaged in our cross-country move a few months ago bouncing around in the back of the truck. Yes, it was in a case, but a softshell case, not a hard shell case. Lesson learned there.

This was the good news. Vortex scopes carry an Unlimited, Unconditional, Lifetime Warranty (transferrable). I looked at their website, filled out their form and mailed it back to Vortex. 5 days later, I had a brand new Scope. Wow, fantastic. Vortex is not the creme of the crop in scopes, but it's comparable to scopes two or even three times the cost. It's one of my favorite brands for that reason, I have multiple rifles that need good glass, and can't afford the Nightforce or Kahles, etc. for all of them.

This is my current favorite scope, 5-25 X 56 FFP. I've got it on multiple rifles. The 5-25 is the zoom capability, and the 56mm is the objective lens size, the larger this is, the better light gathering the scope is for dawn/dusk hours.

The FFP is First Focal Plane. This means the size of the reticle changes with the zoom power. It uses mils for measurement rather than previous standard U.S. Minute of Angle (MOA) measurement. I prefer this because then what ever distance I am shooting and whatever power zoom, 1 mil equals 1 mil. It makes it far easier and faster when making adjustments than doing the math for MOA scopes.

One of the other things I love about this scope is the little quick zoom lever that can be attached. Rather than having to reach up, grab the zoom knob and twist it, it can quickly adjust the zoom by just pushing this lever with the thumb or finger. It is so valuable when hunting to go from wide angle view to tight zoom for longer distance with just that quick flip, and less hand movement to spook game.

Let's move on to the base. I use a quick release base so that I can quickly and easily swap to my thermal vision scope if desired and then quickly swap back to this scope without losing zero. That is the silver levers pictured here. I then use a one-piece mount from Burris, that uses six screws to secure the rings around the scope. I love the six screws rather than four. This allows me to use only the center screws in front and back mount to adjust the scope's level, then snug them to hold the scope steady while I apply locktite (removeable blue!) to the other screws and tighten them down, following that I then remove the center screws, apply the locktite and re-tighten all using a torque wrench. This works especially well on large, hard kicking calibers to ensure the scope does not move. It's not quite needed on this one that has minimal kick, but I like to use consistent methods in all my mounting.

The scope rings are Burris XTR signature rings. These are unique in that they have different sized plastic inserts that allow adding cant or shim capability at 10, 20, 30 degree slope. If you look closely, you'll see these inserts are slightly different thickness. Long-Range shooters often add a ramp or shim to their mount to tilt or cant the scope slightly downwards. This allows for more scope movement to dial in changes to longer ranges possible than without the shim before running out of scope travel or "clicks". The shims can even be used sideways to correct a weapon that "shoots sideways". I actually used a "0" inserts on this rifle, as my base mount already has 20 degree slope in it.

Very important when mounting a scope is to properly tighten, or "torque" the screws. If they are not tight enough, the scope could work loose and ruin accuracy. If they are too tight, the scope could actually be damaged and ruined. The way to do this is with a torque wrench. My favorite is a "Fat Wrench" pictured here.

Next comes mounting the scope, this is critical to ensure the scope is mounted level to the rifle. If not, when you adjust up or down, you could actually be adjusting sideways. This would not be good. When trying to sight-in a friends rifle last year, he went through 60 rounds of ammunition and could never get it sighted in. Once I shot a few rounds through it, I noticed right away that the scope was canted. We took it home, remounted and had it sighted-in with less than 5 shots on the next outing.

My process for levelling the scope uses a nifty little trick and starts like this. I place the rifle and scope loosely fastened on it's bipod and sandbag to hold it steady. Make sure the rifle is level, I use a separate tool to check rifle level (not pictured).

Now here's the tricky part, I hang a weight from a piece of paracord in the doorway. Paracord works well because of it's thickness. This provide a string like a carpenters string that is perfectly level.

I then just look through the scope and align the vertical crosshair with the string! It works even better in this scope, which also has lighted reticle if desired. It is super easy to see if the crosshair is even slightly mis-aligned with the string and then just turn the scope inside the loose mount to correct. Then tighten the screws to hold it in place.

If you've never tried this method, I highly encourage you to try it. I've used many methods through the years including several "specialized" tools and this just flat out beats all of them.

I then used a laser boresight tool to get the scope zero starting point initially set.
Then it was off to the range!

Here's the after action shots. Ignore the center target, that's where I was adjusting the sight. The four corners are 5 shots each, with the final grouping being in the Top Left corner. The squares are one inch across, and the shots easily fit in under half that. My next set will be shooting at half-inch squares, and then extending the range.

Tech Specs:
Rifle pictured is a Sako Bolt Action chambered in .22-250 with a fluted barrel and single-set trigger. Atlas Bipod, and Boyd's AT-One stock with adjustable comb and stock length.

Scope is Vortex StrikeEagle 5-25x56 FFP MRAD.
Rings Burris XTR Signature.

Happy Pew Day!