Buy a Rifle with a Mounted and Zeroed Scope: Guns for Beginners

1. What, pray tell, is a ” zero-tolerance headspace system?”

   • A marketing ploy?

     • I guess. I’m just trying to parse the words – they make no sense strung together like that.

   • When Savage says it, I take it to mean a slightly tighter chamber, even though it doesn’t make much sense.

     • That was one of my thoughts as well… but I cannot reconcile a zero-headspace chamber in a hunting rifle.

       In a precision benchrest rifle, that is lovingly cleaned, pampered, and is shooting brass that’s been carefully prepped, each individual piece measured, etc? OK, sure.

       In a hunting rifle? It doesn’t seem… wise… to me.

   • If the headspace chews a piece of brass into the shape of a gun then it is expelled.

2. Boresighted =! zeroed.

3. Bore sighting is a step. Not the last step.

   Seriously. Who would take a rifle straight from the factory box and proceed to hunt with it?

   • “Seriously. Who would take a rifle straight from the factory box and proceed to hunt with it?”

     JWM, You know there are people that do or would. It’s like people that take pot shots at an elk that is way out there without ranging it. Someone I met went hunting with a person like that once. Those kind of people are out there.

4. I’ve had scope fitted at gun shop and “bore sighted”. It was over 4 feet high at 100 metres. Had to put up target at 25 to even see a hit. Took off and re-did myself.

   On the other hand a very knowledgable friend and I did .223 a few years back and first shot was 1/4 inch off centre. One click and never touched since.

   If your not going to test fire nothing is sighted in. I have met brand new hunters who have never fired their “wonder magnum” applying for hunting permits. As the shop told them it was “sighted in”.

   • I found a good deal on a Savage 110 in 300WSM with a Nikon scope on it, it hit a half-inch off center first shot out of the box. And second shot. By the fifth I started getting flyers, it rattled the Weaver scope rings loose and they wouldn’t stay tight. I bought a one-piece Talley mount, lapped and tapped, now it’s a helluva shooter.
     Now if I could only get that elk hunt out West to stretch it’s legs. It’s a lotta gun for Tennessee hills.

5. MidwayUSA has some good videos on basic gunsmithing, including how to mount a scope.

   It’s. Not. That. Hard.

   • Agreed. Brownells has some info as well.

6. Let’s pretend for a second that the rifle actually does come zeroed. It sure as hell isn’t going to stay that way, especially if it’s a budget scope on a budget rifle. Not if it sees any real use. Hopefully the shop explains that to the buyer.

7. Buying a rifle with a mounted and zeroed scope is a fantasy. At best, the scope will be mounted — that’s the easy part — and bore-sighted. Not zeroed.

   Bore sighting should help the owner to get the rifle on target faster and more efficiently. But that’s it.

   I bore sight scopes for my customers all the time, and I advise them that it’s not zeroed and show them how to zero the sight when they take it to the range. The best that I can do is see to it that the rifle is on paper at a fixed distance. After that, it’s on them.

   The best thing for a customer to do is to buy any one of the many boresighting laser devices on the market. They’re inexpensive and effective.

   • It seems to me that Gunwerks mounts and zeroes their scope. They use their own pricey ammo. Double rifle manufacturers specify the exact load that barrels are regulated with.

8. I disagree. My first gun was a savage 110 with the scope package. Turns out the mounts were loose and I didn’t have the knowledge to know what was going on, so I gave up on guns for awhile. I burned through hundreds of .30-06 rounds before figuring it out.

   At a minimum you need to have half decent QC on those packages and not package them with junk scope. Otherwise its just a newbie trap that can sour them.

9. ttthat’s a hell of a good deal,

10. Good deals for a rifle but there’s no such thing as a rifle that you can get pre zeroed. Maybe factory zeroed like the Russians do, but that’s not a “zero” in the sense that you’re thinking. That’s just good enough to get you through the first firefight after the gun is thrown to you on your way into battle. After that you have to actually zero it.

11. FWIW- I bought a savage in 243 package just before Christmas for my wife. It is their old stock. After break-in, it was 3/4″ low and 1″ left at 50 yards. Adjusted and set it for 1″ high at 100 yards. shot 20 more rounds and it held at 1″ high and 1.5″ groups IF I shot not faster than 1 round per minute. Faster than that and the groups open up. Love the accu-trugger!. Plenty good for deer hunting in my neck of the woods.

    The scope it came with is a Nikon. I shot the box test and it was ok, but low when it came back to the original corner and inconsistent on the adjustments. Will be getting some better glass at some point.

    • I put a sub 200 dollar Redfield 3×9 on my .243 Ruger American. I’ve only shot it out to 300 yards. Works good enough for me.

      • Yep…if I didn’t change it out, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

12. Buy a Rifle. LEARN to Mount and Zero a Scope

    Don’t give out free fish. Teach people HOW to fish. But that’s just me.

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