Troubleshooting

[Joelski]

No chance the riser was backwards? Man, that would easily solve the problem!

[alamo5000]

No chance the riser was backwards? Man, that would easily solve the problem!

Zero chance. The problem was there when the riser was sitting on a desk in my house and I was out back shooting without it. The scope and all that stuff was tested on multiple rifles and was tested with and without the riser in place. The riser did help me diagnose the problem though.

One of the things that keyed me in was I zeroed the rifle with the riser in place. I had 12 ish mils of elevation left in the turret. I removed the riser completely and zeroed without the riser and had 11 mils left in the turret. I lost just over 1 mil without the riser. I should have lost over 6 mils. That tells me the cants of the riser and mount were offsetting each other. The difference between the riser and the scope mount was the only elevation gain I got using that configuration.

I can go over the math on it but the math all points to the mount. Which led me to keep on testing. When I mounted the scope just like in BoilerUp's picture I had all the correct elevation and it matched what Vortex got during their range certification. I did that without using the riser.

I also put a pair of calipers on it and confirmed that it isn't the problem. It's supposed to be higher in the back and lower in the front.

Another measure I did without the riser was measure from the bottom of the bell of the scope to the top of the rail. Mounted up 'correctly' with the cantilever to the front the bell was physically higher than when I turned it around backwards. That was measured with calipers as well. Canted scope mounts are supposed to be higher in the back like a dragster.

If Griffin comes back and says that's not the problem I will be amazed and purchase a different mount from somebody else.

It took me three scopes and a month to figure it all out but here we go.

Another thing that stood out to me is I put the scope on it's zero with just the mount. Without dialing anything and configuring the scope as in Boilerup's picture I gained 9 mils of elevation.

15MOA = 4.4mils

If you took the native zero that Vortex got and subtracted 4.4 mils that's my zero with just the scope mount and no riser. The reason I gained 9 mils was because the built in mechanical zero is what it is. You have to add and subtract from that base number.