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Scope elevation travel question.

Probably a dumb question but the NF benchrest scope says it has 40moa of elevation travel. Is that total or on each side of center? So 40 each direction or 40 moa total?

I was thinking of shooting my 6br at 1000 tomorrow but was trying to make sure I have enough elevation to get there. I thought I had a 20moa rail installed but turns out it's a flat rail. Strelok says I need 32.4 moa so if the scope is just 40 moa total or 20 each side of center I'm out of luck.
 
That is 40 total. A set of Burris signature XTR rings that allow you to put moa inserts in the mount would give you enough moa to get to 1000.

I have mine set up so that my zero is less than 1 turn from the bottom. That way I can turn down till it stops and then go up to the first zero. That also starts me in the linear portion of adjustment and I get 31 moa of full adjustment before it stops 1 for 1 clicks.

Once you get everything set up you need to shoot a tall target to know what you really have

David
 
With the 20 MOA canted rail I still needed 22 MOA to get on at 100 yards with my NF Benchrest. This did not leave enough adjustment to reach 1000 yds. I sent it back to NightForce and they sent it back saying it was within their spec. I sold it stating that it did not have enough travel to get me home. I bought a S&B after I called the customer service and they said their 12X50X56 PMII had 75 MOA of travel and I bought one. Unfortunately you pay a price in weight with the S&B.
 
I looked and I have a pair of Burris XTR Signature rings on the rifle. I think right now I have the +/- 0 and +/- 5 inserts in there. I also have a pair of 10 moa inserts and 2 pair of 20 moa inserts.

Since I need 32moa it would probably be smart to put a 20moa rail on it.

I don't totally understand the Burris inserts. If I put 2 pairs of 20moa inserts in, the back pair sloped up and the front pair sloped down. Does that offset the scope 20 moa or 40 moa.
 
The way I read it from Burris is you put the -20 in the front bottom ring and the +20 in the rear bottom ring and it is supposed to give you a total of 40 MOA. You better read the part on ring spacing also as how far your rings are spaced determines how much MOA you are going to actually get. I like the Burris XTR Signature rings and they do work. Be sure to check the chart on ring spacing though.
 
With the 20 MOA canted rail I still needed 22 MOA to get on at 100 yards with my NF Benchrest. This did not leave enough adjustment to reach 1000 yds. I sent it back to NightForce and they sent it back saying it was within their spec. I sold it stating that it did not have enough travel to get me home. I bought a S&B after I called the customer service and they said their 12X50X56 PMII had 75 MOA of travel and I bought one. Unfortunately you pay a price in weight with the S&B.
This only makes sense if you mounted the canted rail in reverse; the thicker end forward.

The NF scope has 40 some MOA of elevation, meaning 20 up and 20 down at mechanical zero. About 2 to 3 MOAs are required to get to 100 zero. So with a 20 MOA canted rail, your scope will have 0 down and 40 up at mechanical zero. So with the canted rail, you need to come diwn about 18 MOAs to get a 100 yard 0, leaving you about 38 MOAs to get to 1000 yards.

If you mounted the xanted rail the wrong way, giving you 0 up and 40 down at mechanical 0, you would need to come up 22 MOAs to get to 100 yards leaving you nothing.

With the canted rail in tge wrong direction, your S&B 12-50X56 with its 75 MOA of adjustments, 37 up and 37 down at mechanical 0, will be pointed 17 up and 57 down. You better remove that rail, because 17 MOAs is not enough to get to 1000.
 
I looked and I have a pair of Burris XTR Signature rings on the rifle. I think right now I have the +/- 0 and +/- 5 inserts in there. I also have a pair of 10 moa inserts and 2 pair of 20 moa inserts.

Since I need 32moa it would probably be smart to put a 20moa rail on it.

I don't totally understand the Burris inserts. If I put 2 pairs of 20moa inserts in, the back pair sloped up and the front pair sloped down. Does that offset the scope 20 moa or 40 moa.

As was already mentioned, the spacing between the rings is the critical item here. You need to measure precisely front to front or back to back between the front and rear rings.

The Burris site has the chart if you don't have it. Look for the XTR Signature rings user guide. On the first page, the chart shows that a 4.75 inch spacing between the rings will make the insert values printed on them match the same value in MOAs. So for 20 MOA cant, with a spacing of 4.75 inch for the rings, use 0/0 in the front and +20 on the bottom and -20 on the top for the rear ring. Note that Burris suggets you should lower the front instead of raising the back. I've always raised the back first because I disagree with the old saying of having the scope as low as possible over the barrel; I prefer to have a comfortable setup.
 
Don't know what bullet or velocity your shooting. but a good 105-108 bullet at 2800 should only need 22-25 come up for a 1000.
 
( too complicated IMO)
I would just install a 20 Moa rail or get a different scope that has enough minutes to get to 1K and still be close to optical center.
J
 
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This only makes sense if you mounted the canted rail in reverse; the thicker end forward.

The NF scope has 40 some MOA of elevation, meaning 20 up and 20 down at mechanical zero. About 2 to 3 MOAs are required to get to 100 zero. So with a 20 MOA canted rail, your scope will have 0 down and 40 up at mechanical zero. So with the canted rail, you need to come diwn about 18 MOAs to get a 100 yard 0, leaving you about 38 MOAs to get to 1000 yards.

If you mounted the xanted rail the wrong way, giving you 0 up and 40 down at mechanical 0, you would need to come up 22 MOAs to get to 100 yards leaving you nothing.

With the canted rail in tge wrong direction, your S&B 12-50X56 with its 75 MOA of adjustments, 37 up and 37 down at mechanical 0, will be pointed 17 up and 57 down. You better remove that rail, because 17 MOAs is not enough to get to 1000.
.
Deny The S&B works fine with lots of travel to spare. I shot a national record with it on 4/2018. Just went out in the garage an wound it out. I have 74 minutes from my 100 zero.

But as for the NF - I tried the 20 MOA rail both ways then bought a premium 20 MOA rail and tired it both ways. Then I tired switching the scope mounts (Kelblys). Then turning the mounts around. Lastly turning the mounts and switching them. Results were the same the testing took 3 trips to the range to try and figure out what was wrong - it wasn't me.
Ray Potter
 
Well turns out I had it canted already at 5moa. I increased this to 15moa with the shims. Shot at 1k today. Ended up needing right at 30moa to get on target. Still have another 5-6 moa should I need it.

For my first time at 1000 yards I did great. First 5 shots after getting zeroed were .54 moa. Then I shot 2 strings of 20 to simulate a match, shot a 198 and 200. I'm ready for a match now. I was worried about the 6br at 1k but no longer. There was even some wind and was fine.
 
Well just found out the target I was shooting at was a 1000 long range target perhaps high power so the rings were larger than an actual f class target. I thought it was too easy lol. My 200-9x goes down to a 189. Still not too bad for my first time at 1k and not having shot in a year.
 
.
Deny The S&B works fine with lots of travel to spare. I shot a national record with it on 4/2018. Just went out in the garage an wound it out. I have 74 minutes from my 100 zero.

But as for the NF - I tried the 20 MOA rail both ways then bought a premium 20 MOA rail and tired it both ways. Then I tired switching the scope mounts (Kelblys). Then turning the mounts around. Lastly turning the mounts and switching them. Results were the same the testing took 3 trips to the range to try and figure out what was wrong - it wasn't me.
Ray Potter
Hello Ray, it would help me a great deal if you had your name on your posts. I would never have guessed you went under the pseudonym "Stringray."

Now, I wished you had discussed your NF scope/rail problem with me at one of our matches. I have a laser, a mirror, and quality calipers and we could have figured out the problem within a few minutes.

I'm very happy that your S&B is working out for you. You said that you have 75MOA of elevation from your 100 yard zero. I checked the Schmidt Und Bender website to get the specs on your scope and it's as you said earlier; there is 75MOA of elevation adjustment. Now, this means that at mechanical 0, you have 37.5 MOA down and 37.5 MOA up. If everything is perfectly aligned, you need about 2-3 MOAs up to get a zero at 100 yards. This would make your scope with a 100 yard zero be set at 40MOA down and 35MOA up.

But you state that you have the full 75 MOA of elevation up from your 100 yard zero, so something is amiss. The answer is very simple. Your scope is on a rail/ring setup that has 35MOA of cant so that you are pointed directly at 100 yard zero at the lowest setting. You can confirm that by counting the number of MOAs you can go DOWN from the 100 yard zero. The answer should be zero or close to it.

See you at the next match.
 

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