Scope Installation

The picture above shows the common practice of leveling your scope using a level on the top turret.  At Proeliator, we level the reticle instead.  It is a known fact that the top turret is not always truly level.  For more information, see below.

Proeliator’s Steps to Installing a Rifle Scope

We have many years experience installing rifle scopes and have learned from others as well as our own mistakes. We have found the following steps necessary to achieving optimal accuracy for your rifle

• 1. Schedule Drop-off Appointment
  • A one-hour appointment should be sufficient
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  • Customer to bring the following:
    • Rifle
      • Unloaded & cased
      • Note: case should be big enough to hold your rifle and scope once mounted
    • Scope, with
      • sun shade, and
      • all documentation
    • Rings and/or mount with
      • all accessories, and
      • all documentation
    • Scope bubble level (if desired)
  • c. Establish the necessary Eye Relief (distance from the scope to the shooter’s eye without vignetting)
    • We will spend the time necessary to identify the proper eye relief with the actual shooter.
    • This should take somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes.
• Mounting Base/Base rings
  • All components degreased
  • Secured with Manufacturer’s recommended torque
  • Secured with Blue Loctite (N/A for QR rail mountings)
• Lapping the Rings (Optional; if necessary only)
  • All rings will be tested for proper alignment and continuity
  • This is especially needed for lower-end rings but all rings are subject to inconsistencies in manufacturing requiring this step
  • For steel rings, the rings are treated with Brownell’s Oxpho-Blue to prevent rusting after lapping
• Mount rifle in a vice and level
• Installing the Scope
  • Install the scope indexing upon Eye Relief markings
  • Install upper rings; tighten so scope can still be rotated
• Reticle Leveling
  • We have found that in many scopes the reticle is not properly aligned with the top turret, which has been accepted practice for years
  • Leveling using the flat bottom of the scope is better than turret leveling, but still not as precise as reticle leveling
  • Our process aligns the actual scope reticle to the horizontal gun plane (regardless of turret alignment)
  • This process is possible for open-barreled (exposed barrel) bolt action and lever-action rifles or rifles with a picatinny top rail handguard
• Tighten the top rings to manufacturer recommended torque
• Installing scope bubble level (if provided)
• Reticle Focusing
  • Adjust focus all the way in then adjust in minor increments until you get nice crisp reticle each mounting
• Laser Bore Sighting / Initial Zero (Optional)
  
  • We use the SiteLite SL-500 Laser bore sighter along with the RealAvid VIZ-MAX Laser bore sighter for redundancy / verification.