I bought a second hand CZ 550 in 416 Rigby and then did the glass bed and stock reinforcement work on it. It came with a set of CZ scope rings which I used to mount a Leupold Vari-III 3.5-10 on it (North American use, not Africa).

In trying to sight it in, I have run out of upward elevation adjustment, it has hit the upward stop. Impact is about 1 inch below bullseye and roughly 2.5 inches below desired impact at 100 yards.

Please place your bets:
1. Defective Install?
2. Defective Rings?
3. Defective Receiver Mounting Niches?

The whole set up (rifle, rings, reloading supplies) has been a good deal so far. I am just looking for advise before I strike off on a course and start spending money or start "shaking down" CZ (LOL). Thank you for any help.

EKM

[ 11-26-2003, 23:16: Message edited by: ELKampMaster ]

I don't think you are going to 'shake down" CZ, not with all the modifications you have made. What weight bullet are you using? I have a CZ in 416 Rigby and had absolutely no problem getting the scope (Leupold) adjusted properly with 400 gr. bullets. I am using the low power variable.
Peter.

I would be inclined to approach this from a financial risk viewpoint.

I believe that your original post made some reference to having carefully inspected the installation of the rings on the receiver, so I'll skip that.

1. Try another scope. I know it's a Leupold, and you've used it on other guns, but it only a costs a few dollars for bullets and powder to try another scope.

2. ASK CZ what they think. You never know. You can't beat the price.

3. Depending on cost of consulting a good gunsmith in your area, consult one or try step 4 first.

4. Buy a new set of rings. I doubt that this is it, which is why I said ask CZ first - they might do the testing for you, or send you a set of rings, or swap rings.

5. If you have two sets of rings now, interchange front & back between the sets, and see what happens. If all else fails, lap the rings in on a slant to correct the problem.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I posted only because you didn't get much response. I am fairly ignorant in this area. A GOOD gunsmith could probably give you better advice, at least better-informed advice. All decisions are yours. Remember, the key here is not to damage anything that isn't inexpensive, or to spend more than pocket change unnecessarily.

EKM,
Sorry to hear! I assume that the rifle and previous scope worked well. Maybe it is a scope gone south or ring height variance, too tall in front?

Try a new scope first!

Sometimes a scope will lose its adjustment or get stuck too far south, north, east or west, it just stops tracking. I had this happen to a Leupold windage adjustment. I sent it in for repair and it came back good with no explanation from Leupold. No charge either.

Unfortunately you cannot reverse the rings front to rear on the CZ due to the recoil shoulder only on the rear.

I have not had any such problems with my CZ's.

One horrible thought is a bent barrel, the CZ .416 Rigby is as light as I care to go on a .416 barrel. There wasn't much levering or beating on the end of the barrel to get it out of the bedding, hopefully.

It may well be the scope. Try another one.

First remove your scope from the rings and replace it with a three foot long 1" metal rod( MSC about $5), now clamp it in place and look to see if it's parralel with the receiver sight bridge. If so, it's your scope, if not it's your rings. Did you check that the scope is fully seated in the ring bases? That the base clamps are sitting flush with the bridges when fully clamped down?-Rob

or, get a set of tally rings, and ask for the rear bases to be .02 higher than standard.

jeffe

ELKamp Master
The problem is with the scope. I have had this same problem. the Leupold 3.5v10 and the 2x7 do not have enough internal adjustment for some rifles. Just switch to a 1.5x5 and you will not have a problem. At least it worked for me.

ELKampMaster,

I also vote on the scope being the problem.

3.5x10x40 has 51" of adjustment @ 100 yds.

1.5x5 has 75" of adjustment

Even better on a 416 is Leupold's 2.5 Compact.

It has 147" of adjustment, and they are fairly cheap as well. Great for a 416 Rigby.

Good luck,

Bob

That 416 will probably shake that 3.5x10 loose in short order anyway. My friend had to send his 1.5x5 back to Leopold 2 or 3 times.[he shoots a lot and rides an ATV, I think it was the ATV that was doing the scopes in] They advised him to try the 4x shotgun scope.

[ 11-24-2003, 21:25: Message edited by: N E 450 No2 ]

Ah, yes, as pointed out above, some of the Leupolds have a lot less adjustment range than others. Hopefully as simple as that.

It may be semantics, but if going from a scope with 51" of adjustment to one with 75" makes a difference, there is something else wrong. You should never need 50" of adjustment at 100 yards.

It may well be the scope, but I would rather believe it is the dovetail ring/mount system. I have had a lot of trouble over the years with these. One recently was an anschutz 54 on which I was installing a 12-36 with POS rings. Every time I would mount it, it would shoot to a different point, sometimes so badly that I couldn't hit a 25 yd target. It was so bad that it was noticeable looking at the scope. I finally tried leaving the dovetails relatively loose, aligning the scope by eye, tightening the rings and tightening the dovetails last.

Swapping the scope is a good idea, but I believe I would first be sure the rings are aligned. I would try the long rod idea. If you want something lighter, get a straight 1" dowel at the lumber yard. Put it in the rings, install, line the dowel up by eye and tighten everything. Be sure it stayed straight. Then install a scope from a rifle that is working correctly. If it won't shoot close to the bull with a reasonable scope centering, you likely have a crooked barrel, either bent or mounted out of line. If the rings are lined up by eye over a three foot length with a dowel or rod, it should take little movement of the scope from center to get in the black.

One other thing I didn't mention, but should be obvious if you look close or try the rod. You may have mismatched rings (a low and medium for instance). I have a lot of Ruger rings and have to watch, because they are different sizes front to back anyway and are easy to mix up.

Elk,

Try new rings. I had the same problem with one of my CZs (can't remember if it was the 416 or 375 right now-it's listed on other threads about this same issue). With the CZ rings my 1.75-6 wouldn't zero and my 1.5-5 would _barely_ zero. I tried a set of Warnes and the problem went away. I don't know what is going on but you must be the fourth person on this bbs to have to sort this out.

John

[ 11-25-2003, 02:11: Message edited by: JKS ]

I second the 2.5x compact on a .416 I have one on my cz in warne fixed rings it's great.

I had exacly the same problem with a Kahles scope. Seems the barrel wasnt straight. A weaver 1-3 works. I have 2 new barrels installed (in different callibers) and this barrels shoots much straighter (only about 10 inches low). My smith have made new bases that I can mount Sako Optilock rings where one is lower that the other.

NE 450 No2 has it correct. The 1.75 to 6 will also show this same problem but the 1.5 to 5 seems to fix it. My buddy had the same problem with his 450 Ackley using the 1.75 to 6.
Take good care,
Dave

Thanks for all your input and I will keep you posted how it all turned out and what the conclusions were.

EKM