I want to present a case of perfecly unmitigated stupidity here in the off chance I might help someone else a little.

I was in on the original Chapuis group buy. Ordered the rifle with case colors, no engraving and the quick release scope mount (ERAMATIC is the marking). I recieved the rifle during an incredible period of snow and cold, so I could only shoot offhand and not from a bench. The first trial with handloads was promising; accurate but crossing. I had never seen the ERA mount before, and I had ordered only the mount, not a mounted scope. When I first saw the mount, it reminded me a lot of a Leupold front and rear. However, the front section is connected to the rest of the mount via two threaded pins with allen hex heads. There was some play in the connection, allowing it to swivel up and down freely, and I thought "Cool, what a neat way to let the mount align!" That was the act of abject stupidity. I started a rather extensive home building project in another city, getting ready for retirement, along with one daughter's wedding, both of them moving out of state to school and buying houses, etc. Bottom line is that I haven't seriously shot since I got the gun. I did try it in plinking mode around the farm several times, and results were puzzling. It always seemed to shoot reasonably well with the iron sights, but the scope was all over the map.Sometimes crossed, sometimes didn't. Every once in a while it would put two factory Norma's in one inch, then put two six inches apart at 50 yards. I would try to adjust the impact and it would go the opposite direction.

I finally got a chance to go to a real range today, and confirmed what was happening. I had even installed a second scope, since the mounts on the rib seemed tight. Just as I was getting really frustrated, it dawned on me what was happening. I tightened the two pins as much as possible with the scope on the rifle, and the problem disappeared. I believe the idea is to mount the scope, and tighten the clamping screw/pins once everything is completed. I fell victim to believing my first impression, which was wrong. I was so impressed with the percieved elegant solution to a non-existant problem, that I never went back to the basics: everything has to be tight.

I feel doubly bad, since I consider myself a pretty good tinkerer. I do all my own barrel work and like to make the chips fly, but for some reason I had a huge blind spot here and couldn't get around it. Given that several people here have encountered "regulation" problems over the last year with new doubles, I wonder if this might not be an issue with other people who have never used this mount.

One other note of interest. According to the box, the Norma ammo is listed at 720 m/s at the muzzle. This converts to around 2368 f/s. I chronographed the loads out of the Chapuis at 2284 f/s at 10ft from the muzzle, so given the barrel length, this is likely close to factory spec.

Art: Thanks for sharing. I just received my Chapuis 9,3 from Kebco, and when I have the scratch to scope it, I will keep your post in mind.

i have eaw factory type mounts on my chapuis and no troubles. they don't have any connecting rods - each ring fastens to the scope.

think i have a set of these as spares if anybody needs them.

I'm interested in the rings.

Dave
dlclark@nwlink.com

The eRa mounts are made by Reknagel in Germany. The US dealer is NECG, New England Custom Gun. They have recently gotten me mounts for scopes for my Chapuis customers. Check with them about mounts. I usually sell my customers scope with a rail, so I need a bit different scope attachment. I use the pivot mount on the Chapuis.