I was given a new Sako M 10 rifle, in 308 Winchester.

My 14 year old daughter took a liking to it, so I decided to give it to her, and told her she will have to install her own scope on it, and sight it in.

After that I will develop an accurate load for it.

A few days ago, she had a break from her school work and we went down to the gun room to install the scope.

She chose a Leupold Vari X 6 4-24X scope.

She installed the scope, and found out that the from objective was actually touching the Picatiny scope rail that extends ahead of the scope.

When I looked, I found that this rifle has an angled scope rail, for long range shooting.

It is tapered down as it went forward.

We did not have another rail to replace it, so some sort of fix had to be made.

I asked her to run upstairs and get some aluminium foil.

"Are you going to put aluminium foil on the rifle?" She asked.

"Yes"I said.

She gave me a funny look and went and got the aluminium foil.

I have used aluminium foil before for fixing scope installations, but to the extent that this one needs it.

I cut a sheet about a foot long, and started folding in half, until I got quite a few layers together.

I cut a piece that will fit under the scope in the front ring, and put the scope on.

She still was not convinced that this is going to work.

We sighted the rifle, then got her 5 rounds of reloads I have loaded for another rifle.

They had 135 grain Rubright bench rest bullets, and 44 grains of Varget.

She fired them, and the look of amazement on her face was priceless.

She ran down and got the target, which we measure at 0.378"!

You better patent that right away.

Well done Saeed.

Outstanding work. gives new meaning to the phrase "foiled again."

I have been using aluminium foil shims for scopes for years.

Always worked great.

Sometimes being a parent is just so much fun.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I have been using aluminium foil shims for scopes for years.

Always worked great.

We used to cut shims out of aluminum soda (or beer cans) to shim them for long range shooting. They are thicker than aluminium foil so you don't have to fold as many layers.

To my great dismay, the Leupold scope on my brand new Sako L61R mounted in Redfield bases and rings would not adjust downward enough to center the target. So I reasoned that if there were a slight shim between the scope tube and the front ring that the barrel would be moved downward relative to the line of sight. The natural material seemed to be aluminum foil, of which I used a few thickness, cut to match the approximate width of the lower half of the scope ring. Walla! The scope now zeroed just fine.

Now, there's nothing so awfully amazing about this, other than I was 14 years old at the time and the same scope has remained mounted on the same rifle (with the same shims under it) for 52 years now.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I have been using aluminium foil shims for scopes for years.

Always worked great.

dang and all this time I used it for making hats