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Hi Folks! I've been reading some of the past posts on the forum regarding "scopes" and recognized myself as one of those guy's who thought all you had to do was zero the darn scope in and you were ready to go. I never thought much about the rise of the bullet (trajectory) only that it fell/dropped over a certain distance. I didn't know that it rose after leaving the muzzle of your gun: uhoh: so now you know where I'm coming from when it comes to shooting with a scope. lol
I have a Mini 14, Bushmaster AR15 a3 (both 223's) and have used only the iron sights on them. Well.....I take that back.....I did strap on a friends little Hakko 4x on the carry of the AR last year and liked that.
Anyway I got a new Ruger 10/22 DSP 22LR rifle and a Nikon Buckmaster 6-18x scope the other day thinking it would be a lot of fun, inexpensive and good way to entertain and train my grandson in some target shooting (I might add....a lot of fun for me as well). I'll only be doing paper targets from 25out to maybe 100 yrds at the very most and perhaps enter the matches they hold for rimfire rifles twice a month.
It's so hot down here I can't go to the outdoor range so I took the rifle and scopt to a little indoor range with a 25 yrd target range. I spent about an hour and a half trying to zero in that scope and couldn't get it done. Got it centered finally, but I could only raise it to about 3" below the target bullseye no matter how much I turned that elevation knob.
I used the weaver style mount that came with the gun and Mullet med high 1" rings because they're strong enough for 22's and light.
I heard that Ruger 10/22's barrels were out of alighment with their receivers because of the way the barrels were mounted using two screws. Any thing to that? If this is so, what do you have to do....shim up the back end of your scope so you can get it zeroed in?
Any help or advice you guy's can give me would be appreciated very much.
Thanks,
Jim

You may have to shim the back of the mount to make the scope look where the gun is shooting, had to do that on a 10/22 that I had a few years ago.
Remember, we can not make the guns shoot where the scope is looking but we must make the scope look where the gun is shooting.
The line of sight is a straight line, the bullet path a curved line as gravity makes it fall from the time it leaves the abarrel until it hits the ground. Typical rifle with the scope about 1.8 inches above bore centerline will first be at POA (point of aim) around 15 yards, about 2 inches high at 50 yards again POA at about 86 yards and then a little over 2-1/8 low at 100 yards.

Thanks Fellows! I really appreciate your help. Those posts help my understanding about what's going on with the scope a heck of a lot. I was about ready to take it back. lol
bearandoldman, that range description with the amount of rise and fall from POA in actual number of inches gives me a good picture of the trajectory of the shell out to 100 yrds. Do those numbers hold true for just 22's or pretty much for any caliber (especially 223's)?
Can I fine tune with just the AO knob or do you aim high or low for those shots in for the inbetween ranges of the POA distances? Just what is the AO for? And how and when do you use it? I know you can focus in with it at different distances as I played around with it out in the back yard looking out across the lake.
Probably dumb questions, but what the hell!
Thanks,
Jim

Jim,

Here's a ballistics table for .22LR High Velocity.




This should help you see the trajectory of a bullet down range.

R,
Bullseye