So I traipsed out to the range...45 min drive one way. Paid my ten dollars and proceeded to set up my Striker for her Maiden Voyage. Last Friday I had visited Cabala's and charged them with coming up with the mounting and ring hardware for my "junk" Burris scope. The guy that brought my gun out had an audience of fellow Cabala's gun guys. One lent over the counter and in a conspiratorial tone said :we have a new program. For only ten dollars we will take your gun out to the range and run a thousand rounds through it....you provide the ammo". Nice try! Laughter all around. They really liked the gun.

The mounting Smith told me he had had a heck of a time getting the bore sight to work on my gun and he attributed that to the 16 inch barrel. That didn't sound right but I let it pass and he assured me it was spot on.....he lied to me I learned at the range.

Two shots of the mighty 308 and I hadn't even smudged the paper. I asked a fellow shooter to spot for me and he said "you are in the dirt 5 feet low and a couple feet to the right. How in blue blazes can that be true...I used different adjectives. I moved to the 50 and after two shots I wasn't on paper even aiming for the seam in the double stack targets. On to the 25 yard pistol range way down at the end. At 25 yards it was it was 6 inches to the right and 8 high. Holy crap! ( I really should have caught that "high" part)So I set about making corrections. Some how, in all it's simplicity, I managed to go the wrong way on the elevation screw and only got half the correction I should have gotten in the horizontal. What a klutz, I thought, and you are faulting those nice guys at Cabala's. After the next correction it was even further off and I was loosing faith. The rear mount, it turned out, was nice and tight. The ring was NOT. On inspection, the ring had a bunch of clearance between the ring and mount but seemed tight. It wasn't. The mount in the front is much higher than the flat based one in the rear. The scope stands away from the mount. The mounts are not machined properly. The rings are perfect...if you want the scope tube crushed. Being out of align the tube is dented......would that hurt anything...he said wide eyed.

A question I have is can the scope be ruined by having .050 inches of travel between the ring and base. The 308 gives everything a heck of a whack and I fear the scope is shot. The Smith told me there was something wrong as the elevation screw was acting backwards but he had gotten it bore sighted. It worked as it should when I looked at it at home.

Not a good day. 1.5 hrs travel to the range. 1 hr to Cabela's. 45 minute wait for the smith, AGAIN. 12 rounds shot to hell(pun intended). Day ruined. What do you guys think I should do? Seriously?

Can you find the up side in all this? Me neither.

Thanks,

John