probably an incredibly stupid ?

[tropicmaster]

Gonna show my newness with this post. When you zero your scope wouldnt you want it to be very near the top of its elevation adjustment range?
I mean if you are zeroed at 100 I cant see you ever wanting to dial any down changes, so why not leave most of your total available dialing capability for up? Maybe I am missing something really basic here but using common sense ( which frequently gets me in trouble ) say your scope is zeroed at 100, and is right in the middle of its MOA availability. Say your scope has 80moa of elevation adjustment available. The 40 MOA available below 100yds is never going to be used and is wasted, right? However if you zero with your scope near the top of its adjustment range you should have something like 75 MOA or so available for up corrections? When I mounted my new viper the instructions say to start with the adjustment dials centered, and that is what brought this question to my mind.

[pdog06]

What you are talking about is exactly what a canted base is for. You are right if you are building a gun for long range. You want as much elevation adjustment as possible, or atleast enough to get you out as far as you plan to shoot.

They tell you to start out with it centered because ideally that is where the scope should be the clearest. If it is for a hunting rifle where you wont be dialing in your shots as much, this setup will be more ideal.

For my Viper 6.5-20, I have a Farrell 0moa base and Burris Sig Zee rings with the +10/-10 inserts in it. I have my gun zeroed at 200 yards and still have 45moa of elevation adjustment, which is way more than enough to get me to 1000. When I swap the scope/ring combo to my 20moa base I am completely bottomed out, with 65moa of elevation adjustment..

So no you are not crazy...LOL

[jlcpls]

So no you are not crazy...LOL

You may still be crazy, just not about this.

[Dirk]

The real reason you want to have your elevation adjustment in the center is that the closer you are to the limit of elevation, the less windage adjustment you have. This is because the scope tube is round and not square.

[Don - LongRangeSupply]

The real reason you want to have your elevation adjustment in the center is that the closer you are to the limit of elevation, the less windage adjustment you have. This is because the scope tube is round and not square.

That only applies with some scopes. Most higher dollar scopes that are built correctly will have the same windage travel regardless of the position of the elevation knob.
I have tested several and they are not limited in any way even when the elevation was racked to the max down or up position.