So, the saga continues,.. regarding scopes, and, the difficulties I'm having.
This Beeman Chief has shot low, in all regards, including the open sights being a low 6 o'clock sighting.
I've also had issues with two scopes now, both having run out of vertical elevation adjustment. I thought the first one was just a cheap scope, and returned it, and bought a better one. But the better one still ran out of vertical head room.
This is where I came in suggesting shimming to gain more vertical adjustment.
Well, I finally started thinking that the rifle had a bent barrel, and I had an issue with the safety engagement when the rifle was cocked.
So, I contacted Beeman, and, spoke with a Peter Hernandez in their customer service dep't; he is their technical guy, along with his coworker, they inspect all of the weapons that Beeman produces.
Peter had me come up, and, he and his guy spent the better part of 2.5 hours tearing the thing down into its base components, numerous times over. They inspected the barrel, and, on a milled granite meaurement table, it rolled on that measurement table true and straight. The barrel was not warped or bent.
They replaced all of the seals, and, took on the issue with the safety.
The problem with the safety, was that to go to safety, when cocked, you had to pull the bolt back 100%, and then force just a bit more, and reach around with the other hand, and force the safty to engage.
They tore the gun down multiple times, and could not figure the issue out. So, they fitted me with an entirely new receiver, trigger, reservoir, valves, hammer, etc.
Problem solved.
I walked out entirely impressed with these guys. They took great care of me. And, because I walked in with the rifle wrapped in a towel, they sent me out with a nice new padded nylon case for the rifle, and, a box of pellets.
I definitely picked the right company to buy from. Really happy in that regard.
OK,...
Flash forward to the next day, after the Beeman visit, and, the zero of the rifle goes to shit again for the umpteenth time, and I'm lucky to hit the broadside of a barn from 10'
I am at a total loss here. Because air rifles are a different breed than powder burners, I take my plight to an air rifle forum blog, and, decribe my plight about being vertically challenged, and not being able to get the rifle sighted high enough at 60' (air rifle distance). The gent who writes the blog takes interest, as I post in his article about this exact scope/rifle combo. I describe sitting on a pile of shims on my rear mount, and he describes what I'm experiencing, and, gives me some answers.
Barrel droop. Or, something similar to that; a bore within a straight barrel, that causes droop in the shot.
The barrel proved straight on a millionth of a inch milled surface tolerance table. So, maybe not drilled totally straight?
Regardless, the author, BB Pelletier, aka Tom Gaylord, provided guidance towards a compensating mount that is canted forward, with the rings being square to each other, and even, but on a forward slanted base rail. It is a Dovetail to Picatinny adaptor, that is forward slanted to provide 10" of lift.
I received the adaptor rail today, mounted it, zeroed the scope to a really nice tight group. This zero-in exhausted my air reservoir, and I had to refill it. This refill action has caused me so much grief, so many times, that I was just nervous as heck about it happening again. I cannot explain why, but, it would scramble my zero nearly everytime.
The author, BB, Tom Gaylord, went on to explain to me that the problem with my zero scrambling was due to it being maxed out vertically, and needing to shim higher. He suggested that the sighting tube within the scope, which is spring loaded, was being streatched to an extreme degree, and any action or motion would cause it to scramble the zero. He suggested that I needed to get a compensating mount that pointed the scope downward, as my shims had, but, with a more solid grip with the rings being on the same plane. And that action would allow me to bring the elevation turret down, which in turn should settle the scope.
With much trepidation I refilled the reservoir, fully expecting to have scrambled the scope, again,... and, it held sighting perfectly.
So, I shot another air tank round, and, refilled, and checked again, perfect.
I've not had any such luck thus far.
The rifle is a drooper, I guess. Thats not an issue (for me), and Beeman really did themselves proud.
This new slanted mount has allowed me to drop my elevation turret considerably; in getting zeroed, every action was down down down.
The results,... two rodents nailed at 175' or so. Like splitting a bratwurst at ground level.