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My Browning X-Bolt Stainless Stalker with a EGW 20 MOA picatinny rail, a set of low Weaver 4 Hole Skeleton Rings, and a Vortex Viper HS LR 4-16x50 rifle scope.
As you can see even with the large 50mm objective lens the low Weaver 4 Hole Skeleton rings still provide me with a good quarter inch of scope clearance.
My new favorite rifle, scope, base, ring combo. X-Bolt 270 WSM, EGW picatinny rail, low weaver rings and a Vortex Viper HS LR rifle scope.
This may sound silly but I was excited to see the see-through scope caps that come with Vortex rifle scopes. This it what I like. They protect my lenses from the elements while hunting and if I need to take a really quick shot I can see through them to make the shot. If I have time to setup for a shot I can remove them and stuff them in my pocket. Flip-up caps block my vision when I am trying to watch game animals and then locate them in my rifle scope.
Here's my A-Bolt 243 WSSM Varmint Stainless Laminate waiting for a Vortex Viper PST 6-24x50 rifle scope that is currently on back-order.
The picatinny rail shown here is also a EGW with 20 MOA.
I got my Vortex Viper PST 6-24x50 second focal plane MOA rifle scope for my A-Bolt 243 WSSM. Here is a full view of this 243 WSSM rifle with an adjustable comb: My 243 WSSM Rifles
Recently I have got the hankering to change out a lot of my rifle scopes. Some of the interest has been my excitement to be shooting at Spirit Ridge's rifle golf course later this month. I have been wanting scopes that offer target turrets yet are still primarily hunting scopes and not ultra tactical scopes. In my research I have found that Vortex offers many rifle scope options that meet my needs.
Vortex Optics are of good quality at less than astronomical prices that many tactical like rifle scopes cost. I have had a couple Vortex scopes back-ordered for a couple months now. With all the political gun crap going on this year practically everything I need is out of stock. Good luck getting reloading components...
Since I started writing this post I have now received a couple Vortex Viper HS LR 4-16x50 rifle scopes I ordered. They are sweat rifle scopes. I like the Dead Hold BDC reticle and the target style elevation turret. With this setup I can sight the rifle to be dead on at 100 yards. Then I can figure out the ranges of the additional hold over hashes on the reticle and have them taped to the scope for quick reference. So if I need to take a fairly quick shot within 500 or so yards I can use the hold over BDC reticle. If I have the time to plug-in all the variables into my Strelok app on my phone I can dial in the shot to hold dead on. See: Strelok Pro Ballistics Calculator Using Galaxy S4 Internal Sensors
I also tracked down a 20 MOA picatinny rail for my X-Bolt. Evolution Gun Works Inc (EGW) makes an assortment of picatinny rails for Browning X-Bolts and A-Bolt rifles. I am relatively new to the more tactical side of shooting long range with a big game hunting rifle. After preparing and now shooting at Spirit Ridge Rifle Golf I am hooked on Vortex Optics and long-range shooting. I have always had rifles that I felt comfortable hitting targets out to about 600 yards. With my new Vortex rifle scopes and 20 MOA picatinny rail I have greatly extended my effective range.
For those of you like myself a few months ago who didn't know what a 20 MOA picatinny rail was here's my quick description. A 20 MOA picatinny rail has a slight angle with the front of the rail slightly lower than the back of the rail. This slight angle gives the equivalent of 20 inches at 100 yards. So when I sight in the rifle I will have to dial the elevation 20 MOA down to be sighted in at 100 yards. So instead of the crosshair being centered in the middle of the dialable elevation range it is 20 MOA downward to start. With the crosshair in this position it now gives me an extra 20 MOA of adjustment for a long shot. This allows me to use 20 more minutes of angle out of the available adjustable range of the scope.
With this scope, the 20 MOA EGW picatinny rail, and the 75 MOA of vertical adjustment (top to bottom) of my Vortex scope I should now have right around 57 1/2 MOA of upward adjustment to take the long shots. I figure that with my 140 Gr. Accubond 270 WSM hand load that shoots 3320 in this rifle I should be able to dial in a shot out to the 1700 to 1800 yard range. Now I have no plans of shooting big game at yardages like this but if I had a wounded animal out there and had no other option, I now have an option. Hmm.. sure would be fun to at least scare a coyote out past a grand and it sure is fun flinging lead long ranges at a range like Spirit Ridge Rifle Golf course.
Now it's time to make a cheek piece to raise the comb height, as even with the low rings, the scope is mounted almost a half inch higher that it was with the one piece aluminum Browning rings.
This X-Bolt setup works great in the field.
- 2018 Mule Deer Hunts — Kaden's First Buck & Landen's First 4 Point
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- 2013 Utah Rifle Deer Hunt — Dallen Shoots "Whitey" A Four Point Mule Deer Buck
I cut a 6 x 1 x 1 1/4 inch piece of oak and using a router and sander I shaped it to fit the top of my X-Bolt. I then drilled two holes through it and epoxied in nails that protruded out the bottom.
Cheek piece mounted on my X-Bolt stock. Wish I had some matte black paint... gloss will have to do for now. Shown also are my length of pull spacers between the recoil pad and stock extending the pull length an extra half and inch. See: Easily Adjust the Length of Pull on a Browning X-Bolt Rifle
I drilled two corresponding holes in the top of the X-Bolt stock allowing the cheekpiece to slide on and off the stock.
Finally, I use a buttstock cartridge shell holder strapped around the stock and cheekpiece to securely hold it in place.
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Two quarter-inch Browning Maxus length of pull stock spacers for my X-Bolt.
Inflex recoil pad removed ready to replace the two screws with two longer ones and add the two spacers to the stock.
Length of pull adjustment all finished with the two spacers in place giving me an extra half-inch of length on my X-Bolt Stainless Stalker.
As a big guy, I have always found that the manufactures length of pull on rifles to be a little too short. I can't count the number of times I have been dinged in the forehead. If I add about a half-inch of extra length to the stock of the rifle I am usually just fine at keeping the scope off my forehead.
For years to adjust the length of pull I have always just removed the recoil pad from a rifle then traced the outline on some half-inch thick oak. I would cut this out sand it a little, maybe a little paint or stain and then drill two oversized holes through it so that the screws in the recoil pad could pass through this spacer and into the stock. Often my spacers haven't always looked the greatest so I usually place a neoprene stock cover or the like over the butt stock to hide the spacer.
Now that I have a composite stock X-Bolt Stainless Stalker I wanted a way to not have to build a spacer and hide it with a sleeve. Recently I found that the Browning Maxus autoloading shotgun has the same Inflex recoil pad as the X-Bolt. Well, the Maxus also comes with length of pull spacers that are a quarter-inch thick and can be stacked together.
After getting a couple of these Maxus stock spacers all I had to do was remove the two screws, slide in the two spacers and replace the screws with a couple longer screws. The stock doesn't look quite as cool with the spacers but it doesn't look all that bad and it was very easy to make the adjustment.
The next stock adjustment I did on my X-Bolt was a raising the comb with a cheekpiece I made that you can read about in this article: X-Bolt 20 MOA Picatinny Rail and Vortex Viper HS LR Rifle Scope
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Recently I picked up a red dot optic for my son Landen's BL-22 rifle. The Red dot scope looked to be a fun sight to shoot with on his rifle. The scope came ready to mount on a Weaver-style Picatinny rail. I found a couple of options to convert the 3/8" mounting groove on the top of the receiver to a Picatinny Rail.
After looking the options over I decided to go with a the Ironsighter adapter. The base did, however, require a little modification to get it to work on the Browning BL-22. The problem I ran into was that the groove on top of the receiver does not extend all the way to the front edge of the receiver. With the base being longer than the receiver the groove on the base had to be milled off to match the ending point of the groove in the receiver.
Getting the 3/8" groove to Weaver Picatinny rail conversion base to work on a BL-22 required milling off the lower groove on the front portion of the base. You can see that the bottom edge of the base is milled off for about an inch back along the front of the receiver and barrel area.
The 3/8" scope mount groove on the Browning BL-22 rifle tapers out before reaching the front edge of the receiver. Because of this, the base had to have the groove milled off because it would not hang over the front edge of the receiver.
KB and Landen shooting a BB gun and BL-22 rifle at pop cans while camping.
Shot up pop can the boys were shooting at.
Update March 2015
A friend of mine pointed out some really cool little Dovetail to Picatinny Rail Adaptors from UTG, MNT-DT2PW01. There are two of these adapters in the packet with only one needed to mount our red dot sight. With one of these small adapters, we are able to lower the scope by a good half-inch putting the scope in a more comfortable alignment for shooting the rifle.
Dovetail to Picatinny Rail Adaptors from UTG, MNT-DT2PW01 (pictured one of two that come in the package)
Dovetail to Picatinny Rail Adaptor clamps inside of the Weaver-style mount built into this red dot scope. This system fits nicely to the 3/8" scope mount groove on the Browning BL-22.