I Kinda Messed Up

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LadySmith

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I've been strictly semi-auto with my rifles and finally decided to get a bolt action. I settled on a Savage 16FHSAK in .308 because I liked the looks and features. I ordered it, got it yesterday, and guess what? There are no sights on the thing! Now I need a course on scopes, mounts, have to decide if I should try to put one on myself or find a good gunsmith...
I'd normally know better, but overtime, fatigue + extra money = buy first, learn later.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thank you, Kevin.
So far a couple of coworkers have shared their experiences with first-time bolt actions. One guy bought a used one only to find out later that a screw holding the mount on extended all the way into the receiver.
Another said to put nail polish on the mount & ring screw threads to keep the scope from flying off on recoil.
Hmmm...
 
he was probably practicing his SHTF resourcing... until zombies take over the local hardware store, loctite (regular or blue) is preferred over nail polish :)

and the scope won't fly off... but the screws may back out and cause you to lose your zero, which can be pretty frustrating to troubleshoot
 
I would have a good gunsmith mount the rings and scope. Ask if he/she will do it in front of you so you can see how it's done and ask questions.

The purpose of the rifle will dictate the optics. A good general purpose scope is a variable magnification 3x-9x with an objective lens in the 40mm range. The larger the objective lens, the brighter the image. However, larger also means heavier and greater height above the bore. When choosing rings, you must pay attention to the size of the scope tube. Generally, scopes have either a 1" or 30mm tube and the diameter of the rings must match this. Rings come in varying heights, usually expressed as low, medium and high. The height of the rings is driven by the size of the objective lens (Sometimes referred to as "the bell" of the scope) and the size of the shooter. The larger the objective lens, the taller the rings, because the must be a bit of space between the bottom of the objective lens and the barrel. Taller rings can present issues for smaller statured shooters because they may not be able to get a consistant cheek to stock meld due to the height of the mounted optic. Mounts for modern bolt guns are usually one piece or two piece affairs. Many mounts are of the Weaver variety that have slots that the ring mounts onto. Whatever mount/ring combo you buy, make sure they are compatible with each other.

Hope that helps a bit.

Mike
 
scopes

to resolve the issue of having the need for higher scope mounts, leupold now has a new version....go to leupold.com and see for yourself. They say maximun light, minimun height. Neat idea.
 
get a good set of steel bases and rings like leupold or redfield, and as good of glass as you can afford, a good fixed power 4x or 6x scope works well on a 308,

but you may prefer higher magnafication provided by a variable in which theres plenty of choices.
 
Thanks everybody. All of your suggestions were spot on and much needed. Off to the gunsmith I go.
 
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