Re-learning old lessons

I had a chance to re-learn an old lesson this weekend at the range, and thought it would be worthy of at least raising the issue on the Forum. My newbie A-gunner was finishing the last of the break in shots at 100 yards on Saturday, and announced in a very non-precise manner that the "scope was loose" but they would "crank it tight". Cool - no brainer lets keep the chow line moving. We shoot the breeze for about 10 minutes, waiting for a cease fire to grab the 100 yard target and move to 200 yards to start getting ballistics data and come-ups. Blam all of teh sudden we are not on paper; we are now 6 feet left of the target and do not have enough windage adjustments to get back on paper. WHAT???????

20 minutes and 15 Gold Medal Match 168s later, it dawns on me that the issue at the 100 yard line was not one of tightening the scope in the rings, but of tightening the rings on the base (US Optics rings tighten from both sides, not just one). My A-Gunner had created a rings induced windage adjustment. When my A-Gunner tightened the rings down on the base, it misaligned the scope to the bore by about 6 feet.

Anyway, I thought I learned this stuff a long time ago, but it seems we sometimes forget the foundation stuff and try to be too detail oriented. Damn!!! I hate re-learning that lesson.

Once we figured it out, it took only 2 rounds and about 1 minute to get back into the X-ring. Oh well....