How To Stop A Rifle Scope From Moving?

So, you did the all right things and your scope is still moving. In our language, it is called riflescope creep. Due to this, a riflescope tends to move a little bit every time you shoot and it will make your aim go bonkers.

Can You Prevent Riflescope From Moving?

There are quite a few ways of preventing this problem from happening.

Use Rails

The first thing you can do is use a rail that is attached to the top of your rifle. If you use a rail instead of installing the scope directly on the rifle, it may prevent creep from happening.

Weaver and Picatinny rails don’t suffer from scope creep due to having some ridges that are wider than dovetail rail. That’s why dovetail rail users often use scope stop pins to prevent creep from happening.

Lapping Scope Rings

Lapping your scope rings will make them even and remove deformities inside of the rings. It will also make sure that your scope tube is not getting damaged in the process.

You can refer to this guide here on how to lap your scope rings.

Tapping

Some shooters like to line the scope of the rings with tape. The tape used usually has a cloth or gauze finish for creating an abrasive surface.

Shimming The Riflescope

The next thing you can do is shim the scope. Shimming involves placing a thin sheet between the scope and the scope rings. This will elevate the scope and it also fills the empty spot inside where the riflescope can move freely. Ideally, you shouldn’t need more than two sheets for shimming.

Use Adhesive

While many people will advocate against using adhesive as it makes the process of uninstalling the rings a lot harder. But using blue colored glue has medium strength and they can be removed with a little bit of heat.

DIY it

There are many ways of handling creep without using any accessories, a lot of shooters use things like nail polish and sticky mail cards to hold the scope in place. It prevents the scope from moving inside the ring.

Getting A New Pair Of Rings

If everything else fails, it’s about time you get a new set of rings and lap them accurately to make them fit in your gun and scope without any issues. But keep this as your last resort. After all, a bit of scope creep is fixable with the methods mentioned above.

Mount Your Scope Properly

After attempting all the methods, make sure that you mount your rings properly. We also made a guide on how to properly scope mount. You can refer to that for installing your scope rings easily.

Don’t Panic

A little bit of riflescope movement is a common issue and happens to a lot of people. There is nothing to be afraid of. If the issue was not fixable, then there would be a problem. Make sure to make the right decision in this instance. Either buy a new pair of rings or use the methods mentioned above to fix the creep of your scope.

Conclusion

And that’s about it folks. Hope you understand what riflescope creep is now and how to prevent it as well. Thanks for reading as usual, hope to see you back on the next one. Take care and have fun.