Welcome to Optics Trade debates. In each episode, we talk about a different topic and try to answer the most common questions we receive about it. Today, we are going to talk about mounts with adjustable windage.
Windage and elevation are used for zeroing scopes. Elevation adjusts scopes up and down, and windage left and right. Sometimes the windage needs to be adjusted on the mount and not on the scope. This is needed when a rail isn’t mounted in parallel with the barrel and the windage adjustment on the scope isn’t enough.
When adjusting the windage on a mount, the scope itself moves to the left or to the right, so that it’s aligned with the barrel.
Mounts that feature adjustable windage are usually more expensive.
All pivot mounts have an adjustable windage. Only some two part rings for the Picatinny rails and slip-on mounts for different dovetails have windage adjustment.
On slip-on dovetail mounts, the windage is adjusted by rotating the front ring and rotating and moving the rear ring. The rear ring can be moved left to right because the hole in which it’s tightened is in the shape of an oval. The position of the rear ring is controlled with a screw on the left and on the right.
The windage on two part rings is adjusted in the same way as on the slip-on dovetail mounts. The rotation of the front ring prevents the build-up of tension on the scope.
Most pivot mounts have a screw on the left and right side of the rear ring. The windage is adjusted with these screws.
Some pivot mounts have a spacer on the rear ring which is round but is not mounted completely in the middle, so when it’s turned, the ring moves to the left or to the right.
The main goal is that the windage is adjusted in such a way that there are only a couple of clicks needed to zero the scope. The optimal situation would be that there are no clicks needed to zero the scope because scopes don’t stay zeroed for a long time if they have a lot of clicks applied.
Most mounts that have adjustable windage are for hunting. It’s assumed that the majority of Picatinny rails are already aligned on most tactical rifles and that no major windage adjustments are needed. But with hunting rifles, all the drilling is done by gunsmiths and mistakes are more common.
Windage adjustments on mounts are set only when the scope is being mounted, everything after that point is adjusted with the windage turret on the scope.
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Products mentioned:
Mounts with adjustable windage: https://www.optics-trade.eu/en/mounts/shopby/adjustable_windage-yes.html
