Shooting the full size 50 pound steel Ram Silhouettes at 500 meters with a pistol is common.  Shooting those 500 meter Rams with a 44 Magnum Pistol is another story.  One who is willing to this seems to bordering on being a few cards short of a full deck.  Nevertheless, what the heck, I got a 10 inch 44 magnum barrel for my Contender.  It has a 4X Burris long eye relief scope on it.  The 354 grain cast bullets seem to shoot respectable with 16 grains of Winchester 296.  They load like a 22 rimfire that is the overall cartridge very long and the bullet ends up being jammed into the lands much like a 22 rimfire cartridge.  The velocity is about the same as Federal 22 Ammo; I am getting 1149 fps.  Not bad for a 354 gr. Cast Flat Nose Bullets out of the 10 in, Contender barrel.  The Burris 4X scope has over 96 MOA elevation adjustment and this should be enough adjustment to dial in the 500 meter rams.  Silhouette Ballistics computer program indicates that around 77 MOA is be required from 100 yards on a warm day of 75 °F.  The required elevation varies from 85 MOA at zero °F to 74 MOA at 100 °F.  So the current Burris 4X scope should have enough internal adjustment.  Now all that is required is a little adjustment to the scope bases so that the scopes full range of adjustment may be unutilized.

Therefore, the challenge will setting up the pistol scope mounts so the full range of elevation may be used.  This means that the 100 yd. zero must be very close to the bottom of the scope elevation setting.  The out of the box or the current scope setting was around 60 MOA up from the lowest possible setting.  Therefore, I need to put about a 45 to 50 MOA taper on the one piece Leupold scope base.  The challenge is doing this without a machine shop.  No handy dandy “Bridgeport” milling machines.

So how can one put a 45 MOA or so taper on a scope base without any power tools?  The following story is how I did just that using stuff I happen to have lying around.  First, I just happen to have an 18 in long one inch in diameter aluminum rod.  I had this solid rod over the years to twist on Leupold rings to scope bases.  I also happen to have an extra Leupold Scope Ring.  This ring was also was missing the little stud on the bottom.  Something to do with turning it the wrong way using that 18 inch aluminum rod.  So why not modify the broken Leupold Ring and make a lapping or sanding fixture to apply a taper to a one piece Leupold Scope Base?

First step was to drill and tap the bottom of the broken scope ring for 1/4x20 threads.  Next was to file a round notch in the head of a ¼ inch screw.  The idea around this sanding fixture is to be able to hold an angle while sanding the one-piece scope base.  The notched screw head is adjustable to apply different tapers while remaining stable on the sanding fixture.

Next, I removed the scope base from the pistol leaving the scope rings attached to the one-piece base.  Next, I installed the one-piece base and rings to one end of the one-inch aluminum rod.

Then I added the modified ring with the ¼ inch screw to the other end of the aluminum rod.  The sanding fixture simply controls of the angle applied to the one-piece scope base during the sanding process.  The one piece scope base is sanded with the sandpaper placed around on another long rod.  This rod plus the sandpaper thickness must match the barrel diameter where the scope base rests.  My 10-inch bull barrel has a slight taper to it.  Therefore, the largest diameter of the barrel where the scope base will rest is measured.  This is the diameter used for determining the correct rod size.  Now find a 36 plus inch rod, which matches that diameter lying around or at your corner hardware store.  Good luck.  I used an old aluminum tent pole.  The aluminum tube was a little smaller in diameter than needed.  Therefore, I wrapped aluminum tube with a couple of turns of target paper so it was the diameter needed.  Finally, I screwed the aluminum tube to the top of my workbench, which kept it from rolling around.

The idea here is to sand the one-piece base with 320 grit Silicon Carbide sandpaper to obtain the proper taper.  The ¼ inch screw must be the correct length.  The correct length so it is adjustable to provide the amount of taper needed.  How to adjust the fixture for the correct angle?  First, adjust the screw so it touches the aluminum tube while the one-piece scope base is resting flat on the aluminum tube.  The screw is not providing any taper on the one-piece scope base.  This is your starting point.  I also added some “Blue Locklite” to the ¼ x 20 screw threads so the screw would not turn freely.  The distance between the one-piece base and the adjustable ring was about 15 inches on my sanding fixture.  This setup provided me with about 4.5 MOA per half turn of the ¼ inch screw.  You only can have half turns and full turns.  I figured that I needed around 45 MOA of angle.  This would be five full turns on the bolt.  I started with half that amount.  I wet or oil sanded the one piece base using the 320 grit Silicon Carbide sandpaper slightly moisten with some mineral sprits.  The mineral sprits keeps the sandpaper cutting much longer and also eliminates any dust.

I sanded the one-piece scope using the fixture until removing all the blueing from the bottom of scope base.  When the sanding process is started, the blueing is only be removed from one end scope base.  The sanding process continues until the complete bottom, of the one-piece scope base, has been finished to the new taper.  This may take a few minutes and a couple sheets of sandpaper.  After completing the sanding operation, I re-blued the bottom of the one-piece scope base using some instant blue.  The blueing will prevent the base from rusting and be a guide if any more sanding is required.  Hot gluing a small piece of Scotch Brite Pad onto the end of a Popsicle stick makes a great applicator for the instant blueing.  It holds enough of the blueing to do the job with only one dunking, then just rinse it clean.

After sanding and blueing the base, it is time to re-install it on the barrel.  Make sure each of the screws holding the base to the barrel is not to long.  I had to shorten some of my screws.  The same 320 grit sandpaper may be used to short any of the screws if needed.  After mounting the taper scope base on the 44 Magnum Barrel, a trip to the range was in order to see if I have any more elevation in the scope.  Bottom line is I had to repeat the process a few (3) times.  It is easier to sand more steel off than trying to add steel back on.

I shot the 44 magnum Contender at the High Power Rifle Silhouette Targets after a rifle match at Camp Grayling, Michigan.  The scopes setting I calculated using Silhouette Ballistics was right on at 200 meters.  I was able to consistently hit the 200 meter chickens.  So on to the pigs at 300 meters.  Again the scope settings from Silhouette Ballistics were right on and I consistently could hit the pigs.  Turkey time, these are the hard ones.  My first shot using the Silhouette Ballistics scope knob number for the turkeys took down the Turkey and I know when to quit.  I am still 100% on Turkeys and around 80% on chickens and pigs using the 44 magnum.  The Rams at 500 meters are the challenge. The 354 grain cast bullet with a muzzle velocity of only 1150 fps yields a flight time to the Rams of about 1.75 seconds and that is on a warm day only.  The bullet drop at 500 meters is around 529 inches from the line of sight on the same warm day.  A muzzle velocity change of only ±12 fps is enough to change the drop and miss the target.  That is about what the standard deviation is for the 354 grain bullet.  Now here is a shooting condition which, lower muzzle velocity standard deviation can really help hitting the target.  Spotting the shots without any burms behind the targets is next to impossible.  A just shot over the ram’s back looks just like it when under the ram and between the ram’s legs.  It was still fun try to hit the rams.  The recoil from the 354 grain bullets sent the Burris scope back to Burris.

I did manage to hit only one Ram after many shots with the scope setting calculated using Silhouette Ballistics Version 9.0.  Now what I think I need is the better rest to shoot the pistol from and maybe one of those wide forearms with a flat bottom would help get the job done.  So there is always a next time or in this case next year.  So for next year, I sent away for a 3 inch wide forearm from Bullberry.  I had one major problem with it.  It looked so good I need to get a new grip to match the forearm.  The new rest is constructed and waiting until next April to try it out again at Camp Grayling, Michigan.  Using this I hope to improve my 2% hit rate on the rams.

2001 Update:
Since completing the above project, I added another barrel to my arsenal.  The new forearm would look better with a longer barrel, so I ordered a 15 inch Bullberry Barrel.  I selected the 221 Remington Fireball cartridge and match barrel version, which comes with a 0.245 neck instead of the standard neck which is around 0.261.  The case necks will require turning before they will chamber.  The neck walls end up around 0.010 in.  That has been fun with the neck turner from K&M.  Anyway, the after getting every done and ready to shoot with a new Burris 3 to 12 pistol scope, I found that I only had about 8 minutes of elevation and was just about out of left windage.  I was limited to just over 300 yards and wanted at least 400 yards in order to shoot some iron ground hogs after the rifle silhouette matches at Camp Grayling, Michigan.

So out came the old taper tool again.  Paper rolled around the aluminum base of tapering tool from first project was also the correct size for the new Bullberry barrel.  So I installed the rings and base to one-inch aluminum rod and adjusted the Modified Leupold Scope Adjusting Ring it so everything was square or level.  Then I added four half turns to the Modified Leupold Scope Adjusting Ring screw. Each half turn is about four (4) minutes on the adjustment screw.  Before I took the scope base off the pistol I figured which direction the rear of the scope base must move in order to correct for the windage.  I wanted to move the windage about ten (10) minutes.  So I twisted the front adjustable scope mount on the rod with the scope base in the direction that it would force the rear of the scope base to be sanded from it’s normal center line.  I was shooting for about 16 minutes of elevation and 10 minutes of windage.  I started to sand away.  Checks on the sanding progress indicated that the rear of the base was being sanded more on one side then the other.  The side receiving the extra sanding was actually the side that I wanted to have sanded more.  Some days are luckier than others.  This should move the scope base in the direction I wanted it to go.  I sanded until the surface of the base was 100% sanded.  Then I re-blued the steel and mounted the scope base on the pistol.  No problem with the screws being to long this time.  Scope Base fit the barrel better than before.  Next is to shoot and really see how thing turned out.

Bottom line, I gained 13.75 minutes of elevation adjustment, which is just great, I now have around 22 minutes of elevation and good for over 500 yards.  I gained around 225 yards.  This is just what I wanted it to be.  The scope only has 28 minutes of elevation.  The windage, must have been my lucky day.  Windage is now very close to scope center windage, I think it is within 3 minutes of mechanical center.  I can not complain about that, I got very lucky.  If it did not work out, I was going to get the new Burris adjustable rings. Contender picture below has new 15 inch Bullberry barrel with 3 to 12 Burris scope sitting on upgrade rest which now uses compact disk or CD to adjust it’s elevation.