Having spent considerable time helping hunters sight in rifles during sighting in season, at a couple of ranges, there are a couple of points worth mentioning. Mike has the bore sighting thing right, but there are a couple of things that are generally overlooked that need to be taken care of before you do that. On your Savage, there are two action screws. The rear one is at the front of the trigger guard, and the front one is up closer to where the the barrel meets the action (on the underside of the stock). On Savages, back of the trigger guard is secured with a screw that attaches it to the stock, not the action. Most hunters don't check their action screws to see that they are properly tightened before coming to the range. If the rifle is being sighted in for the first time, nothing is lost by removing scope and rings to check scope base screws. There are a few tricks to this because sometimes screws can be too long, tightening without properly clamping the base to the receiver. The front base screw is the usual culprit. It can bottom on the barrel shank. After making sure that the bases are properly secured, you ca remount the rings and scope, making sure that the rings are properly tightened on their base(s), but take it easy when tightening the rings on the scope. For this to really be done properly the rings should be lapped, and or bedded, but that is another story. Now that you have the scope securely on the rifle, hopefully with the cross hairs vertical and plumb, and the back of the scope in the correct location so that the shooter will not have a Weatherby cut over his eye, when shooting from the bench or prone (a bit of a stretch when shooting off hand), the next step is to focus the eyepiece for the person that will be using the rifle. Again, this is a story of its own. Look around on the internet for instructions, they may not be perfect, but they should get you started. Next you can bore site the rifle, by actually looking through the bore. If you are in a typical suburban neighborhood, this is probably best done at the range. The basic drill is to support the rifle with a rest, rifle vise, or sand bags, so that you can adjust the rifle's position so that you can center something like the black bull on a target, so that it is ABSOLUTELY centered in the bore....perfectly. (You can use a target at 100 yd. for this. Someone else's is fine, since you will not be shooting at it.)Then, without touching the rifle, look through the scope and note where the intersection of the cross hairs is, relative to the center of the bull. From here, you adjust the cross hairs till they are in the very center..perfect, and at the same time, the view through the barrel is perfectly centered. Do not bother shooting a round until this is accomplished. It will take a while the first time that you do it. A good tip is that when moving the cross hairs to a spot, you need to run the turrets backwards to to how you would when adjusting your bullets' impacts. later in the process. If the cross hairs need to come up, turn the vertical turret in the direction that would move a bullet hole down, and if you need to move them to the left, move the horizontal turret adjustment in the direction that would move a bullet hole to the right. It will take several tries to make this adjustment. After you have both views exactly the same, take a rested shot at the center of a sighting in target, that has a 1" grid, at 25 yards. If you did the bore sighting right, you should be on the paper, and if that is the case, you can make gross adjustments to get to the center in as few shots as possible. For example, if you adjustment clicks are for 1/4" at 100 yd., those came clicks are worth 1/8" at 50 yd. and 1/16" at 25...so if you are 1 1/2" high and 2" left, you need to put in 24 clicks down, and 32 right. Any time that you need to make an adjustment that involves turning the knob or slot counter clockwise, you should go by your intended adjustment by 4-6 clicks, and then come back to your intended point of adjustment in a clockwise direction. I got this from the late dick Thomas of Premier Reticles. Other common mistakes are resting the barrel on the sand bag, having the sling swivel studs in the bag. or where they will slide into the bag on recoil. Not following through after the shot goes off. Doing a quick heads up, immediately after the shot goes off tells you nothing, and is detrimental to accuracy. And jerking the trigger, instead of gradually applying increasing pressure, and letting the rifle surprise you when it goes off. If you do all of this correctly, you should have enough ammo left, in that box, to go hunting, and remember you are sighted in for that particular load, switching brands and or bullets, will mean that you need to adjust your scope. You will be on paper, but you need to check you scope settings, and will probably have to make changes. Good luck!
