Shooting low

I Bought a FX Wildcat compact for Utah Airguns. Well today I finely had time to mount a Hawk Sidewinder scope and shoot some groups. Only shot it at 20 yards. Well at 20 yards it is one hole but about 4" low. For you guys that know more than I do should I shim the back Of the scope? I have not made any adjustments to the scope. At the most I hope to shoot 100 yards. Thanks guys.
 
Bruce,you haven't elaborated much.Have you run out of elevation adjustment. That's a good quality combination of gun and scope to be so off the mark. What rings are you using?
Some rings have a grub screw in the base to stop them moving on dovetail mounts(especially common on springers).If unnoticed,and it is a turn or two down when you mount the rings on the gun the front and rear rings won't be aligned horizontally.Acts like zero limit or no limit rings depending on which ring is held higher when tightened down.
Did it once. Took some clever minds to figure it out. Cheers Paul.
 
"Paulcat"Bruce,you haven't elaborated much.Have you run out of elevation adjustment. That's a good quality combination of gun and scope to be so off the mark. What rings are you using?
Some rings have a grub screw in the base to stop them moving on dovetail mounts(especially common on springers).If unnoticed,and it is a turn or two down when you mount the rings on the gun the front and rear rings won't be aligned horizontally.Acts like zero limit or no limit rings depending on which ring is held higher when tightened down.
Did it once. Took some clever minds to figure it out. Cheers Paul.
Paulcat, I have not made any adjustment as of yet, I just thought that 4" low at 20 yards was a little to much. I have Hawk Weaver style rings because of the rail on the wildcat.I am going to reverse the ring today to see if that makes any difference.This is the first time that I have used anything other than Sport Match rings.
 
When I shot small bore silhouette a lot of scopes would be at the end of their adjustment at the rams. To get back near the center of the scopes adjustment we would either add a shim, buy a mount with angle built into it, or get adjustable rings. A business card is usually .010” and depending on the ring spacing would add about 10 MOA where I would get more repeatable scope adjustment since we would move our turrets for each animal. I have added business card thickness to several higher end scopes and have personally never had a ring mark. In my mind the paper material will compress on the edges as the scope rings are tightened leaving a smooth transition so the scope Bodie doesn't get forced into a crimping action leaving a scratch or dent. I have Leupold and Weaver scopes on Anschutz that haven’t lost their sight in “O” for many many years. 

sparky
 
Optical zeroing the scope is over-rated UNLESS you have adjustable rings. So many people optically zero their scopes, mount them and then twist the dials once again to bring it in to the target. That messes up the optical zero completely. If you have adjustable mounts and set them for the distance you shoot the most at with an optically zeroed scope, then when the distance is changed and you have to re-zero the scope to the new distance using the scope's controls, it will usually track nearly perfectly both horizontally and vertically because it started out with a perfect zero point from the optical setting. That is when an optical zero does the best work.

I too have non adjustable rings because most of my shooting is at 40 yards. When I get a new scope, I very slowly turn the turrets to one end and then the other and count the number of turns. Then go to the middle on both horizontal and verticle adjustments as a starting point. If I have to twist the dials more than a turn, I then take other means to center the scope like reversing the rings. Shimming is the last step.

Many say that can damage the scope. I have done this to every scope I ever owned with never a problem. The trick is to stop turning the instant you feel any pressure at the end of the adjustment.

See if you can find droop compensating rings in lieu of shims.