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Scope Mounting Horror Stories

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  • Texas1911

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    May 29, 2017
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    Austin, TX
    Since I've been working at Red's I've seen a number of scopes that were mounted improperly by Cabela's.

    The vast majority are usually just improperly tightened on the rings and the scope simply runs out of adjustment.

    The last one was not even tightened and had actually shot forwards when the gun recoiled. When the customer brought it in to me to look at it, after shooting it, I noticed the rings were unevenly tightened and that the elevation turret was crammed into the ring and the front was resting on the barrel up by the breech. We fixed that one up.

    The horror story is a guy that had a brand new Swarovski scope (read: $1500 Optic) mounted using rings that were obviously too short. The monkey that installed this thing tightened it down enough to banana the scope and destroy it. It too was touching the barrel and was also resting on the rear bolt section. The bolt could barely be worked without it scraping the side of the scope.

    Long story short... if you get your scope mounted at Cabela's... be damn sure to check it out before you leave. I'm sure they have a few guys that know their stuff, but it seems like alot of half-ass work is going out the door.
     

    Charley

    Active Member
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    Aug 7, 2008
    744
    76
    San Antonio
    That's why I do my own scope mounting. Over the years I've seen a pretty good number of improperly mounted scopes, misalligned mounts AND drill holes, wrong size screws, you name it. Some coming from mass merchandisers, and some from alleged gunsmiths.
     

    chevydeerhunter

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    Feb 23, 2008
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    San Antonio
    Wow, it souds like Stevie Wonder could get a job mounting optics at Cabela's. You know, if that whole music thing doesn't pan out. He'd probably do a better job!
     

    Karl in NY

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    Oct 31, 2008
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    What's the best way to avoid leaving ring marks on the scope tube?

    I had some very inexpensive rings which had a no-mar fabric lining, but I have never seen anything like that on expensive rings. Would a single layer of vinyl tape work?

    Thanks-
     

    navyguy

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    Oct 22, 2008
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    DFW Keller
    What's the best way to avoid leaving ring marks on the scope tube?
    ---------------------

    The best way is to make sure the rings fit the scope tube in perfect square, and make contact evenly. The Midway USA guy did a piece on this awhile back, on one of the gun shows they sponsor. Involved using some sort of die to show were the scope was not contacting the rings evenly, then using some sort of tool to gently sand the inside of the rings to get it to contract evenly. That's probably not necessary for most mountings. However does the mounting needs to use common sense, and take time and care in doing the job. You can usually tell when something is not right.
     

    Hoji

    Bowling-Pin Commando
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    May 28, 2008
    17,700
    96
    Mustang Ridge
    What's the best way to avoid leaving ring marks on the scope tube?
    ---------------------

    The best way is to make sure the rings fit the scope tube in perfect square, and make contact evenly. The Midway USA guy did a piece on this awhile back, on one of the gun shows they sponsor. Involved using some sort of die to show were the scope was not contacting the rings evenly, then using some sort of tool to gently sand the inside of the rings to get it to contract evenly. That's probably not necessary for most mountings. However does the mounting needs to use common sense, and take time and care in doing the job. You can usually tell when something is not right.


    Love the picture.
     

    TAZ

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    Oct 17, 2008
    1,488
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    Round Rock
    Things that I have found to work well in minimizing ring marks. 1) Quality rings and bases. Never had a set of Badgers leave mark on any of my scopes. Same goes for LaRue stuff.

    2) Burris rings with the plastic inserts that float and allow for better alignment if needed. Cant for the life of me remember their name though.

    3) If the rings, base or receiver are not truly square you can lap the rings to make up for some misalignment between the 2 rings.
     
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