Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Scope Mounting Made perfect...

Scenarshooter: Thanks for the great link to what I am sure is a great tool - I will have one soon I am sure!
I do the same thing now that Mr. Schmidt accomplishes with his tool but I use an old fashioned "carpenters square" (the 24" size) - although Mr. Schmidt's tool is obviously quicker and easier to use along with probably doing a better job of aligning the rings to each other!
I mount at least 20 scopes a year for myself and friends using my old fashioned "precision method/tool" but Mr. Schmidts tool again will make my task easier and quicker.
I wonder what material this tool is made of, aluminum or stainless steel - if you could answer that for me (concerned about shipping costs)?
Thanks again for the link.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Tis true and the ones that sell to the public usually pay Rick for the privilege of hawking their wares on his site.

thank you very much for the good words.

for many years, i set my rings with a wood dowel, and then verified their alignment with a rafter square--probably in much the same manner as you. this technique produces very good results--excellent in fact. over the years, it became very tedious to me, as it is "turn in the ring, and check"; "turn in more, and check"; "turn back some, and check"; until alignment is achieved. tedious when you mount quite a few scopes in a year. with a Scope-Tru you turn in and stop at dead center--you can see it and verify it instantly. as you continue the process with the second ring, you can achieve near perfect axial alignment by getting both front and rear pointers nicely centered. in addition to this level of speed and precision, it can be used as a "diagnostic tool" as well--either on a rifle where someone has goofed up the completed job; or, in cases where the installation is in progress, "discoveries" are made by viewing the pointers--before the scope is in the rings, and the Sweany site-a-line is in the spout...

one example: recently a gunsmith called me and said that a customer had brought in a rifle "that he could not zero". he took the scope out and laid the Scope-Tru into the bottom of the rings. he put one ring cap on and tightened it. the bar "climbed up" out of the bottom of the other ring, revealing a gap of nearly 1/32 inch. the solution was a new set of rings, and he sent the other pair back to the manufacturer. this was a significant height disparity issue, and it placed considerable stress on the scope tube. he told me of other examples where customers had alignment issues with windage--too little adjustment left...and laying the tool in the rings gave a visible clue right now--the pointer was nowhere near the center of the barrel. this person is in his 60's, and he is both an engineer, and a gunsmith...

the one inch model Scope-Tru tool is made from LaSalle Stressproof 1144 steel.

(the cost of stainless steel was too high for regular production runs...)

at some point i will have just one Scope-Tru made out of titanium--for demostration purposes only, but the cost for a piece of metal, without the machining, was quoted at around $250.

Bill Beyl at the Powderhorn here in Bozeman--wanted to try an aluminum Scope-Tru, to see how it would hold up under daily shop use (he has been using a steel one for 7 months).

i had several made from 60 61 aluminum, and he tested one out. Bill told me that he was going to "use it very hard--but not abuse it". he mounted 50 scopes with one. it was scratched and scuffed-up some, but otherwise intact. since mounting 50 scopes with the tool and subsequently seeing just some slight damage--ie. cosmetic damage--Bill figured that some guys might benefit from the use of an aluminum model. in the future i'll have a few others tested. at this point in time i don't think it will be offered for sale--but that could change later on, as more results are compiled.

the steel model will surely be able to withstand a lifetime of normal, sustained use--whether in a gunshop, or a retail or wholesale sporting goods store, or in the homes of numerous "gun cranks"--where high volume scope mounting occurs. shipping on the one inch steel tool is usually near $18.00, depending upon how far away from Montana one might live...

I have taken a few photos and some short video clips of Bill down at the Powderhorn while he was using the Scope-Tru in the shop. Both of these segments are of actual mounting jobs done on store customer's rifles.

Here are two url's from my photobucket albums:

The first url shows Bill mounting a set of windage adjustable cross-slot style rings on a Marlin rifle;

http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums...ross%20Slot%20Rings/?albumview=slideshow

The second url shows Bill mounting a scope on a Ruger M 77 using factory original rings, and his particular technique he developed using the Scope-Tru for obtaining a decent alignment;

http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums...0Ruger%20Model%2077/?albumview=slideshow

Keep in mind that while these photos are the actual mount jobs done in his actual work day--the real deal while on the job--to try to depict what he was doing for some of the photos, I had to have him go back and "re-do, or re-create" a few scenes for some of the still photos, as i was also filming some video footage of the process too, and couldn't break from the filming sequence to take some of the still shots, until a particular film sequence was finished. Therefore, with this in mind, some of the photos had to be creatively arranged shortly after the fact, and so a few photos may appear in sequence a little different from the order they were originally taken in.

Website will still be several weeks out, as Jeff is too busy right now...

Though I can't be totally certain about this, i've suspected that Shrapnel not only uses the tool to accurately set his scope rings, but he might occasionally use it to open up a bottle of coca cola--Shrapnel style...

I would like to view your Photobucket albums on this mounting tool, but so far have been unable to get into the photos. This is the message I get when trying to enter:

This is a Private Album

Please enter the password from album joyce_57 to view this private album.

Private Album Password

So, unless one has the password to enter, it's "No go"

Respects,

Richard

last november i mentioned that the website for the scope-tru alignment bar would be completed in the upcoming weeks...

at present, it is about 90% finished. the only key portion that is left to do yet is the "order" page, as i have not yet decided just exactly how i want that done--how i want it to operate.

meanwhile, the website has a significant amount of information on the tool, and how to use it--

instructions; a brief history; purpose and function; essence; design of the pointer; etc. etc.

some of you may find the material and a few of the articles interesting. it is likely that most of you do not have a need for a tool such as this, but a few of you who may have improvised various items such as possibly either a pipe, a shaft, a dowel, etc--to use in a fashion similar to the scope-tru, might subsequently benefit somewhat from reading the 6 pages of instructions that were outlined in specific procedures for using the tool--check them out if you're interested. (the tool itself is intended primarily for gunsmiths, serious at home "guncranks", and retail/wholesale sporting goods stores where high volumes of scopes are mounted daily).

there are also a few photographs, slideshows, and videos contained within certain pages of the website that a few of you might find interesting to watch...

there is also a "testimonials" page, and some of you might recognize at least 3 individuals from the campfire--and in fact one of the testimonials was even derived from a post on the 'fire--as i liked it equally as much as the particular testimonial letter that was specifically written for me by the same person.

the link is: http://parabola-llc.com/

i do hope that a few of you find the website to be an enjoyable read--it was alot of work to put it all together.