Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics How to prevent ring marks?

Okay...., here's a dumb question for you - I have a brand new Leupold VX-II 1-4 that I'm gonna mount on my 1895 45-70. What should I do to prevent ending up with ring marks on the tube? Thanks.

Send it to me and I'll mount it on one of my rifles. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

(Hey, someone had to say it, right?)

LIGHTLY polish the inside of the rings with crocus cloth, preferably wrapped wround a dowel, to get rid of any sharp edges or tool marks on the rings. Don't over tighten ring screws. You should be ok with most brands of rings. If you use weavers put a piece of card stock or other heavy paper under the ring before you slide it over the scope and then remove the card carefully.
Mike

One easy way is to use Burris SIGNATURE rings with the posalign inserts......for regular rings the "breaking" of the sharp edges of the rings and the edge of the split with a stone or paper and then lapp the rings with a lapping bar and abrasive compound...then wash the rings with hot water and use a clean cloth to dry them and rub them with a oiled rag and dry again.......be sure to use a ring wrench or the lapping bar or similar object to turn the dovetail foot type rings in the bases with a light coat of heavy grease on the base and foot of the ring.......this eliminates almost all marks ....IF you don't overtorque the ring screws.....esp the stronger torx screws....too tightly.......good luck and good shooting!!

Get the Burris SIGNATURE. No marks, no wasted adjustment range for boresighting...
Aic

The Burris rings with plastic inserts which have been mentioned are one SURE way to keep your scope tube pretty, and in my experiance, they don't give up function to do it.....

If you are set on using another type of rings then lapping them properly is a REALLY good idea, i do it every time I mount a scope, and think everybody would if they just seen it done in the flesh one time. Sinclair's sells a lapping kit for about $30, which includes detailed instructions, a bargain in my mind.

Lapping will not only smooth the area of contact, but will show you any underlying problems before they cause you great pain..........

The instructions in my kit say to rub the polishing compound back and forth and twisting until about 75% of the surface area is lapped...........black paint /blueing gone. This is a very revealing process, the lapping takes effect in various places on the ring surface as you progress, so you can see with your eyes that you are making a real improvement............or that something is really not right, and you won't try to force your scope to mate to rings which just are not in agreement with each other.........flexing your scope tube, and it will leave a "mark" !

P.S.

The instructions also say not to mess with the ring caps, just lap the lower half of the rings, the caps are thin/flexible, and will mate to the scope surface(which should be "true"if the ring bases are really in alignment).......

The lapping process is dependant upon the rings mounted as-is, and is ofcourse void if the rings/bases are moved around.

As others have mentioned, the Burris Signature rings with the inserts are the way to go. Not only do they prevent marks, but they take care of any misalignment issues and allow you to rough site the gun in.

I mounted two scopes this year using the offset inserts - the first took exacly 4 clicks of elevation and two clicks of windage to be dead on, and the second (my main deer rifle) was dead nuts on without having to touch the adjustments on the scope.

clarkfork,



Burris Signature rings. The only way to mount a scope.

Lap the rings and then add a piece of electrician's tape or teflon plumbing tape to the inside surface. Torque the screws down good and tight. End of problem.

Ditto on the Burris Signature rings, but if using conventional rings lapping is a very good idea.

FWIW, Sinclair has a 1" lapping rod kit on closeout for $10.50

Lapping is the best way on conventional rings, also the use of an inch lb torque wrench and tightening the screws in rotation like remounting a tire will help pull down evenly in 5lb incriments and prevent any marking.

start with talley rings, the inside edges are beveled. then, get things ligned up with the rings on the scope but no screws in yet. snug the rings to the bases to get everything in place and then take just a bit of pressure off the base screws and then snug the rings to the scope. the idea is to get the rings "squared" on the scope tube, then tighten them down to the bases. still, it is just about impossible not to have some marks, some worse than others. for me, I only use talleys 'cause the work so well and it's so easy to take the scope off and drop in on another rifle. I only shoot model 70s so swapping is no big deal.

257Bob, are you thinking by sneaking the presure on, that you can trick the scope into straitening out the action/rings ?

I think there are better ways than what you listed.......

Ditto to the Signature rings......they are pretty well "idiotproof"

Signature RINGS! I use them for my 45/70 and every rifle I have that does not have see through rings.

I hope Burris reads this because they don't make see through signature rings.

Please Burris. Start making see through weaver style signature rings!!

Thanks everyone for all the great tips! I'm gonna get ahold of a pair of the Burris signature rings and give 'em a try. Thanks again!

They have them on the first page of the website, had them for some time I believe.