Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What rings and bases are on your sheep rifle?

Pretty much as the title says, for those of you with lightweight "sheep" rifles, what rings and bases are you using and why?

For those of you using systems like the Talley Lightweights, which combine the ring and base into one, do you ever worry about breaking your scope on a hunt and not being able to swap it for a spare? (I've read some accounts of bringing two scopes in Quick detach rings.)

I have Talley light weight rings on my sheep rifle... however, I've not seen a sheep in my neck of the woods in my three score plus years here.

I am quite sure they will work when I do happen up on a sheep in the not too distant future..

g

Never hunted sheep but ALL my rifles wear leupold DD's regardless...

Bausch & Lamb

Weavers. They are light, inexpensive, rugged, and detachable. I can live with the fact that they are also a bit homely. GD

My sheep rifle has an old discontinued set of weavers with integral bases, like the Talleys,
They are ultralight and strong.

Gentry bases and rings for my 660 Custom. E

The only times I have bothered to take an extra scope on a hunt was when it was attached and ready to go on a back-up rifle. I don't think you are any more apt to break your scope than you are your rifle, your leg, etc. I would choose the LW Talley 1 pc. I have used a lot of ring-base brands and designs over the years and have never found any that use less of your windage adj. on a scope when the adj. is centered than the Talleys.

Buehlers. Now all I need is a sheep tag!

You'll break the scope before you break any of the rings. I will never sheep hunt unless I hit it big in a lottery. But I'd use the Talleys if I did.

Actually if strength were a concern, it would be the Talley Steels for me with the option of the quick release levers.

I don't use the levers but there is that option. I have them on three of my older walnut stocked mountain rifles.

I have several rifles that would qualify under the contemporary specs of a "sheep rifle" and have done a couple trips for sheep.

For me, this is backpacking and the two rifles came from the smith, himself an experienced sheep hunter and former guide, with lapped Talley U/Ls.

I don't particularly care for them and so have replaced one set with Talley QD-SLs and will do the other next March when I have cleared some current financial commitments. These, will also be Talley QD-SLs, two sets of rings and two scopes per rifle.

I have owned about every mount one can think of and I now use Talleys on any rifle I have that will accept them. They are, IMO, the best production mounts one can buy and use.

On this Tikka 6.5x55...as in most of my rifles...I use Burris Signature rings and a turn in rear adjustable 2 pc bases...never had any type of issue at all...one inch or 30mm as in this set up with the Vortex HS-LR 4-16...brought this Utah Desert Ram home 9/28/13..works for me.....

Talley LWs. Don't worry about spares. Most sheep hunts will require some serious backpacking. You will pack food and shelter. There's little left for extra scopes and rings.

A spare scope, in good rings for your backpacking rifle, is among the best "uses" of weight that you can make on ANY sheep hunting trip, in actual sheep country.

I ALWAYS have a spare scope and a "parts" kit for any rifle I take on trips where only ONE rifle CAN be taken. It is not a "burden" and it may well save your trip from being ruined by an inoperable rifle.

There are always choices to make concerning what you take on any backpacking excursion and, after 61+ years of outdoors activity, much of it hiking/backpacking all over BC, THE "sheep destination" of North America and living alone in wild sheep country for several three month stints, over the past 49 years, again, in all regions of BC and some of Alberta's best RBH country, I would most strongly advise QD mounts and a spare scope.

I don't have a 'sheep' rifle. But i have a goat rifle, but it has irons sights


Here is my goat with his rifle

I doubt it will ever see a sheep hunt but in a few years it will see a goat hunt. My 280.

I used Leupold QR's with a back up scope zeroed and ready.

I have several serious "medium magnum" working rifles equipped with these mounts and have had them in place since circa 1991. These are CRF, synthetic-stocked .338WMs and the like and they have been often used, HARD, in long wilderness stints, on horses, in aircraft and on backpacks over much of western Canada.

I have never had an issue with one and one set survived a bad pack on a stupid horse by a drunken "packer" who should have been hung with a lead rope.

I like these, not QUITE as much as Talleys and I recommend them, especially for those just getting started and who have little money.

I hunt sheep more than the average guy on this board I would think, and I've switched to Talley L/W's across the board on all my serious rifles, regardless of intended application.

On a true, serious backpack sheep hunt where you are counting grams, much less ounces or pounds, you simply don't pack fluff. And fluff includes spare scopes, or enough "extra" shells that you could check zero on a second set up. It is MUCH easier to simply not throw your rifle around in the rocks. And if you do get to the point where you've taken a spill hard enough to break a ring, you've likely got bigger problems than simply a cracked ring.

That said, if you are spiking out from a horse camp, and have some spare space, then by all means pack a spare rifle.