I like the Talleys. Light and strong as heck!
Statement below is just copied from my post to the thread I linked to above. On page 3 I posted a picture of a set I had that cracked.
I had 6 sets in service at one point. Had the top strap crack around one of the ring screws on a Weatherby ULW in 7mm Wby. Gun was never dropped or exposed to particularly heavy field use as I had other rigs I liked better, and round count on it was relatively low at time of failure - likely less than 500. Scope was a Leupold 4.5-14 - so not a heavy scope, either. Screws were torqued to spec. Around the same time, a good friend had the exact same thing happen on a 300 WSM. I still have 2 sets on lighter recoilers with smaller scopes that don't see a ton of use, but I haven't used them on a new set up in a few years. They look nice, but there's many, much more robust options out there.
The fact that they are egg shaped is designed in. Some lap them to take that out, but IIRC, it states right on the package that they're not supposed to be lapped. Based on where most sets seem to fail, I feel that the egg shape that is meant to be pushed round by the scope is just a poor design; places too much stress on the area in which the threads slim down to thinner material. Also, they have a tendency to leave marks in the scope finish. Not that this is a huge deal for funtionality, but it's irksome.
