Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question bout scope ring lapping

I saw on Amazon the Wheeler 1” and 30mm lapping rods AND the “pointers” for each on sale for $50 so I jumped on it.

If I lap some aluminum rings, I have some aluminum black I can rub on the inside if necessary.

But I’ll also lap the steel rings on my Ruger but I’m not confident that the cold bluing crap will protect them from rust in wet weather.

I do have some Kleenbore Black Magic that’s the best I’ve found so far for steel but I’m not sure how it will do over the long haul. Just wondering what other’s use? Thanks.

midway has the combo for 49 and free shipping also right now.

I've lapped many of steel rings, never touched up blued anything afterwards. Never seen any rust.


While we are on the subject, the rifle tuner that taught me never lapped the top half of rings, only the bottom half. I remember he mentioned he wanted some extra grab up top. Any thoughts on this?

I think I’ll pass on that idea.

I assume the reason for lapping is to remove any out of round or high spots plus if the top is smoothed out better, I would think THAT would provide more grab imo.

You only want to lap enough to eliminate high spots, shouldn't be lapping enough to loosen the fit of the rings.

Just wondering why you want to bother to color the inside if you are going to mount the rings> ? Sorry for the bleeding obvious but wondering if others are thinking the same thing. I could be missing something here and am just wondering.

OCD

Years ago I bought a set of used Leupold double dovetail rings (probably from here) and I’m thinking now they could have been lapped. After a couple years I decided to change scopes on my ML and when I removed the scope, the insides of the top and bottoms of the rings were rusty. I was pissed so I went with Burris Signature rings for the new scope.

This will not happen again - OCD or not.

I’ve lapped many dozen of steel rings, left the metal bare on all of them, and never have had an issue.
I lap the bottom til I get roughly 50% bare metal on the rings, then put on the top rings with the rod in place and compound on the top half of the rings, and I lightly lap the tops. That’s my system and it works well for me.

I have not lapped any rings since I discovered the Burris rings with the inserts.

Imagine that compound does the same to the bar as it does the rings. What happens when you do the second set?

Bluing does nothing to protect against rust.

This is the right way, although I like to get more contact if possible. Some rings are so bad you can't. But it aint just the ring's fault. the action the bases are mounted on could be off, the bases could be off, or add any of them together and you have more issues. Lapping is the only way to know what you have.

I've lapped the rings on probably a dozen rifles and just lightly lap, the lapping tool also tells you if your scope mounts are not in perfect alignment due to the receiver holes or the mounts holes being off and Ive actually found one leupold dual dovetail that the rear was way off and couldnt be used no matter how much you wanted to lap.

As far as using touch up blueing I dont. But on steel rings I use a little black Rustoleum spray paint on a cotton swab and rub that into the bare steel to keep it from rusting, and Ive had one set that I had hunted in a snowstorm got water under it and rusted leaving a stain on the scope.

I do the same on the aluminum rings because Ive found that the bare aluminum tends to leave a more pronounced ring mark, I cant explain why but Ive seen it happen.

Sounds great, thanks.

An old-time gunsmith that I respect greatly told me about lead string used traditionally to mount Optics. Literally very fine string made of lead.

I was unable to find such a product to buy but did find lead tape at McMaster-Carr. This tape is about 7/16 of an inch wide and very thin. Using a sharp exacto knife I cut tiny thin strips of it and place it inside my rings.

I always check my rings for alignment with the Wheeler tools but I have never lapped... nor had rings that required it with the use of lead tape.

Of course your opinions may vary, but this is how I do it.

Never had a problem.

Maybe this should have a thread of its own, but
Are there any brands that don't need lapping?

$50 Is a big pocket full of change to add to the price of something that is supposed to be a precision part made for the express purpose of anchoring the scope true.

I lap everything every time.......

Not trying to be rude here... but it appears you have no idea what you are talking about what so ever.

I lap everything and never have a problem with rust, but more importantly, I never have ring marks on my scopes if I ever decide to sell them. I use a 350mm length of one inch 4140 chrome bar and value grinding paste for lapping and it does a very good job. Here's some pics from when I lapped the rings on my new 45-70 recently.





Rings prior to lapping.













The finished product.

Make sure to check the points. The last two sets of Wheeler scope alignment bars I've had were both out of round and out of square. These were 34mm. My original 1" and 30mm sets are 20+ years old and are fine. They were made in the USA though.

I got so frustrated that I ordered a set from Kokopelli. They are fantastic.

If you have a flat surface, you can start by checking them off each other by eye. I never bothered checking the lapping bars.