Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Scope touching barrel

Are you insinuating that the barrel touching the barrel was causing the problem or was it the cheapo scope?

If I were to shim the scope, how much clearance is enough? Any contact using the carbon paper-too much?

Lastly, who makes good mounts for a tang safety M77? I looked at a local gun shop for a ruger and they didnt have any for the M77. Where should I order mounts and where is the best price?

Roe Deer,

You sir are the uninformed one. Cutting a small relief into a barrel to maintain proper scope height is fairly common. One well known custom gunsmith that does this is Dave Miller.

As I said before it can be done in such a way that it is almost undetectable.

If it doesn't appeal to you then don't do it.

Now that we have all been duly impressed with a plethora of ignorance and nonsense, mount the damn scope farther from the barrel!!!! amen

If it's a m77 tang with factory ruger mounts order them from Ruger, or midway, or brownells etc.

ad 1. We learn every minute, good things and bad ones.

ad 2. Dave Miller does excellent work - except this

ad 3. You are right, and I never would.

BTW High speed videos show that, to be sure not to touch the barrel - or the Azzshooter barrel recess - with the scope objective bell the bell - depending on weight, angle situation and kind of recoil, of course - must be apart at least some Millimeters.
So, the much easier and mechanically much better approach is to mount the scope higher via more high bases.

Sorry if I hurt your feelings.

I have really learned something here today. it is something I was not aware of although I always made sure the scope was not touching the barrel.
I have had some rifles that I could shoot better with iron sights than a scope and never even thought of checking to see how much cleareance was there. I even sold a 7mm08 for that reason I am sure that was the problem I shimmed the rings for .0015 clearence. Thanks all.

Roe Deer- I got the idea from mine from one of Dave Miller's rifles. I just fed the barrel straight into the mill, stopping at the same point each time. I removed about 2 mm I believe. Accuracy was exactly the same afterwards but I was able to use the mounts I wanted to achieve the ergos best for me. I will try and get the rifle long enough to take a photograph of this modification.

I have seen German rifles with the Objective bell securely fastened to the barrel. I guess to each his own. I tested the clearance to see if it would touch under recoil- it wouldn't. I don't know what scope the guy has mounted on this rifle now and whether it is necessary. I took the rifle to Mexico on a WT hunt and wanted to mount my 4.5-14x40 on it. Leuplod now makes the relief cut in the scope body- which is the greater evil??

You just didn't read it.....in a nice previous post.

3, repeat THREE (3) MM......( That's a whole bunch)

GTC

Azshooter - I'm not questioning barrel strength or accurarcy: a long scope mounted so low that it barely clears the barrel is easily damaged by "recoil whip". Please test clearance per carbon paper method and shooting some rounds, thanks.
roe

Crossfireoops, I did read it in a previous post, but I also read Mule Deer state a scope with a 0.25 inch clearance had its Teflon knocked off. As you know, 3 (repeat three (3) MM) and 0.25 inches is very similar distance.

Thanks Roe Deer.

If you have a rigid enough scope and the front ring is snugged up against the forward bell, I will bet that you don't need 3mm clearance to keep it from touching. Now if you should mount, say a 6-18 Burris Fullfield, you might need 6-7mm of clearance

As I said already, you (pun intended) learn every day...

I use Leupolds exclusively. The barrel on my 7 RUM Sendaro is a heavier profile. This one got the relief cut. The scope is closer than 3 mm/.25" from the barrel. It is a 6.5-20 x 40 and is set up as Dennis mentioned.Recoil according to SST's site is 40 ft/lb / 16 fps. It has had zero issues with approx 250 rounds fired. I figure if there was one to cause problems it would be this one.

I haven't read all the threads in this post, but I will say in had a 788 Rem in .223 where the bezel of the scope barely touched the barrel. You could still turn the parallax, but it did touch.

It was a wonderfully accurate rifle. But there was no pressure on the barrel, and it was a low-recoil round.

If I had it to do over again, I'd file the scope bezel a bit, but it shot so well I never fooled with it.

Kinda makes one wonder if these 'new' scopes with the extra large objectives designed to 'wrap around' the barrel are a good idea. Perhaps OK for low recoil cartridges, as Gene has indicated. Do scopes come with any manufacturer 'warnings' regarding installation and close / contact with the barrel?

Page 1, article 1 from Leupold "Mounting Instructions".....

"...the scope must clear bolt handles, sights, hammers, barrels, etc.". It also includes a nice picture of a proper installation

PS, while we're at it, my conversion table indicates that 3mm is actually closer to .120 than .250., ( example; 6mm is generally referred to as .243/.244 up here in my neck of the woods).