Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics How many of you have had Talley LW’s fail

I have used 5 sets on different rifles over the last 10-15 years and no troubles yet.

I've owned 2 sets. Both cracked at the base. I love Talley's steel rings, but won't venture into the LW realm again. One was a LW 280 AI, the other a LW 300 WBY. I have their steel rings on 4 rifles now and really like those.

Has anyone ever rung up Talley after breaking some and talked to them about it?

PFNZ:

I emailed them a few pictures of the issue I had. I included details on gun and scope models, my scope mounting method, and total number of rounds shot with the rings. I inquired about the possibility of a bad run of materials.

I got a reply asking for my address so that they could replace the broken part and a statement that to the best of their knowledge, they didn't experience a bad run on materials.

Several days later I received not only a replacement for the broken top strap, but also a set of steel bases and rings for my application. So, CS was outstanding, and is the reason I try to buy from Talley if they offer a product that fits my needs. Just no more LW for me.

I called them and they were very nice. They said pics or proof weren’t necessary. They just sent me another. Actually, two if I remember correctly because both bases cracked at the same time in more or less the same place.

On rifles that I want to use a 1 piece base/ring to avoid the rail over the action I use the Hawkins Hybrids exclusively. Little more then 2x the cost of talley LW’s but built of better material, hell for stout, level in the rear cap and have 25 moa built in.

They're obviously pretty aware of it happening occasionally, wonder if they've considered a design or manufacturing process change to try fix it

If the Hawkins Hybrids came in lower heights I've have a lot more of them. Very nice rings, just to high.

I have had several in the past but replaced most for other reasons other than failure

PFNZ:

I figured the same in regards to a design, manufacturing, or composition change. However, based on the direction these threads always seem to take, there's also a lot of people who've gotten good service from Talley LW and have no intention of switching; so, perhaps it hasn't been a big enough problem to impact their bottom line? Or, perhaps they have actually made a change but didn't care to announce it, thereby also tacitly sending the message that the product you previously purchased from them may or may not have issues.

The failure rate concerns me as it does appear to be higher than most other rings/mounting systems, however there isn't a viable alternative for a Rem model 7 in a lightweight ring mount except the DNZ mounts, I may try those. Or just a rail & Warne mountain tech picatinny rings

My Talleys haven't failed yet though - only 9 months into ownership of my current single pair, on a .223. Yesterday's result

That is a nice chocolate fallow

DNZ work well and are light but are really tight on ring spacing. I like to have rings as close to the end of the tube as possible and the spacing on the DNZ's can limit that. The DNZ work well with short tubed scopes like a NF SHV 3-10x42.

Burris 2 piece bases with low Pic rings work really well on M7's for keeping a scope low.

DNZ's are much better than Talley's. I use them exclusively now.