Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Scope mounts - fixed or detachable?

Talley Screw-Lock on almost all of mine.

Phil

In a long way from home scenario, Like Pappy mentioned (that guy has way too much common sense), I would have micro red dot, ( I do not shoot at animals over 300 meters away), (about 5 ounces in weight), already sighted in. With a 2 minute dot, you may surprise yourself at the accuracy you can get with a red dot sight.
As for rings, I use Recknagel Weaver/Pic rings. They are about $170 and worth every penny. I have never had to lap one, they are aluminum with hardened steel crossbolt that runs thru the scope base, as opposed to a screw that threads in the scope ring above the top of the base. A thru-bolt allows more torque for ring attachment for better RTZ. I buy the ring with the triangular nut. People will say, "But what if you lose the triangular nut wrench?" And I say if you lose your hex nut wrench or Torx wrench, what are YOU going to use, your dyk? You get a wrench with every pair of scope rings. One inch low rings weigh 2.25 ounces. These rings are superbly machined, finished and are brute strong. I do use a couple of sets of Warne Mountain tech rings also. Just put the red dot and your scope ring wrench in a small pouch together and throw it into your pack and worry not. I doubt you will be shooting game farther than a buck and a half or so with the red dot, but it can allow you to continue to hunt if your scope goes tits up. RJ

In Colorado I would not leave a backup rifle in a locked vehicle at a trailhead. All my rifles now have bedded rails with Seekins or Arc M10 rings holding Nightforce or SWFA scopes. I really never worry about having to swap scopes at this point. Scopes weigh 20-30 ounces. So heavier by 10-20 ounces than most scopes. However I am not packing backup stuff and wondering if my scope will be off when I shoot. Works for me.

Fixed mounts, no back-up scope and be careful with my rifle..protect it in a slip or fall as much as possible and also at other times.

I like Warne QR Maximas because they have large, rugged, levers.

I always, always, always bring a spare/loaner rifle when I hunt more than an hour or two from home and when weight inside a issue. I have had several different spare/loaner rifles over the years, but all of them have been bolt action rifles chambered in 270 or 30-06.

If I was only going to have one rifle, I would equipe it with a rugged set of QR mounts and carry a second pre-zeroed scope in a well padded rigid container.

I don't care for Leupold QRs as the levers are small and too fragile for my tastes. I had the QR levers snap off a Leupold QR base when the rifle that they were installed on slid onto the carpeted floor of my gun room.

I am a bit retentive on mounting. I open bases to 8-40s, use devcon 10110 to bed the bases (I do use release) and mount in the rings with proper torque.

Since going to this method and getting away from vortex I have yet to have a zero shift despite some ugly falls and a ton of rounds. My primary .270 is a little over 5900 rounds without a loss in zero, I will probably rebarrel before I rezero.

I use the Leupold QRW’s on most of my rifles. I see about 1/2 MOA when removing and replacing a scope.

Switch to Talleys for no shifting.

To the OP, since you are already using Talley lever detachables, but are concerned about the levers catching "stuff," you could reach out to Talley and have them send you some of the torx screws to replace the levers. I don't know if I would be concerned about the levers too much, but changing to the torx headed screws would eliminate this concern. A compact driver and small collection of bits in your pack would take up very little room and add little weight.

I have enjoyed my Talley screw lock detachable rings. Been a go-to for several of my rifles. They are stout and the machining is top notch. Having a few extra sets of rings around has been helpful when I start getting itchy and decide to play musical scopes. Many times I have changed my mind back and been able to put the original scope back in place only to verify that POI is unchanged.

If only one rifle is on the trip, it's two scopes in weaver rings & bases.

The gear snobs hate them, but they work just fine.