Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Scope Mounting Made perfect...

Thanks for the input! I've got a machinist friend of mine looking to make one for me, but I thought it may be easier to just buy one if they were available.....

Having been using a device like this for over 20 years.Only mine is a piece of aluminum tubing 12 inches long by 1 inch wide.It serves the same purpose and works great every time.
I have mounted over 400 scopes with excellent results.

Broom handle always worked well for me.

I used to use a broom handle. Now I use a 2' piece of 3/4" EMT (steel electrical tubing). OD is .94 inches, about perfect for alignment. You can buy a 10' piece at Home Depot for $4, or ask your electrician buddy for a left-over scrap.

That said, almost all my guns are mounted with Weaver-style rings and bases, a much more reliable system.

Any comments on the newish Sinclair line up tools with full diameter for the rings and soda straw size in collets for the alignment in lieu of butting either the pointed or the flat end on current alignment kits? I'd been thinking that depending on the base screw layout it might be possible to get under or around the soda straw size extensions - if the screws are not inside the bottom ring half.

For the traditionalist with a farm shop.

1" round PTO shafting - readily available, cheap and easy to machine. Not of course stainless.

Can be had with a key way/setscrew way running through which flat makes it easier to drill holes to admit a screw driver shaft and tighten base screws with the PTO shaft in place - tap the screw driver and take up a little more for final tightening.

Ultimately once again users are compensating for manufacturing tolerances especially across different companies with different standards - as rifle makers and mount makers.

I suspect - I might say I'm sure - there are mount makers who could make a base and ring set that would fit right on a given rifle but likely enough no other so why bother.

Yeah that's perfect for installing rings but is it actually patentable? There's nothing revolutionary about it, I made one of those about 20 yrs ago and probably a bunch of other people have too. Hell, any kind of straight pipe or even a dowel works fine and doesn't cost $85.

I use a 4' long 1" wooden dowel. I can see how this is a better mouse trap until you figure in the price.

Most of the rank and file Campfire readers would never have the need for such a tool. That is obvious by some remarks about broom sticks and other instruments. I have mounted a bunch of scopes over the years and wouldn't have thought of such an idea as I got by without it.

My father lived his entire life without a cell phone, but I would bet that more than 75% of the viewers here have one. "Getting by and wondering how" was a comment he made all his life. We can all relate to that statement in one form or another, but just because we got by without it, doesn't mean it isn't a great idea with merit.

I believe it deserves consideration from those who want to take care in the proper mounting of a scope. Once may not be enough, but it wouldn't take too many mounts before I could see it's value.

Yeah, I'm not really sure what this tool does that a 1" wooden dowel from Lowes for a few bucks wouldn't do. I mean it seems like a nice tool, but not really worth paying much for. If it was $10 vs $5 for a wooden dowel, I could see where it would be worth it, but at $85, the wooden dowel, or even a piece of 1" round bar steel for a few bucks at Lowes or Home Depot is a much better option imo.

True enough -- if you can find a truly straight dowel.

Set up a pair of V-blocks and spin a few: straight ones the length of a rifle barrel and receiver are rare (and ones that stay straight more rare yet!).

Steel or aluminum (after checking for straightness in the V-blocks) is the way to go...

John

Wonder why he doesn't provide a bore hole in the bar so one could bore sight it and the rifle bore on the same distant point. This would allow alignnment in both planes instead of just one.

RAN

I've mounted hundreds of scopes without lapping, or any fancy gear. I've never had a problem. Just lucky I guess. Why must everyone over think everything?

You are right, I guess it really doesn't matter that much if you're only shooting a Remington...

kirk--as always, you're spot on. the scope-tru is intended for a fairly narrow audience.

for many years, i set my standard and dual dovetail rings with a wooden dowel and a rafter square--a tedious process that produced superb results.

over time, i began to dread this job--a job which i had always liked to do--because it was so tedious to "get the job done correctly, and with considerable perfection".

with that in mind, i decided to design this tool based upon what i learned by using the rafter square--and much thought went into the design, profile, length, and the additional part that can be used with it for those with myopic issues. after putting it off for a time, i finally machined one. the sole purpose in doing so was to have a device that i could set my scope rings with that would yield a perfect job, take much less time, and eliminate the tedious nature of earlier efforts. the alignment bar was to be strictly for my personal use. however, my wife encouraged me to pursue some course of action with it, and so i decided to do so.

the scope-tru is intended for:

**the professional gunsmith who will use it regularly;

**retail and wholesale sporting goods stores where many scopes are mounted over the years, and time and efficiency are issues;

**and finally, "gun cranks" who like to work on guns at home throughout the year--and who want to do the job easily and as close to perfectly as possible.

my wife and i both make a good living, we paid off the mortgage years ago, are debt free, etc.

therefore: at this point, one significant purpose is that if there is some small success in this, i can utilize any returns for developing a few other ideas that have developed in my mind(all of them shooting/firearms related).

as an aside, to execute this type of endeavor is quite expensive, and there are no guarantees of success or returns--but the learning experience, and the process itself are always worth it, and can often times out-weigh same.

as to cost: the total in materials and labor, with packing and shipping, is just over $50.00--but this figure is without the necessary product liability insurance added into the equation...

Interesting and informative discussion. Thank you.

1. Best suited to a narrow audience makes sense to me. I tried a different, but similar kit for my first scope mounting attempt 2 yrs ago. The alignment tools were handy and reliable. Having machined steel components assured a repeatable level of precision. I'd include relatively inexperienced who might want to mount several to many future scopes in the potential market though.

2. I can't say I get the pencil analogy in this discussion though:

"One thing many people don't realize about the common pair of pointy-tipped mounting bars is that just because the points of both bars align doesn't mean the rings are aligned. This is easily proven by taking two pencils and putting the points together. The angle of each pencil can vary considerably"

Doesn't the rifle make a straight mounting base? Beginning with that assumption, I can't figure how 2 metal "pencils" with machined, centered points wouldn't help align the ring bases. Error is possible but only if I ignore the rifle underneath. Prob I'm missing something, eh?

3. An additional feature that came with the kit I ordered also helped the rings grip the scope barrel better - better fit and more surface area. Lapping compound on the alignment bar was useful to remove excess material, which put more ring surface on the scope and removed the sharp edge which could have marred the scope barrel. A torque driver was also included which guided the mounting force I used on the torx screws - something also prob not needed for the more experienced, but it gave me some confidence I was putting enough force into the job and w/o stripping anything out.

Good thread. Thanks.

That never misses.........

We all hail to you mighty swampmeister.....we missed you up here last weekend. We're sure you would have put on a clinic in the wind......laffin!

But, you can't use a one piece base, as it surely messes with accuracy...

It's the theory on that tibbit of Swamp wisdom that gets interesting...

Would you enlighten us one more time, Swampy. Just want to hear it again...

This rod will align the scope horizontally, but I have seen a lot of base and ring combinations there were out of alignment vertically, for varirous reasons, the primary one being military rifles that had the receiver rings ground down to clean them up, and because of manufacturing tolerences between batches of bases.

In many instances, either the front or rear base would need to be shimmed, because to put the scope in the rings with the bottom of either ring lower than the other would cause warpage of the scope tube.

To test for this, I would position both rings, leaving the top off both. Then, I would install the scope, just using one entire ring, most times the front one. If there was a small space between the scope tube and the bottom inside of the rear ring, then that base would need shimming.

This would not tell you whether or not the front base or ring was lower, however, so I would reverse the procedure, tightening the rear ring but leaving the front cap loose. If gap present, then this would mean the front base would need shimming.

For proper, stress free mounting and alignment, the scope tube needs to in alignment both vertically and horizontally.

Lapping would not cure this. You could get a good fit of sorts, but in the above situation, where either the front ring or base was not of the same height, lapping would make the hole in one or the other rings egg shape.

Meaning, you would lap away the high part of the inside bottom of the ring to make an even fit in both rings, and if it was the receiver or base, or even the ring height that was off, you would be lapping off material in the ring to correct another misaligned part.

This is where a 2 piece, sharp pointed rod would be helpful. You could align the sharp points both vertically and horizontally.