I buy scopes off eBay and various classified sites and the best bargains are those scopes which have bad ring marks.
I'm not talking crushing or denting tubes but normal to severe ring marks such as you'd find on scopes tightened by Bubba.

My wife uses these foam pads sold as Magic Erasers from Mr. Clean. I tried these with a bit of water and a bit of dishsoap and with a little elbow grease even bad ring marks virtually disappear.
I was amazed how well these worked.

Link to Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

http://www.mrclean.com/en_US/magic-eraser.do

There are other brands out there as well and they work too.

Thanks for the tip. What lead you to try it in the first place?

Every now and then someone posts something very useful...thank you.

I bought a particularly ring marked up Elite 1.25-4x24 on eBay.
Got it for a song.
The wife had these Magic Eraser thingies and thought what the heck.
Cleaned all the ring marks right off.

I wish that you would have just told me about this until I had time to buy up a few bargains. Just kidding. Thanks for the tip. miles

Great tip. Thanks for sharing!

Eric

Do you have any before and after pics?

His wife makes him scrub dishes, etc all the time......

Glad I'm not the only one

Seriously though. This is a great tip. Gracious my friend

Thanks for the tip but I thought you were going to show everyone a torque wrench.

Very good thank you.
I have some in the kitchen now.

Sorry, I looked around for some B&A pics but couldn't find any.

Could you go mark some up and take pics?

Have you tried the Magic Erasers on light surface rust?
Just a thought..

Actually I have and they work pretty well and do not affect the bluing.

How much elbow grease to magically erase my wife?

Thanks for the tip!

Do they work on both matte and gloss scopes?

I'm intrigued with your post, however I don't get how it would make ring marks disappear. Ring marks are imperfections or scratches in the anodized finish. Are you saying that these erasers fill the scratches and smooth them out? What about the aluminum color of the tubes that shows thru? Does it somehow re-color that?
Pics before and after would really help.

Don't know why it has worked for me but it has worked several times. The whitish marks seem to go away and I don't believe that I'm removing any anodizing as the marked up portion of the scope remains the same shade as the unmarked portion.
I never thought of taking before and after shots but if any of you have a marked up scope the Magic Erasers are cheap and five minutes of elbow grease will tell the tale.

Thanks for the tip,I will try these out!

I just tried this on a matte finished scope (Nitrex TR-1) and wow, it worked fabulously!

Thanks for the great tip!

I thought he was gonna say he discovered Burris Signature rings.

Nice! Thanks for the tip!

I was surprised how well these work.

Hope the eBay buyers don't read this or the great deals on ringmarked up scopes will go away.

To one of you bastages probably!

appreciate the tip...forgot to tighten the rings on a Leica all the way down

And I thought that chit only happened to old duffers...:)

Great tip! I am going to try it.

I am guessing here, but it may be that the scratches are really 2 things- 1) slight buildup of oxidation from where the anodized finish was removed and 2) the underlying metal being exposed.

The Magic eraser will be great at removing the slight buildup of oxidation and whatnot. The shinier metal showing through the scratch may be partially filled and look less obvious by the minute amount of finish being buffed off.

total WAG though.

I have can of never-dull wadding polish sitting on my bench. I use it on heavily soiled brass and things that need a little clean up. Just tried it on a scope ring and it worked great too. Wouldn't of thought of it if I hadn't seen this post.

I've been using Never-dull for years to remove the carbon ring buildups on the front of my revolver cylinders. I've also used it to polish (hide?) ring marks on scopes. I like the Never-dull because it also leaves a protective residue. I don't leave all the residue, rather I just lightly wipe the surface I've polished with a clean shop towel.

They also work great on vinyl convertible tops, boat seats, etc. You would be surprised how it pulls out the old grime. Things looks brand new afterwards.

Wow, THANKS Nsquam! This is one of the best, most useful threads and tips I have seen here at the 'fire! I have some hard used scopes on a couple of nice rifles and when I get back from this 24hrcf gathering I am going to give these products a try! Just terrific idea sharing here.

You might want to put this idea in the general campfire and in the custom rifles threads so that more members get the benefit of your discovery.