Scope Mounting....and Leveling...

[garion]

Just curious what you guys use other there to set/calibrate your scopes/mounts/receivers etc.....

I've seen the level-level-level product, some lapping stuff....alignment bars etc...

do these work? do you have any reccomendations?

thanks in advance!

[Ironchef]

I eyeball it, and use a laser bore sighter. I doubt levelling would make it better aligned.

[Stockton]

Put your rifle in some type of vise or gun holder. Lay a small level bubble across your base to get the rifle level. 10 or more yards away on a wall put a string with a nut or weight at the end. With only the bottom portion of your scope rings attached to the base lay your optics in it. Look through your glass and line your vertical reticle up with the string. Cap and torque your ring tops. This is a down and dirty method. Dont forget to adjust for your eye - relief in the process as well.

[garion]

Put your rifle in some type of vise or gun holder. Lay a small level bubble across your base to get the rifle level. 10 or more yards away on a wall put a string with a nut or weight at the end. With only the bottom portion of your scope rings attached to the base lay your optics in it. Look through your glass and line your vertical reticle up with the string. Cap and torque your ring tops. This is a down and dirty method. Dont forget to adjust for your eye - relief in the process as well.

thanks for the tips! i kept trying to find a level surface to line up the horizontal...but the vertical line with a weight makes more sense .

*is the fat wrench (wheeler) worth purchasing?

[gbp]

Go get a feeler guage, about $10-$12 and follow this.

http://www.snipershide.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=25

as simple as it gets

[Ballistic043]

leveling and mounting a scope is relatively easy but there's a few things to remember.

IMO the lapping bars are great if you want to relieve stress on your scope. nothing worse than a warped frame. but most modern scopes can handle alittle stress, and lapping might be completely unnecessary. so check with the rods first before deciding on what action to take.

lap if necessary, but don't go overboard. alot of people lap the rings way too much. then they are left with a level scope but wonder why it wont tighten down. they try to tighten it and bend the tube in process..

big headache.

additionally, one of the most important aspects is to use proper torque on the rings. don't ever use more than the reccomended amount

any more and you might be damaging the inner workings of the scope'. excessive torque can lead to warpage of the erector assembly and damage your investment.



wow that last part sounds bad

[gbp]

Once you get the scope mounted head to the range and follow this proceedure and all will be good

http://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/reticle-perpendicularity.php

[UBFRAGD]

Good question and useful responses. I'll be mounting a couple of scopes soon and here's what I'm going to try. I'll mount the scopes as best I can without the help of any specialized tools other than a torque wrench. Then I'll plug in my Aimshot laser bore sighter @100yrds and see what happens and make adjustments. Then I'll shoot and see what happens. I expect to get pretty close quickly, but if I don't, then I'll start looking at other solutions like ring lapping/ring alignment tools/boresighters.

I did overhear something at a gunshop recently, the smithy said he mounts scopes with a boresighter and has found it to be the most useful scope-mounting tool.

[Stockton]

i'm not a stickler for" this and that" but I would venture to say that he is using a boresighter as a zeroing tool rather than a scope-mounting tool...but scope mounting does require zeroing afterwards so maybe i'm just rambling but I do fully understanding the use of a boresighter to help your zero quicker. ramble ramble ramble ramble ramble...lol