I just bought one of the Wheeler scope mounting kits from Midway. It has the alignment bars and a lapping rod and compound. I'm tired of trying to eyeball turn-in rings.

However, I have a new set of Talley QRs with the lever that I am going to mount up. Do you guys lap the Talleys?

Well see how they line up first. I never lap rings unless there is a alignment problem or it the rings halves seem tight. I like to set the ring halves on the scope. I like them to drop right on. If there is any hangup I will lap them.

quote:

Originally posted by Savoir_Faire:
I just bought one of the Wheeler scope mounting kits from Midway. It has the alignment bars and a lapping rod and compound. I'm tired of trying to eyeball turn-in rings.

However, I have a new set of Talley QRs with the lever that I am going to mount up. Do you guys lap the Talleys?

I still like to lap all of my scope rings, even the good quality ones like Talley.

It seems like the rings themselves, unless you are using a one piece base, are only half of the equation to alignment. If the mounting screws in the action are misaligned (don't be surprised how often this can happen), then it will throw you off alignment no matter how concentric and perfect your rings are.

Here is a shot of the Talley Lightweight One-Piece rings on a Kimber Montana short action:



I like to lap all of my rings for two reasons:

1) prevents marring of the scope tube should you choose to move it later to adjust for eye relief or even switch scopes

2) it is easier on the internal components of the scope if you do not tweak the tube. You might not be able to see it with the naked eye, but those thin aluminum scope tubes do flex. On some scopes you can feel a difference in the magnification adjustment ring if you over torque the ring screws. This situation is exaggerated in misaligned rings or rings that have high spots in them.

Good luck!

I lap all of mine. I am not good enough to align them precisely by eye balling. And i use only ywo piece bases, so both the rifle screw holes and the rings and bases all have the potential to have some mis alignment. My experience is that they all benefit from lapping.

I lap all of my rings too. Some guys have reamers to do the same job, I just never bought them. But, the end result of lapping or reaming is having rings that are in perfect alignment. This means no scope tube stress, and no ring marks on the scope.
When considering all of the tolerances involved in the various machined parts that go with scope mounting, I think it would be a miracle to ever have them align unlapped, or unreamed.

I wanted to add a quote from an article by Gordy Gritters printed in the July 2005 Varmint Hunters Magazine regarding the effects of misaligned rings and action flexing.

"If ring misalignment is not corrected, accuracy will be compromised because the action is getting flexed right along with the scope, causing the action to not fit the bedding
properly any more. This can be measured quite often with a dial indicator. Have the action perfectly bedded into the stock with zero stress showing on the dial indicator when the action screws are loosened and tightened. Now install the scope in a set of rings which are not lapped and recheck the bedding stress. Usually you will find that the indicator now shows stress present in the bedding that was not there before the scope rings were tightened up. This can and will affect the accuracy of that rifle."

http://www.varminthunter.org/downloads/Issue55.pdf