I picked up a pair of Kimber of Oregon detachable rings and only after purchase started to think about bases. Anyone know if there were "factory" K of O bases that would fit either pre-64 or Classic model 70 receiver? Or another off the shelf base that would work? Last resort - any recommendations for someone to make up custom bases? thanks

Jim Kobe can make you some.

They did make them, good luck finding a set. Easier to have someone make a set. Narrower than Talleys.

All you have to do is ask.
I still have some of the PME, bases for those rings

PM sent

James Wisner
Life Regular Memeber American Custom Gunmakers Guild

Haven't doped it out,but seems like you old simply narrow some Taley's?

7/16 Kimber, 1/2" Talley. Otherwise the same except Kimbers don't have the rear lug and were designed to slide on from the back. Jim, do you have any bases for Mauser 98?

The Kimber dovetail is an rather odd size in width, and height and the tolerance for both is +/- .002" or less.
I will dig out the old book and post the dims later,

As to Mauser bases I do have a few FN rear bases, but no front bases.

FYI I have a whole MESS of Rem 700 bases, front and rear if someone wants to play with them, contact me.

James Wisner
Life Regular Memeber American Custom Gunmakers Guild

There was a seller on ebay that has the bases, he has several that are not posted you can send him an email to ask. Search "Warne Premier" base

OK here goes.

The dovetail is measured across 2 ( two ) .040" diameter pins, outside to outside of those pins is .468" +/- .002", normal 60 degree dovetail cut.

The small top section above the dovetail is .444", this is why most people call it a 7/16" dovetail.

The height of the base in the middle of the dovetail is .107" - .109", this is from the top of the base where the ring sits to the bottom edge of the dovetail.

Then the front reciol shoulder needs to be a min of .050" tall.

Hope this helps.

James Wisner
Life Regular Member American Custom Gunmakers Guild

Jim, How much for four of the FN rear bases?

Lee 440,
I filed my Talley rear base to slide on and cut a stop hole in the side, so that I could incorporate the Talley QD peep option on my custom 7x57..so that shouldn't be a problem..Talley will do that for you if you ask him to.

I may have a set of bases for this if needed, let me know

You can bet money that Wisner bases are first class. There's maybe an overlooked benefit to making custom bases on the action

Properly done, they can't help but be 100% in alignment

I have a set of bases and rings if needed

Seems like questions about these Warne rings and bases come up often on here. And it seems like people seem to really like them when they can get them.

What is it about Warne rings and bases that makes then so popular years after they ceased to be made?

I'll take a stab at that question. Jack Warne was a great engineer. He recognized the need for a set of rings and bases which would come closer to Custom Rings and bases than were available on the market at the time. The production was of high quality and available in every manufacturer then producing guns. Jack did not allow short cuts in manufacturing. The rings were Investment Cast in Portland,OR. All broaching, slitting, polishing, drill/tapping, and bluing were done in house. The company was sold around the early 2000's and the decision to move to Weaver style rings and bases saw the demise of the more expensive to make parts. Quality and correct application precision make them attractive still today. IMO

I have them on 6-7 of my rifles and would have them on more if I could find them.

Great quality and good looks.

Who copied who, or to put it another way, who was first with that type base and rings. Seems like I have seen ads for Len Brownell rings and bases that preceded and look a lot like the Warne rings and bases.

Your order of progression is correct. LB and JW made a gentleman's agreement sometime in the late 70's. Early Kimber Rings were marked with an LB per the agreement. LB passed away in the early 80's if I remember correctly. Not sure what happened to the agreement arrangement. All I know is, Kimber of Oregon went full hog in the scope ring business in 82 or 83. I was employed in the Stock Shop at the time. Every day I had to deliver stocks to Assembly, which was in the same bay as the Ring Department.

As Dennis said it is mostly correct.

The L Brownell rings are odd to the fact that they do not use a recoil shoulder on the base. Instead he grooved the clamp and also that matching side of the base dovetail section.
Think of all these little serations to clamp the ring against recoil.

Also each of the L Brownells rings I ever saw had the LB stamped on the head of the lever screw.

The big change Kimber did was to get rid of those serations and simply used a smooth dovetail section on the clamp and base, and added the recoil shoulder to the front of the base

My Father started selling the Kimber 82 rifles in 1983, that was how I met Greg, as he was an on the road slaesman then, and all the rings I recall for them at that time were not marked

When I got more involved with Kimber in about 1985, Greg Warne told me about the agreement that Jack Warne had made with L Brownell, They still had some bits and pieces around of the LB rings at that point.

At that point in time I never saw any markings on the Kimber rings when I was in the plant, so any Kimber ring with markings would be very early ones

In 1986 I got Greg Warne to write out a agreement that I could make and market Kimber style rings in the 3/4", 7/8", 26mm, and 30mm sizes. Of course that went south in 1992 when the Bank took things over.

Some fun times those were.

Jim Wisner

Really interesting history.

Wasn't it also around that time that Mr. Burgess started making his extremely well made rings in the same style as the Brownell/Warne style? And how did Mr. Talley get into that business. Did he buy manufacturing rights as well?

I thank and bow to the greater knowledge of Jim.
I have been enlightened.

Funny I just ordered some 30mm Talley rings to fit a Swarovski to my H&H double which has the Brownell bases. I have a couple of sets of the Brownell/Kimber levers but 1”.

The levers aren’t really suitable for a double but I have seen them on a few English doubles.

Wish that this had been on two weeks ago!

The Brownell serrated bases were innovative, but a little cranky to remove and replace the scope..Could be mitigated by small coil springs as now seen on Talley rings.

Kimber, of course did away with that and went to a shoulder. I always liked the Kimber because of the graceful levers and the fact that the tings came in sets..one lever/ring with a LH thread and the other with a RH.

Talley sets were not a new engineering idea, he just made them with a wider dovetail. Dave landed a pretty good contract with Swarovski to make rings and bases...his business really took off, sort of leaving Kimber in the dust.

His sets were further simplified with only using RH threads...Talley set up is strong and reliable, just as were the Kimber ...They just aren't as pretty.

Greg Warne has passed some time ago. He was found dead at the Portland airport, a probable victim of a mugging. Not a happy ending for a man I called a friend.

To; be sure, I got the information about Greg from two former Kimber employees, was not able to confirm this with public record

Here's a link to Jack's obituary:

https://obits.oregonlive.com/o...y.aspx?pid=193001460

Certainly sounds like he led a full life.

I had a problem with the early Warnes and Ihad them on most of my rifles at the time..On a PG hunt in RSA I missed a trophy of a life time because I could not lift the bolt..The lever that was held in position by a light spring, a provision I thought was great, but as luck would have it, recoil made the lever pop out of position move to a position that would not allow uplift and the trophy left before I figured out the problem..I moved it back into the right positon and it repeated itself, so out came the electrician tape and I wrapped the levers and finished the hunt...I called Warne and suggested they change the spring with a heavy spring, don't know if they did, but anyone could and should..I swapped them all out for Talleys and a couple of sets of Lynn Brownells pretty rings and bases, and never looked back...

I would like to see Talley use a lower more streamlined base and lower rings to get the scopes I use down on the gun..I had a set of bases made that do that and it looks great with my 2.5X Leupold Alaskan, and 3X Leupolds,even works with a 4X Leupold and 2x7x28, but its all but touching with the 2 and 2x7x28..

Most scopes today require those high ugly mounts. Few of us small scope guys left.

Ray, you had the "second generation" of lever releases. You'd pull out the lever too index it, then springs wold pull the lever back in place...Nev er went over well.

Not sure why the craze about 56mm objectives these days...

Very interesting info, I knew Warne had changed but wasn't sure what took place.

For those that know Dave Talley ,I saw Dave at the gunshow this past weekend , he is now in a wheel chair. Dave is buying and selling guns on a limited basis ,doing a little work for himself and Gary is running the scope mount business.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
Seems like questions about these Warne rings and bases come up often on here. And it seems like people seem to really like them when they can get them.

What is it about Warne rings and bases that makes then so popular years after they ceased to be made?

Because this is the last bastion of taste in world where a T3 is viewed as the ultimate rifle design

Duane,
I have a set of the old brownell QD levers and bases, that will work on a small ring Mauser and have used them on my mod. 21 and 22 Brno as I recall..

However the beautiful checkered levers have been shortened to clear on the rifles front ring and the bolt release in back, apparently to keep levers on the off side??..the slots have been tapped perhaps with a 12 pound sledge, but I filed them out to work..I would like to have a good machinest clean these bases up back to original..are you interested or can you recommend someone that does that kind of work. I notice they have a custom type washer to take up slack in the scope rings?? I was told they were Lynn Brownells so Ive never considered selling them, but perhaps they are the early warnes you refer to. They are petite and clean looking rings..

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):
The Brownell serrated bases were innovative, but a little cranky to remove and replace the scope..Could be mitigated by small coil springs as now seen on Talley rings.

Kimber, of course did away with that and went to a shoulder. I always liked the Kimber because of the graceful levers and the fact that the tings came in sets..one lever/ring with a LH thread and the other with a RH.

Talley sets were not a new engineering idea, he just made them with a wider dovetail. Dave landed a pretty good contract with Swarovski to make rings and bases...his business really took off, sort of leaving Kimber in the dust.

His sets were further simplified with only using RH threads...Talley set up is strong and reliable, just as were the Kimber ...They just aren't as pretty.

Greg Warne has passed some time ago. He was found dead at the Portland airport, a probable victim of a mugging. Not a happy ending for a man I called a friend.

To; be sure, I got the information about Greg from two former Kimber employees, was not able to confirm this with public record

I'm pretty sure that Greg was found dead in a hotel room in Costa Rica, not at the PDX airport.