took the plunge so to say just bought a leupold varix-III 3.5-10x 40 lr m3 with the premire riticle gen/2 mill dot upgrade. the rile i plan to put it on is a rem 700 30-06 with colate ultimate sniper stock. i have leupold qr bases on the rifle already and ordered the rings with th scope. now the question/questions...
1. do i have to lap these rings when installing the scope? it seems everyone here laps the rings to make sure they line up correctly. with the rings having the round post on the bottom i don't see how you could miss align them. also proper tecnique if yes.
2. will i have to shim the bases to get the full advantage out of this scope? if so proper tecnique for this also.
bear in mind that the most expensive scope i owned before was a $32 bushnell sport view. no problems with it ever just upgrading O.K. upgrading a lot. Just don't want to wreck a quality piece of glass with pure stupidity or at least something that can be prevented.
quote:Originally posted by bowiler: took the plunge so to say just bought a leupold varix-III 3.5-10x 40 lr m3 with the premire riticle gen/2 mill dot upgrade. the rile i plan to put it on is a rem 700 30-06 with colate ultimate sniper stock. i have leupold qr bases on the rifle already and ordered the rings with th scope. now the question/questions...
1. do i have to lap these rings when installing the scope? it seems everyone here laps the rings to make sure they line up correctly. with the rings having the round post on the bottom i don't see how you could miss align them. also proper tecnique if yes.
2. will i have to shim the bases to get the full advantage out of this scope? if so proper tecnique for this also.
bear in mind that the most expensive scope i owned before was a $32 bushnell sport view. no problems with it ever just upgrading O.K. upgrading a lot. Just don't want to wreck a quality piece of glass with pure stupidity or at least something that can be prevented.
Yes you need?to lap the rings....the rings aren't the only reason to lap.....the action itself can be off a few thousandths and then the bases and finally the rings thus a little here and more there can cause misalignment enough to matter or a least marr the scope...and a GREAT scope is what you have....to lap you need a lap kit with a lap bar and abrasive and then solvent to clean the abrasive from the rings...kits such as from Sinclair Intl. come with instructions.....as for shimming....it should be necessary only for extreme range shooting 600plus yards and the shim goes under the rear base and will allow for the longer range zero with some adjustment still left in the scope....for under 600yd shooting...shims will not be necessary for most?scope-gun-load combos......details count and make for a consistant shooting accurate gun/scope/load/shooter combo....good luck and good shooting!!!
Posts: 687 | Location: Jackson/Tenn/Madison | Registered: 07 March 2001
And after lapping the rings, if you should find you need to shim the bases you should lap the rings again. The whole lapping idea is to get the 2 ring surfaces onto the (exact) same plane.
Posts: 2124 | Location: Whittemore, MI, USA | Registered: 07 March 2002
If you don't have lapping and alignment tools I'd suggest buying Burris signature rings with the polymer inserts. They will fit your Leupold bases. You scope will self align, and if you decide you need more elevation, you can buy offset inserts quite inexpensively. This would be much cheaper than investing in all the lappin/alignment gear. Heck, I own all that stuff and I pretty much have switched over completely to the burris rings. I also saw where Sako is making rings with the same insert concept. Whatever you choose, DON'T just clamp the thing in those rings! I sold several scopes on Ebay recently and it makes such a huge difference to have NO ring marks. It tells people you know what you're doing (at least scope mounting wise!) and that your scope has not been stressed by mis-alignment.
I would also suggest a set of good scope caps. I use the removable rubber ones from Sinclair, but some folks like the Butler Creek flip up look. PUT THE CAPS ON when you clean your rifle. Solvents are hell on coatings, and if you use a bornze brush, when it exits the barrel you get a nice mist of solvent that can float back on your objective lens. Over time, it can ruin a scope's coating. Also, I once inadvertently poked my cleaning rod into my scope eyepiece lens--yuck. Only happened once but with the caps on it wouldn't have mattered.
You didn't ask about lens care, but buy yourself a can of "dust off" compressed air and use that to keep the lenses dust free instead of WIPING. I don't care what you wipe with, it will scratch. Either the "cloth" itself of some particles on the lens that get ground in. A camera buff friend of mine taught me to blow the dust off with the compressed air, and leave it at that. Clean by rubbing only if absolutely necessary. Go to a high end camera store and ask them about lens cleaning cloths before you grab your T-shirt and rub..
Roger
Posts: 648 | Location: Huskerville | Registered: 22 December 2001
I have a 700 .308 PSS with a 14X4.5 Leupold Vari XIII. Leupold had to replace my first set of 30mm rings that had the round post locking mechanism. It was nicking the base up really bad. Luepold said that it was a problem and replaced mine with the square post locking mechanism. I have started the lapping process over again. I hope you have better luck than I did.
