This summer I mounted a Leupold Vari-X III 4.5-14x40AO on my Rem M700 with Leupold two peice rings and bases. We have used these mounts before with complete success. However, when sighting in I noticed my crosshairs were tilted. When torquing the screws I had tightened them one side at a time--which had caused the scope to tilt to the side. Anyways, to make a long story short I could for the life of me not loosen the torx screws. I didn't think I had tightened them that tight but 3 bent wrenchs and a couple stripped screws later I was forced to drill the rings and buy a new set so that I could have my scope mounted and the rifle sighted in by hunting season. I wanted to know if anyone has had similar problems with these mounts. It was a first for me too...

I tighten the torx screws quite tight but have never had a problem with removing them when I needed to.You didn't use loctite on the ring screws did you?

No, I've got several rifles with the STD mounts and rings. All worked out real well. It's nice to have one kind of base and ring for several rifles. Also have noticed that they seem to shoot real well, I just shot an NRA any sight/any rifle prone matche against guys with real expensive scope mounts and did quite well. Have never had any problem with these. The guys at Leupold cautioned me to use dual dovetail mounts on a lightweight .300 maggie I set up for a friend. Regards, Guy

[ 10-18-2002, 07:43: Message edited by: m700 ]

I purchased two sets of bases and both had the holes counter sunk almost all the way down. Must have been a bad batch. The store gladly replaced them and all is well.

No locite or anything. I followed the direction just like I had on every other rifle. Only difference was the order in which I tightened the screws.

I witnessed all of this. And there was no lock-tite, no oil placed on the screws to get one more turn, not even over-excessive tightening. But those screws would not budge. Granted, the rifle was sitting in his lap as he tried to loosen the screws, so it was not vised down or extremely steady, but those screws were in there for good.

I had a set of two-piece bases that would not align. The crosshairs were about 24" left of the bore and didn't have enough windage to get zeroed. I contacted Leupold and they appolgized and gave me return instructions. I promptly received my new bases and apology, mass production sometimes produces duds but Leupold made it right. Great product (generally) and fantastic service.

It looks as though by tightening one side all the way down before you began to tighten the other side, you caused the ring to bind on the head of the screw. Normally the tolerances are not held real closely on the head of the screws and on the counterbores of the rings. By tightening one side down, the head of the cap screw began to bite into the counterbore in the ring at such an acute angle that it caused it to be unremovable when additional pressure was placed on the ring from the other side.

The best way to avoid this is to finger tighten down each side equally before you apply the final torque to the screws. There should be an equal amount of gap between the top and bottom sections of the rings on either side, as well as the front and rear rings.