Lapping and bedding scope bases and rings?

Dsmer4ever

Dsmer4ever

Member
Rating - 100%
3   0   0
Location
NB
I was looking around on YouTube today and found a few interesting videos about lapping or bedding your rings and bedding you bases.
I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on these practices, and how many do it and how?
Thanks for the help.
Dan
 
i bed my base to the action if its required, as far as lapping rings, i dont bother, any of my plinking rifles(22s) it isnt worth the effort to me (granted i run decent rings) on my high end rifles, i run top notch rails and rings and have yet to see a set that needed to be lapped. but if your running mid grade stuff with a bigger scope. yup its worth doing
 
We ran into a situation at the Western Canada F-Class Championships where one of the shooters only had 4mins of left available on his scope (NF NXS) during sight in. 4 of us ended up helping to pulling his scope off, trading the rings front to back then got him sighted in again at the 800 firing point.

He went on to take 2nd place in F-O.

Lapping the rings would probably have alleviated the problem in the first place.
 
If there's very little contact between the action and the base. Cheap mass produced actions. Everyone should have a tube of Prussian Blue/high spot blue to figure this stuff out and know what contact they got anywhere, $5 well spent. Cheap rings on a cheap base can also lead to other excessive miss alignment.

It won't make up for a screwed up crooked rifle where the action points one way and the barrel the other, that you still have to figure out first and see if you can fix it or if you'll run out of adjustment.
Then again when I put the barnard rail on a barnard action, NF rings, no bedding or lapping anything and I have zero windage adjustment at 200yard from the new scopes zero out of the box, I figure it's good enough.
 
Yes lapping scope rings is good - certainly cant hurt.

I've heard lots of stories of bent scopes from improperly aligned rings, so better safe than sorry. Lap em if ya got em.

On the other hand, there are scope rings that do not require lapping such as the Burris Signature rings and Sako Optilok. These rings have a self centering spherical bushing that ensures the scope is supported evenly. As far as I'm concerned these rings are the way to go because you can take them off and put them back on or even switch rifles without having to lap each time.
 
CyaN1de said:
We ran into a situation at the Western Canada F-Class Championships where one of the shooters only had 4mins of left available on his scope (NF NXS) during sight in. 4 of us ended up helping to pulling his scope off, trading the rings front to back then got him sighted in again at the 800 firing point.

He went on to take 2nd place in F-O.

Lapping the rings would probably have alleviated the problem in the first place.
Click to expand...

Good job on that but likely lapping would have made things worst. You guys got real lucky that the combination of errors ended up to be what you needed. Hope he doesn't have to remove that scope.

Making ellipitical rings do nothing to hold scopes securely. And you would have had no idea where the scope was pointing until it was shot. Then how true are you at grinding down steel with a tube and grit?

Burris Sig ZEE rings and live happily ever after..... no more bent scopes too.

As for base and bedding, if using 1pc base, just put the base on the receiver. If it flops around, bed.

If using 2pc bases, Burris Sig ZEE rings.


Jerry
 
Mystic Precision said:
Good job on that but likely lapping would have made things worst. You guys got real lucky that the combination of errors ended up to be what you needed. Hope he doesn't have to remove that scope.

Making ellipitical rings do nothing to hold scopes securely. And you would have had no idea where the scope was pointing until it was shot. Then how true are you at grinding down steel with a tube and grit?

Burris Sig ZEE rings and live happily ever after..... no more bent scopes too.

As for base and bedding, if using 1pc base, just put the base on the receiver. If it flops around, bed.

If using 2pc bases, Burris Sig ZEE rings.


Jerry
Click to expand...

Problem with Burris Sig ZEE rings is the non-tip-off design. Every once in awhile scope may need to be removed. Burris Zee rings need to be slid off rail, and sometimes that's impossible. With tip-off rings and identical rails one scope could be used on two different rifles in a pinch and if site-in data was recorded. However if saving money on rings is more important than versatility Brownell's makes a picatinny riser that's available in 0-10-20-30 MOA and is held on with a tip-off style clamp. Bolting Sig/Zee rings to this would eliminate splitting rings for scope removal.
 
Chinbullco said:
Problem with Burris Sig ZEE rings is the non-tip-off design. Every once in awhile scope may need to be removed. Burris Zee rings need to be slid off rail, and sometimes that's impossible. With tip-off rings and identical rails one scope could be used on two different rifles in a pinch and if site-in data was recorded. However if saving money on rings is more important than versatility Brownell's makes a picatinny riser that's available in 0-10-20-30 MOA and is held on with a tip-off style clamp. Bolting Sig/Zee rings to this would eliminate splitting rings for scope removal.
Click to expand...

If there is a part of the rifle to impede sliding off the scopes, then fine. If the rail is cockeyed so the rings CANT slide, then be glad you used them in the first place.

I find that any time a scope in Burris Sig ZEE rings will not slide down a rail, it is way off for wonky.

Jerry
 
I had a Ruger 77 that when tightening the front ring would lift the rear ring off the base (about 1mm high).
Instead of lapping I shimmed the rear ring (at the base) to prevent scope bending. Worked fine for me.
 
Green loctite is great for bedding, it will fill up to 4 mil of gap sturdily, Remington are notorious for crooked bases holes, got a couple with off centered alingment, guess they went tru QC unseen... JP.
 
I have lapped high end rings on a high end rail on a high end action. Lapping was needed in my opinion. Cheap rings etc can be a mile off but it's your scope to ding and bend as you like. If you don't want to lap then the Zee rings are the way to go, I use them and they work great. If you can't remove your scope then you have some other issues to deal with, even bottom of the line Weavers will return to zero if installed properly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom