Move scope to new rifle without removing it from rings?

[adamg]

Let's hear it. I feel like this might be one of those unwritten rules of rifle ownership, or perhaps an old wives' tale.

Edit: To clarify, I am referring to having many guns, all with a pic rail base. And this assumes the ring height is suitable and objective clears the barrel.

(A) Remove scope from a rifle while still mounted in the rings, and then mount on a different rifle.

(B) Take the scope out of rings, then take rings off rifle, then put rings on second rifle, then put scope in rings.

 

[Jay]

Not enough info...

What rifle is it on? What rifle is it going to?

In some cases, a qd mount like a GG&G 35M lets you do just that because it's going from one rail to another...

But in most cases I don't think you can due to differences in the bases etc...

Cheers
Jay

 

[KePet]

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Like Jay mentioned, differences in the bases often cause issues - like the objective clearing one base, but hitting on another because of required scope placement. A long action base will create issues if the scope is coming off a short action. A 20 MOA base to a 0 MOA base will have your scope sitting differently. Even different bases, from different makers will be thicker/thinner in profile and your objective may be clearing the barrel on one, and touching on another. If the guns/bases are pretty much exactly the same your odds of it working are a lot better, but still not guaranteed.

 

[wasa]

Rings stay on the first gun. New rings on second gun. Take just scope off old gun, put scope on new gun.

 

[caramel]

If the height and clearance is ok, i will move a an ass'y.

 

[Buck1950]

In many cases you may have to loosen the scope a bit to acomodate different base spacing or eye relief, but rails would simplify that. One thing I would do ( and have done often) is re-align (center) the reticle to be able to start over when zeroing. Otherwise one may run out of adjustments. * Mirror re-centering only takes minutes *

 

[rugbydave]

If both rifles have an in-spec pic rail and the rings are the correct height for clearance on both rifles, then there is no problem. I swap scopes around all the time, whether they're in one piece mounts rings, makes no difference.

 

[TacticalTeacher]

If both rifles have an in-spec pic rail and the rings are the correct height for clearance on both rifles, then there is no problem. I swap scopes around all the time, whether they're in one piece mounts rings, makes no difference.

I’m a picatinny rail fan boy from the military mindset. All my rings are compatible with Picatinny rails. Most of them have some sort of QD (quick detach) feature. Actually, several tactical type ring sets are very quick to detach with their 7/16” or 1/2” nuts one can use a box wrench or adjustable crescent wrench in a pinch.

I’m a very fickle shooter coming from a background years and years ago when I only could afford one centerfire and one rimfire rig. So the ability to mount/dismount scopes from rifles was a valuable time saver.

These days, all my rifles including rimfire wear picatinny rails to accommodate very quick to detach and remount optics. If you are building a group of rifles for both competition, training, or backup; then consider this approach.






I’ve even pushed my 2 boys to adopt this approach. Now amongst the 3 of us, we can quickly “plug and play.”


Enjoy the addiction!


Peace Be To Journey!

Barney

 

[adamg]

I edited the original post.
To clarify, I am referring to having many guns, all with a pic rail base. And this assumes the ring height is suitable and objective clears the barrel.

 

[Can-down]

(A) final answer.

 

[Gatehouse]

I've swapped optics and mounts as an assembly plenty of times. I don't see why you would want to remove the mounts unless something was out whack from one rifle to the other. Sure, you will have to zero the scope but you are going to have to do that regardless.

Let's say you had 6 rifles with rails. You could use one optic and swap it back and forth between them all without removing the mounts.

 

[wonksy]

I always remove everything and build from the ground up as per usual, that way it’s on me nobody else. I never was much for playing guessing games lol.

 

[trucker60]

All you can do is try. If it doesnt work out go the other route.

 

[Mudduck]

And this is why I own a Blaser with with 5 different caliber barrels …. I can detach the scope and pop it on another in less then a minute.

 

[Potashminer]

Bastage!!! Here I thought it was part of the deal to sweat out and find the absolute perfect scope for each rifle - and now am reading that I can simply swap a scope from one rifle to another. Sheesh! What will they think of next??