Here are a few words that I've recently posted on another forum:
A Remington 700 TI comes into the shop. The owner complains that it cannot hold zero. I remove the scope and see deep ring marks on the tube at the fore end. I drop Wheeler alignment bars and note a 3/32" offset fore to aft. Rings are out of alignment. I then drop a precision bar and tighten it on the aft ring and allow the fore ring to float. There is a visible gap between the top of receiver and bottom of base. Feeler gauge shows a 0.010" gap at the rear of the base but would not fit under the front of the base. The front ring is canted downward. A 0.010" stainless shim is cut and placed under the rear portion of the fore base.
Once the canted base has been corrected, let do some light lapping against Talley's recommendation. Low and behold, ring material is being slightly lapped off the sides and bottom. Once again, we drop the Wheeler alignment bars into the rings. Dang it anyways, the points are looking dead center in both elevation an windage alignment to each other. Good news.
Next, comes mounting a scope in the rings. The scope has been set to it's mechanical and optical center. Should it line up with a decent centering using an optical columinator? Yes it does, actually, it takes about 4 clicks of a 1/4 MOA scope to bring it right dead center.
Thus, my story is that Talleys' claim to their rings not requiring adjustment is nothing more than BS advertisement. Their rings as with all other out there cannot compensate for receiver height accuracy nor the accuracy with which scope holes are drilled to thus affecting both windage and elevation accuracy when all is mounted. Talley, no matter how great their rings and rings bases are cannot compensate for receiver inaccuracies.
Remember something. All parts of your firearm and the gadgets that you mount on it are manufactured to tolerance. Sometimes, those tolerances either being minus or plus can work either for you or against you. Precise measurements are the only way to determine what you end up with.
Think of it this way. Most commonly made scopes sold these days are made of an aluminum tube. The internal mechanism which are your turrets are a very precise instrument. If you disturb the tube which holds the internals of such precise instruments, the accuracy downrange is highly compromised.
I must apologize for being so long winded. However, I would like to educate some of you folks that if you desire optimal accuracy from your optics, there's a bit more involved than some duffus dropping the scope into the lower ring halves and tightening the upper halves. Well Duhhhh.
