. . . Spuhr is the obvious and most expensive option. . . . Nightforce is an option . . .
Just wanted to leave this thread with what I ended up going with in case anyone comes across it in the future.
Ultimately, I had to spend more than I wanted to. I didn’t find any good budget options. All of the cheap stuff I found that mounts a top pic-rail is very
airsofty.
I initially disregarded Spuhr as I was only aware that their ISMS series, which I did know met all of my needs. However at a price of $460+ shipping for an 8.9oz mount, I wasn’t interested.
I then looked into nightforce’s options, and was initially attracted by their mounting systems price - but was quickly left with a scammy taste in my mouth.
The nightforce rings are nice, light, and fairly reasonably priced. Albeit I would never even consider them over a set of seekins/vortex rings except I want a top pic rail.
Unfortunately nightforce charges an eye watering
$125 for their top pic rail alone (
for contrast spuhr’s top pic rail is $39) and you have to completely discard one of the top-halves from the nightforce rings you already purchased. I even contacted their customer service and asked if they had an option to purchase their rings with one of the pic-rail top halves so as to not waste my money on a top-half I would never use, but they refused.
This left the
nightforce option at $290 and forced to me to throw my money away on a “smooth” top-half that I would never use. Not a good deal, and left a bad taste in my mouth to boot.
If they offered their rings in a bundle for the multimount top-half that didn’t throw my money in a trash can for something like $250, I would have bought it on the spot and stopped looking.
Not a fan of a company that doesn’t respect their customer.
Fortunately, I came across Spuhrs “Hunting” line.
I’m sure you all are already aware of it - but I was not.
These rings and mounts are very nice. I love the diagonal clamp to keep the view of your turrets clear. They can be mounted for a lefty or a righty. The accessory mount (which I’m putting a pic rail on) can be mounted fore, aft, top, or side - and you don’t have to throw away a top half to get this. They are also light and clean - no big hex nut bursting out the side like the nightforce rings.
The
Sphur “Hunting” option comes out to $266 for the unimount that I opted for as they are quite light.
Rings would be cheaper and even lighter.
So,
TLDR;
I spent more than I wanted to - but went with the Spuhr “Hunting” mount with pic-rail accessory for $266.
I would have bought a nightforce for a little more if they respected my wallet, but I won’t purchase something I won’t use.
I’m ultimately glad nightforce ended up being a bad choice for this use case, as I feel the Spuhr option is not only cheaper and respects their customers wallet - but genuinely a better product.
Thank you papershredder for your recommendation. I simply didn’t know enough yet to know it was a good option.