I'm looking for a good base for the money.

T

Terryw123

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 26, 2011
117
7
Chula Vista, Ca
#1
So I finally just bought my first remington 700 SPS tactical. I have a scope and rings from my AR-10. However I am brand new to the bolt action rifle scene. How important is buying an expensive base? I see badger ordnance bases going for $144, La Rue going for $75 and I think I have seen weavers for like $30. Can someone hook me up with why I would buy badger over a La Rue? Thanks for the help!!!


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#2
badger is a front runner in quality. They have processes and features specific to them. They have tighter tolerances, and are robust.
If you are looking for good quality on a budget save and get the best you can get, the materials, build quality is better, and when you have quality KIT if you need to resell they hold value.
Soend 440 on a weaver and try to get 15 out of it used, Spend 120 on Badger and get almost that used ..
consider these in no particular order
Tactical
seekins
TPS
Nightforce
Badger
EGW
Non Tactical:
Warne( good but unliked by many as thyey are difficult to line up as they are split opposite to most rings..
Leupold( get a dovetail mount for a rem SA LR(has moa built in) and 30 mm rings, be set up for under 65
Talley( light weight, tough, ONE Piece ring/base) and under 36 shipped

My preference is badger /seekins/ tps in that order, but I have rifles with redfield, leupold( reg and mk4), talley,warne,nightforce,tps, tactical solutions, Smith enterprises, egw and badger.. If money were easier for me to find, I would run badger or seekins on everything Good Luck
 
#3
I wouldn't mind hearing more clarification on why Warne is unliked by many. I don't quite follow "split opposite to most rings." I'm not opposing your statement; I just don't understand what you are talking about.
 
#4
I think he means the rings. Warne makes a tactical series one piece in 0moa and 20moa. I had one on a gap rifle. Never had any issues. They are however $100 and so is nightforce and seekins. Nightforce and seekins have a piece built on that lock into the ejection port and add just a little more robustness to the rail than warne. The egw hd is going to be the cheapest of the bunch. Not by a whole lot though
 
#5
mlh29 said:
badger is a front runner in quality. They have processes and features specific to them. They have tighter tolerances, and are robust.
If you are looking for good quality on a budget save and get the best you can get, the materials, build quality is better, and when you have quality KIT if you need to resell they hold value.
Soend 440 on a weaver and try to get 15 out of it used, Spend 120 on Badger and get almost that used ..
consider these in no particular order
Tactical
seekins
TPS
Nightforce
Badger
EGW
Non Tactical:
Warne( good but unliked by many as thyey are difficult to line up as they are split opposite to most rings..
Leupold( get a dovetail mount for a rem SA LR(has moa built in) and 30 mm rings, be set up for under 65
Talley( light weight, tough, ONE Piece ring/base) and under 36 shipped

My preference is badger /seekins/ tps in that order, but I have rifles with redfield, leupold( reg and mk4), talley,warne,nightforce,tps, tactical solutions, Smith enterprises, egw and badger.. If money were easier for me to find, I would run badger or seekins on everything Good Luck
Click to expand...

Mlh29 can you give me something a little more. did you notice accuracy issues? Fitting issues? durability etc? I just know in the AR world La Rue is one of the top manufactures of scope mounts. Please if you can elaborate. So I can be more comfortable with my purchase. Sorry I am being kinda cheap but, I am just looking for a greater understanding of why I should buy the badger. Thanks!!!
 
#6
You are being cheap and you're not looking for a greater understanding. What you are really wanting is for one or two people to tell you that you don't need a Badger base or a base of equal quality/cost. If you don't want to spend $100+ on a base.....then don't, but don't try to get us to justify your buying of less than top quality parts. The title of your thread is "looking for a good base for the money". A $40 piece of shit is not "good for the money".......it's just a $40 base. Will it work? Sure it will. Picking up a lightly used Seekins base in the classified section here for $90-$100 is "good for the money".
 
#7
trevor300wsm said:
You are being cheap and you're not looking for a greater understanding. What you are really wanting is for one or two people to tell you that you don't need a Badger base or a base of equal quality/cost. If you don't want to spend $100+ on a base.....then don't, but don't try to get us to justify your buying of less than top quality parts. The title of your thread is "looking for a good base for the money". A $40 piece of shit is not "good for the money".......it's just a $40 base. Will it work? Sure it will. Picking up a lightly used Seekins base in the classified section here for $90-$100 is "good for the money".
Click to expand...

^^^^^ = buy once and cry once. Truth in everything Trevor said.
 
#8
Terry

I run Badger on my rifles, good bases; could also check on Near Manufacturing, you may like what you see but it ain't cheap.
My word, stay away from cheap stuff and as Huck (and others) are saying "buy once, cry once". If you don't, you may find out the hard way; then again, the question is...do you feel lucky...Terry? ;)
 
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#9
I use a Ken Farrell Remington 700 Short Full Slot in Steel Black Matte - 20 MOA, on my Rem 700. Dropped right onto the receiver, no bedding necessary at all. Reasonably priced, I thought, at 120.00 ish.
 
#10
Murphy Precision makes some really nice stainless steel bases for the $ also (Titanium for a little more$). I couldn't find anything for my Model 7 other than crappy aluminum ones from Warne, EGW etc.. Murphy will even extend the front of yours to your spec for NO EXTRA CHARGE!!! They were very polite on the phone, actually called back and I had my base in around a week. They will also upgrade it to 8-40 stainless screws for no charge which = way stronger but you'll have to tap your receiver for them.
MurphyPrecision.com - Scope Bases, Rings, and Assorted Shooting Accessories.
 
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#11
trevor300wsm said:
You are being cheap and you're not looking for a greater understanding. What you are really wanting is for one or two people to tell you that you don't need a Badger base or a base of equal quality/cost. If you don't want to spend $100+ on a base.....then don't, but don't try to get us to justify your buying of less than top quality parts. The title of your thread is "looking for a good base for the money". A $40 piece of shit is not "good for the money".......it's just a $40 base. Will it work? Sure it will. Picking up a lightly used Seekins base in the classified section here for $90-$100 is "good for the money".
Click to expand...

Ok ok cease fire!!! Sorry I was just trying to understand the difference between a La Rue and a badger. My expierience with La Rue Tactical has been nothing but great so it's a difference of roughly 50 bucks for the badger. All I was looking for was risks and complications associated with other mounts. The second post talked about how he liked badger, then seekins, then egw. My question is still why??????? What did he like/dislike about the different bases? If seekins is good why is badger better etc???? Maybe I failed to ask these questions appropriatley. Maybe if I left the dollar amounts out it would have painted a better picture as to what I was looking for. I appologize.
 
#14
I also believe most of the time you get what you pay for, but I have several EGW rails and have been Very happy with them.
EGW has great customer service and I would not hesitate to buy another rail from them.
If you have more $ to spend, Badger would be at the top of my list.
You said good base for the money....EGW
I just bought another this week from OpticsPlanet $36 shipped to the door for a Savage SA flatback 20moa
 
#15
ok. I guess to clarify about the warne rings.. normal rings have the upper portion removable, warnes are split down the middle, when setting them up many times they are a little more of a PIA to line everything up.
Larue is good, I have used some of the AR parts before.

I prefer other brands, Badger is a company that I fully support, they make an excellent product line and stand behind it 100%. Cry once buy once, I broke it down in terms of resale. If you buy low end stuff that is what you have.. first time you have an issue (receiver bedding, stripped screws or general issues) the cheap stuff will be top on your mind. Add to this if you missed a game animal, target , or shot during a competition or other.. you will wished you had not saved 40-60 bucks on second best.

Murphy as mentioned are great, I left them out as they are in another category.

For a bare bones budget build go with what you want, however if you plan to build it later or get serious about the sport, the 40 base will be a 40 paperweight, and if aluminum it wont be much good at even that. Yes I know many good makers make an excellent alloy /aluminum product,,, weaver isnt one of them.
Hell if you want I have an like new older mk4 leupold base that I will offer you at 70.. shipped
 
#16
There is nothing wrong with the weaver bases, they are great bases and they could easily sell them for much more if it made you feel better about your purchase. I've used dozens and every one has been straight. They also have something the other cheaper rails like EGW and Larue don't have that is a critical component... A recoil lug...

I would not hesitate to use a weaver base. I would suggest dropping the cash for rings though like badger, seekins, or NF.
 
#18
really it all depends on what u want out of it. think of it like if you need a new tool. do you go to harbor freight or snap on. its taking me patience to get where i want to be but i am sourcing top quality components for my build
 
#20
In terms of accuracy, it's not important at all. A base is a base is a base (as long as it fits). And to put a finer point on it, rings are rings (as long as they fit - which is a pretty low bar).

You can do just fine with some Burris Signature rings on cheap bases at a fraction of the price of some of the stuff out there. Can you nitpick the engineering? Yeah - they're built to work without costing a fortune, so there are compromises. They're probably not as strong as some of the behemoths out there (do they have to be?), and they definitely don't look as cool. On the other hand, you can skip the 20 MOA base, and they're lighter. I have some Signatures on my F class rifle right now and it does not suffer for it.

Get what you can afford, bolt it on and get to it. Not worth worrying over.
 
#21
Lot's of guys run expensive ones and lots of guys run cheap ones. There's a guy on here who posted youtube videos of himself making 900+ yard cold bore shots with a base and rings that probably cost 70$ combined. There are areas where there is really a big difference in quality between expensive and inexpensive options, barrels, scopes, powder, projectiles stocks. I'm not convinced this is one of them. It's difficult to tell whether guys who spend 3 or 4 hundred dollars on their base and rings set up actually see any tangible benefit or recommend them merely to justify the money they spent to themselves.

I'm not saying I know the answer, just that it is a question worth asking. For me, if I had to spend that kind of money on base and rings I still wouldn't have a set and my scope would be sitting in its box.
 
#22
I bought a cheap EGW base so I could at least shoot until I found a better one to fit my SPR action, and was really surprised at how well it works for me. I decided to leave it on until I get some other stuff worked on first because it has yet to let me down. EGW makes a really hard to beat base for the price point in my opinion, and their customer service is great (had to order 8-40 screws for my action).
 
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