Kowa 880/RRS Ball Issues

[Kmartinusa]

Ok, second post ever- It’s Sunday, RRS and the whole world for that matter is closed and I’ve got problems.

Recently replaced my heavy tripod/ball with a RRS ball and FLM tripod this week. Bought a RRS plate (I think they’re called arca plates) at Butch’s Gun Shop in Woodward OK- it was expensive but I didn’t blink because Butch knows his stuff.

Here’s the problem- the plate came loose from my scope. It’s 3-4” long, I noticed the steep price tag when he sold it to me at $75 but didn’t blink because he‘s a friend and he’s not jacking me over. Only later did I learn that RRS stuff is expensive. Here it is: https://soar.reallyrightstuff.com/MPR-1-3-8ths-SOAR-rail

The plate has two floating mounting screws, my Kowa has one threaded hole. I had to tighten it pretty tight to get it to stick but after only a couple of trips it came loose. I made due but got home and tried to fix it...it’s not fixable short of loctite or something.

So how in the world am I supposed to get this heavy Kowa scope to clamp to my tripod?

I’m clearly new to this equipment and haven’t got a clue what to buy. I’m not moving that scope around, I’ve got exactly one tripod that I‘ll likely ever use (I do have a Vortex window mount that I don’t really like) but 99.9% of the time if I’m looking through that scope it’ll be mounted on the tripod. I’d just like to get this done, over with and know that it’s not going to go wobbly on me again.

What specifically do I need to buy that attaches well to the Kowa and allows me to clamp it to my RRS ball?

Second Problem- (yes, I’m an FNG)...the main tightening knob on my 4 day old RRS ball won’t tighten down anymore, it’s like it’s stripped or something. I’ve used it exactly three times. There is a smaller adjustment knob that will still tighten the ball down but the main one ought to work and it doesn’t.

Is there something that you know of that I can do to get this thing to work right or do I just need to contact RRS and exchange it?

Good grief...everthing I’ve touched this month has turned to crap. I won’t even start to list it because it’s just stupid. Bought the best scope I could find and the wind blew it over, shattered. Solved quickly (previous post). Bought an expensive mounting plate, doesn’t work. Bought the best ball head I could find and it failed. Something tells me I just need to stop trying, I’m swimming upstream.

Any help is appreciated. What plate do I need or how do I get this one to work? How to I get the ball to tighten using the big main adjustment knob?

Thanks for any advice, much appreciated. And don’t be afraid to tell me to buy something else, I don’t care what it costs at this point, I just want my crap to work.

-Kevin