Rifle Scopes Ring Marks/ Rings

[andrews1958]

Curious, what causes ring marks on a scope?

The way they are tightened?

Are some rings better than other that being you are less apt to have ring marks with a certain brand?

How are Badgers?

I will be putting a high dollar scope on one of my rifles and I want to make sure if I ever decide to sell it it will not have rings

 

[azimutha]

Re: Ring Marks/ Rings

Mostly it's because of some misalignment. Really good rings like Seekins or Badger won't leave marks or at least they'll be slight. Still no guarantee if the action or rail isn't also straight or if the rings aren't tightened to spec.

You can bed a rail if the action isn't uniform on top...even some blue loctite might be enough and not so permanent. A torque wrench helps. (Borka is great...see Group Buy). If not using a rail consider a NF DirectMount.

 

[Bennyboy]

Re: Ring Marks/ Rings

I just took a scope off that was mounted with smith enterprise rings--if you look very closely, you can tell that it was mounted but I wouldn't say it has "marks". I'll second the notion of better rings, less marks.

 

[bohem]

Re: Ring Marks/ Rings

http://www.americanrifle.com/M10/default.asp

I've had almost a dozen scopes personally mounted in these as well as friends that have had them and several rifle builders on here that endorsed them. Nobody has come back with a single issue of "marks"

They rock in other ways too, I don't use anything else.

 

[SPAK]

Re: Ring Marks/ Rings

I'm with bohem, arc m10 rings are the only rings I use right now. One of the features I really like is one screw to the rail and one screw for the tops... Both torqued to 65" lbs... Easy....

 

[azimutha]

Re: Ring Marks/ Rings

The ARC rings are a sweet design:

But at $60-70 less for Seekins, I'll probably continue to tighten down the extra screws...kinda relaxing, in a Zen sorta way as you contemplate your sweet, new scope.

 

[scudzuki]

Re: Ring Marks/ Rings

Some scopes are more prone to acquiring ring marks (in my experience Trijicon and from what I've heard Premier) even when quality rings are installed with the proper torque. It is certainly better to start with good rings, Badger, Seekins, TPS, etc. and follow torque guidelines; usually 15 inch/lbs is sufficient, never exceed 20 inch/lbs.

My S&B has no ring marks despite me being the 2nd or 3rd owner and it having seen a number of different mounting. I attribute this to it only being mounted in good rings and properly torqued.

Some ring marks are superficial only, and it is damn hard for the finish not to retain some witness marks that amount to only a light scuff of the coating.

OTOH I have seen scopes with the tubes slightly deformed from overly tight and/or low quality rings.

Joe