Scope Mounting Video

[Wapiti87]

Awesome video! I just bought a Seekins ph2 and am new to shooting rifles. Haven’t even purchased a scope yet. Hoping to get some good advice here. This video was very informative. Thanks!

 

[bucdoego]

Wapiti87, there are lots of good tips in the comments here too. Do it yourself and you will know what you've got. At least, that's what I'm learning.

 

[Don Fischer]

Something about scope mounting I don't think I mentioned. Normally I mount my own scopes. Only bad scope mounting I ever had was done in the shop of the seller. Got no problem with those that want to lap the inside of their scope rings to make a perfect fit but in about 65 yrs of installing my own scopes, I never felt the need! never noticed a scope bothered by not doing it either. To me, that lapping tool is nothing more than a gadget designed to make money for the manufacturer that accomplishes nothing of value for the guy that buys it. But it's your money and if it makes you feel better go for it!

 

[noharleyyet]

Something about scope mounting I don't think I mentioned. Normally I mount my own scopes. Only bad scope mounting I ever had was done in the shop of the seller. Got no problem with those that want to lap the inside of their scope rings to make a perfect fit but in about 65 yrs of installing my own scopes, I never felt the need! never noticed a scope bothered by not doing it either. To me, that lapping tool is nothing more than a gadget designed to make money for the manufacturer that accomplishes nothing of value for the guy that buys it. But it's your money and if it makes you feel better go for it!

I think all my rings are Talley, or Talley inspired. I lap em all but one thing that eats at my OCD is that there has to be a factor of imprecision when you torque the lapped rings to the scope body.

 

[Panhandle22]

Glad I found this video. I decided to mount my own scope for the first time and this video definitely hit on some details that would be easily overlooked.

 

[SFC B]

Awesome video! I just bought a Seekins ph2 and am new to shooting rifles. Haven’t even purchased a scope yet. Hoping to get some good advice here. This video was very informative. Thanks!

You picked a GREAT rifle. I am waiting on one in manbun and the Desert Shadow....I have shot every rifle they make and love them. About 80-90% of our shop has at least one personally. Last Sunday I was shooting a PH2 in 6.5 at 1100 yds and it was money. Get set up with a commensurate optic and that joker will shoot better than a human has a right to!!

 

[SFC B]

Something about scope mounting I don't think I mentioned. Normally I mount my own scopes. Only bad scope mounting I ever had was done in the shop of the seller. Got no problem with those that want to lap the inside of their scope rings to make a perfect fit but in about 65 yrs of installing my own scopes, I never felt the need! never noticed a scope bothered by not doing it either. To me, that lapping tool is nothing more than a gadget designed to make money for the manufacturer that accomplishes nothing of value for the guy that buys it. But it's your money and if it makes you feel better go for it!

On Talley and the similar, smaller one pieces it is much more of an issue. When using true precision rings (Vortex PMRs from Seekins, Spuhr, or Hawkins Precision) the precision work has been done by experts ahead of time. There is a reason precision shooters use pic rail/precision ring setups.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Good video. Among other improvements, I recently added a rail and Warne QD rings to my spoerterized WWII Springfield. The rail was a necessity as the holes tapped in the receiver would not fit conventional bases to my short tube 3x9 Nikon scope. I chose steel rail and rings for obvious reasons. I used a Gun Butler and level on small carpenter scale to level the scope. First I leveled the gun by simply removing the scope and rings, then setting the level on the flat of rail. Once the gun was leveled in the Butler cradle, I carefully reattached the scope slightly loose in the rings and set the level on top of elevation cap to get crosshairs horizontal. Remove scope and rings, check gun level, repeat. Like Randy, I had already determined best eye relief (which happened to be with scope pulled back in rings pretty much to the max). Once I was satisfied the scope was level on the rail, I used white art pencil to mark scope against a ring so I could keep it aligned while tightening the rings.

I had to shim up the forward end of the rail or my scope adjustment ran out. I'm not real wild about that set up, especially after watching this video. I think I'll use the jig I built to drill and tap the barrel for rear iron sight to remove some metal from the military rear sight dovetail where the rear of rail attaches to receiver. A Dremel tool grinding wheel in the drill press should work as a sort of shaping tool. It appears I'll only need to true up the back edge of top of the dovetail just a bit.

 

[BQ12]

I get a lot of questions about scopes and accuracy. Before I decided to learn the scope mounting process from start to finish, I had some of those same questions. I am not sure how many scopes I've mounted, but given I am sent new scopes and/or rifles just about every year, I get a lot of practice.

That said, I am not an expert. Yet in forcing myself to do it, making a few mistakes along the way, I have really learned a lot about what goes into this important process of mounting the scope to the rifle. Anymore, if I have an accuracy issue, I can troubleshoot it pretty quickly.

View attachment 52455

I hope you find some benefit in this video. I suspect some of the guys who mount more scopes than I do can chime in with some tips and ideas to improve what I have shown here.

Even if you have someone mount your scopes, by doing a few yourself, you will gain a better understanding of how this process influences the accuracy of your set up. I suspect a lot of blame placed on rifles, scopes, ammo, and shooters is attributable to the inexperienced high school kid working at the big box store who got stuck mounting scopes on the new rifles customers purchased that week.

nice pic!