Throw the lapping bar away. Put one thickness of 3m masking tape on the bottom ring of a new set of unmutilated rings.. End of problem. You suffer from a common disease. Making something simple into much more than it is. I realize you won't listen but maybe I will make someone else think about what they do. Good luck with your problem. The guy who invented the lapping bar scam is laughing the whole way to the bank. Not picking on you Milligan but all who just blindly follow the latest money making scam.
It is one thing to explain what you do, and what your results are, but essentially impugning the intelligence of those who do it differently is to me out of line on a forum such as this. Speedy Gonzales has a long history as a top level competition gunsmith. He laps and beds. I do not think that he blindly follows the latest money making scam. BTW I lapped and then bedded my first set of rings about 40 years ago, and have seen how a lap cut in many other rings that I have mounted scopes in for myself and friends. Many of those rings were top quality. You might note that I have not said that you are less intelligent for doing what you do. Of course it is your perfect right. It is just that some of us have chosen a different path, for what we think are good and sufficient reasons.
His line of thinking is usually what I see in the case of someone that for some reason does not have something. Those proud individuals often try somehow to turn that deficiency into "a virtue" and then proceed to try to beat up all of those that do have something.
I usually agree with your line of thinking and also Boyd Allens But not on this issue. I equate this with all the 10 year olds Nike has convinced will jump higher, run faster, make more three pointers if they have a 200.00 pair of Nike's verses a 50.00 pair of Converse. It's called 'feel good'. I have never ever at a match seen any proof or even really heard any conversation how lapping rings made shooter x a winner. I have never heard anyone one say I had this particular problem and I solved it by lapping. Boyd you brought names into this, not me. Just saying. Your both on a band wagon that is basically perhaps a cure without a problem. So we will just have to disagree on this non issue.From the March website (Deon Optical)
As a manufacturer of precision optical instruments, it is suggestable that you lap the scope rings. This is because while a single product will stay within tolerances and not cause problems, multiple products stacked on top of each other can add up to manufacturing tolerances and, in rare cases, exceed tolerances.
Jeff, I am just a worn-out wildland firefighter, not a smith of any sort and I don't claim to be.
My smith said the rings need lapped, the scope company says lap the rings, I had the smith (Dan Dowling) lap the rings. I in no way shape or form think I got hood-winked.
If this of something I previously said has offended you in some way, I apologize.
Kind Regards
CW
I have lapped rings where the contact was only at the leading edge of the ring, so that the scope would have to be bent slightly to make contact with the rest of the ring. My experience has been that small problems with installed ring to scope fit are hard to spot by simply laying the scope in the rings, but that a little lapping will quickly make them apparent. How many sets of rings have you lapped? I have also seen many instances where one piece bases would show a gap at one end if tightened at the other, and if installed that way( which I believe to be common) , the base would have been bent, taking the rings installed on it out of alignment with each other. In the case of two piece bases, screw holes in them have quite a bit of clearance so that there is little chance that they would be installed in alignment with each other, and even it they lined up, due to the way that factory recievers are finished they would be out of alignment in other ways. No matter how perfect rings might be, if they are installed on a base or bases that are not straight, the result will be rings that are not in alignment with each other. I would say that the majority of rifles are not based on custom actions, and for that reason I think that in those instances where, for one reason or another, the Burris rings are not chosen, that doing something to prevent a scope being bent is desirable. I also believe that ring lappers are more the exception than the rule, because most do not know that simply bolting things together may not produce the best results. We are lucky to have many really fine aluminum rings to choose from, and for that reason and the effort it takes to lap steel, I invariably choose aluminum, which takes little time and effort to lap.
-Al
Well I guess if we all sat around only shooting our hand painted BR rifles at paper from nice covered concrete benches in controlled environments and nice weather with the truck parked close by, then yeah, I'd have to agree with you there. But some people are a little rougher than that with their firearms. Me being one of them. You take a good fall on a steep mountainside and whack your rifle hard on the rocks, then later in the hike you see the buck or bull of a lifetime, you better hope you did those rings up right. Or maybe when shooting a 338 Lapua Improved with 300gr Bergers and a 5 port Super Beast break sending an ungodly amount of muzzle blast energy back at the Optic, you better hope you did those rings up right.
I'd say this sums it up best right here.
