bedding scope rings

[flopearedmule]

Hey guys
Here is a picture, one of Ryan Pierce's latest job. He does awesome work from what I've seen.
It looks like he turned the diameter larger to make room for the bedding. From this picture, the bedding looks very uniform all the way around.
Does anyone else do this? or do you guys keep the same diameter of the rings?
How thick do you have to have this bedding material?

Any of you guys out there willing to show a picture from the side of the ring to see the thickness and how uniform the bedding is??

Found a really good article on Bedding the stocks, but haven't seen much for the rings.​

https://www.6mmbr.com/pillarbedding.html

 

[Dusty Stevens]

If you lap the rings enough there will be room for epoxy.

 

[Danny1788]

Here’s an article by Jim Sees he beds the rings and shows exactly how he does it.

https://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/precision-scope-mounting-for-the-working-rifle.1227/

 

[tobnpr]

To each their own. Not for me, looks like a lot of unnecessary work.
Quality components- rings/mounts and scope tubes are machined to exacting tolerances and shouldn't need this.
I am curious though, as to how he can maintain a consistent thickness of epoxy and keep the scope from bottoming out in the rings.

 

[Danny1788]

I’ve never tried it maybe worth a try just to see how it works

 

[Dusty Stevens]

To each their own. Not for me, looks like a lot of unnecessary work.
Quality components- rings/mounts and scope tubes are machined to exacting tolerances and shouldn't need this.
I am curious though, as to how he can maintain a consistent thickness of epoxy and keep the scope from bottoming out in the rings.

it usually only shows epoxy in the low spots. those rings are defective if they were that loose around the tube- they weren't even touching

 

[BoydAllen]

In my experience, some people want to do things the best that they can be, and others look for excuses not to have to do the work. I have lapped very high quality rings installed on high quality installed and integral bases and seen evidence in the lap contact that the fit was improved by lapping. The one exception to this is the Burris rings with the inserts.

 

[olddav]

I am curious though, as to how he can maintain a consistent thickness of epoxy and keep the scope from bottoming out in the rings.

Tony Boyer suggest using plastic shims to locate the scope in the rings before bedding the scope.

 

[tobnpr]

and others look for excuses not to have to do the work.

No need to be insulting. But since you've chosen to go there...
I "look for excuses" not to do work that may be unnecessary. I always take into account the customer and their budget, and the intended use of the rifle, and I'll check for a problem before I tell the customer there is one...

I don't "automatically" skim-bed a receiver into a precision chassis unless I have evidence of an improper fit.

I wouldn't automatically tell a customer that he needs to pay me to bed his scope and rings, unless I have evidence of improper fit.

This is why God invented Prussian Blue.

 

[RWO]

Buy a set of Burris Signature rings and all this "precision scope bedding" is completely unnecessary. You get stress-free, no-mar, no-slip scope mounting and will also save money.

RWO

 

[BoydAllen]

No need to be insulting. But since you've chosen to go there...
I "look for excuses" not to do work that may be unnecessary. I always take into account the customer and their budget, and the intended use of the rifle, and I'll check for a problem before I tell the customer there is one...

I don't "automatically" skim-bed a receiver into a precision chassis unless I have evidence of an improper fit.

I wouldn't automatically tell a customer that he needs to pay me to bed his scope and rings, unless I have evidence of improper fit.

This is why God invented Prussian Blue.

In your post, you said nothing about work done for customers. My assumption was that you were speaking of work you do for yourself. Certainly I understand about customers not being willing to pay for the best work, and I know that in many cases what would be gained may not be visible on target, given the other issues that a rifle and/or shooter may have. While yours was the post that caused my response in this thread, I was speaking generally, about a number of threads that I have seen. Back in the day when Leupold scopes had the easily cut shiny black finish, and Redfield bases and rotary dovetail rings were more or less standard, I don't know how many scopes that I saw that had ring "bite" marks on them, from badly done scope mounting. It was ridiculous, and totally unnecessary. There are a lot of people who read these threads who do not post in them, many who are just starting out. I think that it is important that they get the best information, and not just think that simply bolting high priced components is all that is required for the best results.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Buy a set of Burris Signature rings and all this "precision scope bedding" is completely unnecessary. You get stress-free, no-mar, no-slip scope mounting and will also save money.

RWO

signature rings are fine for a hunting rifle. They dont take the place of rings for light benchrest rifles or heavy duty picatinnys. They do have a good place on factory actions that may have alignment troubles

 

[ebb]

Signature Zrings may not be PC on a long range rig or may not make weight on a benchrest rifle. But I beg to differ the first set I bought I called Alan Hall to order a set to go on one of his actions and recommended the Signature Zs. He said they don't slip.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

He should know after the rings he made for br. They sure looked good and were light

 

[BoydAllen]

FYI Rodney Wagner's 600 yard record was shot using Signature Z rings.

 

[JMayo]

I've been told Nowadays with computers/cnc machines the tolerances are realy good, lapping isn't needed with quality rings as it once was with the way they were made "back in the day"

Kinda like oil changes in a vehicle.
Some just can't let old ways go.

 

[BoydAllen]

You have been told. I have laid a lap bar in some very current, top of the line rings and while they were not bad, they were made better by lapping. Have you ever lapped rings? Typically, factory receivers are not true on top. This is likely to distort a one piece base if it is not properly bedded, and a flexed base will show up when you take a light cut in rings that may have been perfect sitting on the bench. Also, depending on the design, tightening can distort a ring. In the case of two piece bases, there is some slop in the screw holes that often results in rings being out of alignment.

 

[WillyTP]

Well folks can keep on believing what other folks be telling them about stuff that them folks heard from some other folks and so on.....but back in the real world where some of us type folks know better than to be naive about just cause something comes off a CNC machine in Ohio is the same as a cnc machine in Japan or Wyoming or where ever, none,none,none of them are the same. Since a lot of you folks won’t believe me, which is fine with me, go spend a little time measuring scope tubes from different manufacturers, even different model lines from the same manufacturer, they ain’t all the same. And before you go to measuring, make sure to use a micrometer for Christ sake. Now let’s talk about all these wonderful cnc produced rings from earlier. Not one single manufacturer matches another in that case either and it’s not even their fault, it’s yours. As soon as YOU start screwing with scope rings all the great strides in manufacturing is just sucked out the window, because they cannot control what YOU do to the screws. Let alone like mentioned earlier, most all of them that has holes in them for bases can’t even always get them straight. So this rant leads me to always lapping the absolute most material I possibly can out of the rings and replacing it with epoxy, which for the OP mine usually runs about .006” thick, that’s doing before and after thickness measurements of the rings with a micrometer. And as for it fitting someone’s budget, I just ask them if they ever want to resale that scope and draw top dollar for it, then it absolutely cannot have ring marks. Properly bedded scope rings will not leave marks and is easy insurance to maintain a high resell value.

Rant over.

 

[WayneShaw]

Well folks can keep on believing what other folks be telling them about stuff that them folks heard from some other folks and so on.....but back in the real world where some of us type folks know better than to be naive about just cause something comes off a CNC machine in Ohio is the same as a cnc machine in Japan or Wyoming or where ever, none,none,none of them are the same. Since a lot of you folks won’t believe me, which is fine with me, go spend a little time measuring scope tubes from different manufacturers, even different model lines from the same manufacturer, they ain’t all the same. And before you go to measuring, make sure to use a micrometer for Christ sake. Now let’s talk about all these wonderful cnc produced rings from earlier. Not one single manufacturer matches another in that case either and it’s not even their fault, it’s yours. As soon as YOU start screwing with scope rings all the great strides in manufacturing is just sucked out the window, because they cannot control what YOU do to the screws. Let alone like mentioned earlier, most all of them that has holes in them for bases can’t even always get them straight. So this rant leads me to always lapping the absolute most material I possibly can out of the rings and replacing it with epoxy, which for the OP mine usually runs about .006” thick, that’s doing before and after thickness measurements of the rings with a micrometer. And as for it fitting someone’s budget, I just ask them if they ever want to resale that scope and draw top dollar for it, then it absolutely cannot have ring marks. Properly bedded scope rings will not leave marks and is easy insurance to maintain a high resell value.

Rant over.

Good post. When you make a post about lapping rings or bedding rings, all hell breaks loose, usually. WillyTP is correct that tolerances are different and too many components come into play to make things perfect. Lapping is the easiest thing to do to see how well rings line up. Bedding will fix what lapping won't. Things are usually pretty straight on a custom action, but when dealing with a factory action, aint no telling.

 

[flopearedmule]

Good post. When you make a post about lapping rings or bedding rings, all hell breaks loose, usually. WillyTP is correct that tolerances are different and too many components come into play to make things perfect. Lapping is the easiest thing to do to see how well rings line up. Bedding will fix what lapping won't. Things are usually pretty straight on a custom action, but when dealing with a factory action, aint no telling.

LOL Thanks for all the input!

I never meant my question to break hell loose. There is always more than one way to skin the cat.

Using this two part epoxy to me seems like a great idea, and I just wanted to know different techniques all you guys do, and then come up with my own technique through all the experience of this forum.


I'm going to keep my opinion to myself for now. When I figure it out, I can then post some pictures of what I might have accomplished