Friction tape or special adhesive on scope rings

makindu

Background: Recently insalled aluminum ironsighter see thru sights on an older Savage 99. I must have rifle sights as a backup option on this gun. Will be mounting a Nikon 4x40 fixed scope. Granted, 300 Sav doesn't recoil terribly, but I don't want the scope moving around. I know that when I use the high quality steel Leupold rings, there are finely machined scope gripping ridges within the inside of the rings themselves. With these lower grade aluminum rings (I really didn't have many options on the Savage 99) I was wondering if I should use friction tape inside the rings? or wondered if there was some special adhesive or glue-like material to help anchor the scope solidly to the rings? Also, I tend to overtighten stuff (gorilla arms on small frame - My local Sears store won't even sell me Craftsman screwdrivers anymore because I'm always twisting the heads off (and demanding that they honor their 'lifetime guarantee') and tend to 'strip' screws, hence, I'm especially leary of these aluminum mounts, but I think they'll do the job. Any thoughts?

He Dog

I have no use for see throughs, particularly on something like that. OK, editorial out of the way. the aluminum rings should work fine, no ridges is better, you actually get more friction from full contact with the rings. I would certainly lap them, both for better contact, and because cheap rings are often not concentric, which is not great for your scope. You should not need any adhesive, and I never use loc-tite on the screw threads. Just do not gorilla the ring screws, it is not required, just nicely snug, not torqued until the rifle rolls over.

Pinhead

He Dog has you covered. Lap the rings to fit the scope and tighten the screws up to a snug tight fit and you should not have any problems. Better still, if you feel that you might need back up iron sights, get rid of the see thru mounts and put a pair of Weaver quick detachable bases and a set of quick detachable rings on and you will have your problems solved. Your scope will be closer to the bore line and you won't have to raise your head so high to see thru the scope. With a fixed 4 power scope you should be able to pick up a target at close range without any problem. My thoughts anyway.

makindu

Funny you should mention that, Pin, because originally the gun had a 2.5X fixed weaver scope mounted low over the bore (but it fogged up easily and took in water like a sinking ship) and it had the exact tip-over or flip-over weaver rings that you are talking about. However, my problem with that set-up (aside from the aging scope problems afore mentioned) were that no matter how I adjusted the ring pivot screws, there would either be 1) too much slop/play if I still wanted them to flip over to the side and scope accuracy suffered greatly because of the 'free play', or 2)if I snugged them up tight to take out the excess play, they would no longer allow me to pivot/flip the scope over to the left side. I tried lubing the pivot points with rem-oil, graphite, wd-40, sewing machine oil, etc. Nothing I tried would solve the pivot problem. Hence, I went for the rock-solid idea in first post.

Pinhead

makindu, the mounts and rings that I mentioned are not the flip over type(weaver calls them pivot mounts and rings). The ones I called your attention to were the type that a couple of twist on the ring knobs and the scope and rings are removed, quickly and easily. I have used them quite a bit in the past and never had a problem with them. They go back within a inch or less at 100 yards, sometimes dead on where they were before. If your scope was fogging, it had leaked the nitrogen out and needed repair. I share your experience with the pivot type set up, it was the first one I tried in the early 60's and I quickly changed to the quick detach type.

He Dog

Actually that K2.5 was never a sealed scope in the first place.

makindu

Thanks gentlemen, your knowledge is much appreciated.

mrbruce

Double faced carpet tape will do what your asking, or some rosin between the scope and rings will do the same thing.......

JustC

lapp the rings and you are done. Lapp the cheap rings for a good 75% and then clamp the tops down. Lapping makes a ring much stronger with respect to gripping force, and lets face it, you aren't shooting that big of a caliber in a savage 99 anyway.

tr fox

OK, I gotta ask a dumb question because after years and years of being just a handgun shooter I recently got into the scoped rifle sport.

What the heck is "lapping the rings" and how do you do it?

He Dog

Lapping is a way to be certain the "holes" through the front and rear rings are concentric, that is, that they are near perfectly aligned with one another. As indicated, that puts more of the inner surface of each ring into contact with the outer surface of the scope tube. More friction equals less slippage. It also make sure there are not small eccentricities in the inner surfaces of the rings, that will impinge upon the scope tube as the rings are tightened, which can cause sighting problems by torqueing the scope, and potentially damage to the scope.

Brownell's among others sells a lapping bar for lapping scope rings, which comes with two handles and lapping compound. You use the bar and compound to "polish" the inner surfaces of the rings until you have removed about 75% of the finish (use magic marker on SS rings). Or, you can use Burris Signature rings which have plastic inserts to hold the scope and prevent torquing. You can also get over and under sized inserts to make some windage and elevation adjustments before you even touh the adjustment knobs. Your choice.

And a smart fox should know, the only dumb question is the one you did not ask.

Sorry, but you have to be a pretty ham-* smith to need tape, glue or locktite to mount bases, rings, or scopes.