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Rifle Scopes Critique my mount

zimm17

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Aug 18, 2012
72
28
Florida
So the Nightforce arrived today. Are the Burris xtr medium rings too tall? It looks high but the cheekpiece is only up 1/2” for good alignment. I do have butler creek scope caps on the way.

What about the screws? Should the lower rings be flipped around?

I spent a lot of time leveling the scope and torquing the screws just right. But I want it to be right.
 

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If you can get your face on the gun and have a full sight picture consistently, there isn't really a reason to worry about how high over bore your scope is.

I personally would flip the lower rings around and put the bolt on the other side, just because there isn't so much hand movement over there to skin knuckles and such, but if you're comfortable with it, then leave it.
 
Good point. I'll do a dry fire session with it and see if my fingers hit the bolt heads. Plus it'll help work in the action before I hit the range (As soon as school for the kids start!)
 
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If you can get your face on the gun and have a full sight picture consistently, there isn't really a reason to worry about how high over bore your scope is.

I personally would flip the lower rings around and put the bolt on the other side, just because there isn't so much hand movement over there to skin knuckles and such, but if you're comfortable with it, then leave it.
I agree with all of this.(y)

JFR
 
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There's nothing wrong with it as it is. Personally, I would prefer it lower but that's just more aesthetically pleasing for me and has nothing to do with the performance of it. If you can get a proper cheek weld, just leave it as is.
 
Aesthetically it's too high. But if you like it and it works for you, it works. I also would flip the screws on the mounts to the other side.
 
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That scope is mounted way too high. I will not allow more than 1/32" of a gap between objective bell and barrel.

Who gives a shit about what you will or won't allow? A natural head position and full FOV through the occular trump your rules any day and twice on sunday.

Thanks for reminding me why I don't pay others to mount any optics.
 
So the Nightforce arrived today. Are the Burris xtr medium rings too tall? It looks high but the cheekpiece is only up 1/2” for good alignment. I do have butler creek scope caps on the way.

What about the screws? Should the lower rings be flipped around?

I spent a lot of time leveling the scope and torquing the screws just right. But I want it to be right.

What really matters is that you head and neck are as naturally oriented as possible when you're square behind the rifle.

How it looks is so secondary that it just doesn't matter. Stupid arbitrary rules about getting it as low as possible matter even less.

As far as the ring nuts being on that side, so long as your right hand doesn't foul them when running the bolt, you're better off with them that way. If you sling your rifle across your back, nuts facing rifle right are one less thing to poke or scratch you.

Form follows function.
 
My suggestion would be to flip the rear ring so the screw is facing the other way and leave the rest as-is. Gives you a little more room for working the bolt. Try out several different configurations if you like and pick whichever you think feels best.
 
My scope is about 1/4” at best from my barrel and my bravo cheek piece is over 1/2 way up. I don’t think I’d be able to get a good cheek weld on that but everyone’s head is different
 
Could you go lower? There is room between the ocular and the barrel, and you have adjusted the cheek piece up to get proper alignment, so yes you could go lower. Is there a good reason to go lower? Not with an adjustable cheek piece. "Get the scope as close to the barrel as possible" is a hold over from mounting scopes on rifles with stocks set up for iron sights- think traditional wood stocks for bolt action rifles.

The only body the rifle needs to fit is yours. Make it fit your body. Astetic opinions of others don't matter for shit. I do agree, however, that having the bolts on the other side may be more ergonomic and prevent some scraped knuckles.

I'm hoping Mr. 1/32" was being facetious.
 
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm going to order some low Burris XTR rings to replace the medium height that are on there now, and flip the screws to the left side.
 
That looks good. Good decision.

JFR
 
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm going to order some low Burris XTR rings to replace the medium height that are on there now, and flip the screws to the left side.

Did you do this without consideration for a natural head position behind the scope?

Your "perfectionism" is useless if you're perfecting appearances over function.
 
I understand function over form but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having an aesthetically pleasing rifle.

When looks are achieved at the expense of function then it's LOL worthy. As in like LOL how stupid can someone be?
 
If you're gonna run a level, I'd put it on the rear ring. That way you can see it while shooting the rifle. Nevermind. Just took a closer look at the picture and realized it was offset. Carry on.
 
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So now your neck is more crooked to get your head lower by 1/4" and your eye is even further away from its natural orientation in its socket.

Cool.
Everybody mounts a rifle different. I prefer my centerline as low as possible because it gets a tighter cheek weld. I use Spuhr 3026s on my ARs for this exact reason. I don't think any of this warrants laughing at the guy. Enough people agree that Seekins make low rings. But....lol
 
I can easily see the level from behind the rifle. It did great today through it's barrel break-in procedure.

IMG_0141.jpg
 

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Huh. Looks good AND shoots good.

JFR