Has anyone else had a similar issue:
My 2012 AW, purchased new with a permanently mounted base, accepts NF rings but not Badger rings.
Explanation:
Both ring types will seat on the base, but the Badgers will not tighten securely to it. The ring base screws reach the stop, and accept torque to spec, but without sufficiently gripping the base to securely anchor the scope to it.
I have tried four sets of Badgers and two sets of NF rings with the same result.
Note that there is NOTHING wrong with any of the rings, as they all measure within spec and all seat properly on all the other pic rail bases on which I have ever tried them. So it very likely has nothing to do with NF or Badger.
Measurements:
The AW base measures .833 on the top from tip to tip. But the height of the taper on the rail appears to be .012 thinner than all my other pic rail bases. The bottom width of the AW base is .640 while all other bases I have measure .610.
Analysis:
I need help from you guys with the analysis because no one I have talked to so far, all of whom know AWs quite well, has ever heard of this before.
I have even had a die maker measure everything - bases and rings- and it appears that the issue, whatever it is, is probably with the base...But that is as far as we got in our analysis.
One would think that if the bottom width of the AW base is thicker, the ring hands should grab the AW base sooner than on a thinner base. The problem is that the Badger rings hands don't grab the bottom of the AW base at all. So, when the scope is mounted in Badger rings and the ring base screws are torqued to spec, the scope won't come off the base but it rattles around on it.
Therefore I think that the taper of the AW base might be the problem. Meaning: It could be a manufacturing problem with the base.
On the other hand, there might be nothing wrong with the base, those measurements being the way AI makes all of its bases, and I could be simply missing something obvious that has nothing to do with an AW rifle.
Conclusion:
I could simply use NF rings on that rifle from now on, but it would be a shame to be so limited with such an expensive rifle.
I could send the rifle back to AINA, because I know that their response will be to 'send it in' and check it out, but bases on an AW are permanently mounted so I can only imagine the carnage that would have to take place to that rifle in order to install another base.
Understand that this is not an attack on AI, as they are still by far my favorite factory rifle (and my original AE MK1 is still my favorite rifle). But of you live around rifles long enough these kinds of issues will crop up occasionally. It's not the end of the world, I am simply stumped and I need help understanding what is going on.
Thanks in advance, to most of you, for your help.?
My 2012 AW, purchased new with a permanently mounted base, accepts NF rings but not Badger rings.
Explanation:
Both ring types will seat on the base, but the Badgers will not tighten securely to it. The ring base screws reach the stop, and accept torque to spec, but without sufficiently gripping the base to securely anchor the scope to it.
I have tried four sets of Badgers and two sets of NF rings with the same result.
Note that there is NOTHING wrong with any of the rings, as they all measure within spec and all seat properly on all the other pic rail bases on which I have ever tried them. So it very likely has nothing to do with NF or Badger.
Measurements:
The AW base measures .833 on the top from tip to tip. But the height of the taper on the rail appears to be .012 thinner than all my other pic rail bases. The bottom width of the AW base is .640 while all other bases I have measure .610.
Analysis:
I need help from you guys with the analysis because no one I have talked to so far, all of whom know AWs quite well, has ever heard of this before.
I have even had a die maker measure everything - bases and rings- and it appears that the issue, whatever it is, is probably with the base...But that is as far as we got in our analysis.
One would think that if the bottom width of the AW base is thicker, the ring hands should grab the AW base sooner than on a thinner base. The problem is that the Badger rings hands don't grab the bottom of the AW base at all. So, when the scope is mounted in Badger rings and the ring base screws are torqued to spec, the scope won't come off the base but it rattles around on it.
Therefore I think that the taper of the AW base might be the problem. Meaning: It could be a manufacturing problem with the base.
On the other hand, there might be nothing wrong with the base, those measurements being the way AI makes all of its bases, and I could be simply missing something obvious that has nothing to do with an AW rifle.
Conclusion:
I could simply use NF rings on that rifle from now on, but it would be a shame to be so limited with such an expensive rifle.
I could send the rifle back to AINA, because I know that their response will be to 'send it in' and check it out, but bases on an AW are permanently mounted so I can only imagine the carnage that would have to take place to that rifle in order to install another base.
Understand that this is not an attack on AI, as they are still by far my favorite factory rifle (and my original AE MK1 is still my favorite rifle). But of you live around rifles long enough these kinds of issues will crop up occasionally. It's not the end of the world, I am simply stumped and I need help understanding what is going on.
Thanks in advance, to most of you, for your help.?
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