Lightweight optic to help balance short Vudoo

[darth_ritis]

TL;DR I need lightweight scope recommendations for a 22LR comp gun.

What scope would you pick in this situation? Let's say the budget is $1500 max, but I'd love to be lower than that.

Background

• I have a Three-60 with an 18" kukri profile barrel with a tuner on the end.
• The rifle sits in a KRG X-Ray with a Whiskey-3 fore-end, internal fore-end weight, heavy Arca rail, and an Arca spigot.
• The scope is a Kahles 5-25 DLR in a Spuhr mount.
• The balance point is 1/2" - 3/4" in front of the mag well. That just doesn't work on a tank trap tip.

The back half of the stock is polymer, not much more I can do there. I have tried everything I can think of to add fore-end weight for balance. MDT m-lok weights don't fit on the fore-end. The spigot screw holes are too close to the Arca rail to mount external weights to it. The XL Arca spigot hits the tuner. I even tried the Vision fore-end for KRG chassis, which has been a huge failure.

In hindsight, I realize I needed to pick a longer barrel, but what's done is done.

 

[KnowNothing256]

TL;DR I need lightweight scope recommendations for a 22LR comp gun.

What scope would you pick in this situation? Let's say the budget is $1500 max, but I'd love to be lower than that.

Background

• I have a Three-60 with an 18" kukri profile barrel with a tuner on the end.
• The rifle sits in a KRG X-Ray with a Whiskey-3 fore-end, internal fore-end weight, heavy Arca rail, and an Arca spigot.
• The scope is a Kahles 5-25 DLR in a Spuhr mount.
• The balance point is 1/2" - 3/4" in front of the mag well. That just doesn't work on a tank trap tip.

The back half of the stock is polymer, not much more I can do there. I have tried everything I can think of to add fore-end weight for balance. MDT m-lok weights don't fit on the fore-end. The spigot screw holes are too close to the Arca rail to mount external weights to it. The XL Arca spigot hits the tuner. I even tried the Vision fore-end for KRG chassis, which has been a huge failure.

In hindsight, I realize I needed to pick a longer barrel, but what's done is done.

Before you go buying a lighter scope to address the issue, where's it balance when you take the scope off?

 

[darth_ritis]

Excellent question! It moved forward about 1/2" maybe less.

So I don't need to spend money on a scope, but I am out of options. Good news / bad news.

Thanks!

 

[KnowNothing256]

Haha happy to save you some money! The scope is typically mounted so close to the balance point that modifying the weight there has almost no impact on balance point. Weights out at the ends have the most influence, at the buttpad and muzzle.

 

[never_summer]

What didn’t work out with the vision forend?
You could get an enclosed forend and add weights to it.

 

[Jefe's Dope]

They are hard to balance out front. Mine needed a 22" MTU barrel and an aluminum Bravo forend. Maybe try a heavy suppressor?

But I was going to recommend the NF NX8. It's fairly light and what I run on my Vudoo.

 

[darth_ritis]

What didn’t work out with the vision forend?

The mag well is too narrow for the Vudoo mag, the forend is too narrow (the m-lok slots are too close to the KRG frame so the screws bottom out and prevent the weights from locking in), and the arca rail is too close to the m-lok slots so the bipod won't slide down the rail when weights are attached.

 

[darth_ritis]

They are hard to balance out front. Mine needed a 22" MTU barrel and an aluminum Bravo forend. Maybe try a heavy suppressor?

But I was going to recommend the NF NX8. It's fairly light and what I run on my Vudoo.

I could try running suppressed, I'll probably try it Sunday, but I'd rather keep the tuner so I can keep making bugholes from one lot of ammo to the next.

 

[Jefe's Dope]

I could try running suppressed, I'll probably try it Sunday, but I'd rather keep the tuner so I can keep making bugholes from one lot of ammo to the next.

I stopped shooting suppressed at matches due to all the shit that falls in the action when you rack your rifle. I really do prefer shooting suppressed but there's a lot of debris. It's very noticeable.

I've yet to try a tuner, but would like to just to see.

 

[never_summer]

The mag well is too narrow for the Vudoo mag, the forend is too narrow (the m-lok slots are too close to the KRG frame so the screws bottom out and prevent the weights from locking in), and the arca rail is too close to the m-lok slots so the bipod won't slide down the rail when weights are attached.

I only use the vision forend on my center fire, but are you using polymer mags? I had to file the sides of my mdt polymer mags to get them to drop free. Aluminum mags worked fine but I don’t use them in my 223. Also what weights did you use? The vision weights work with my mdt, rrs and krg arca mounts. They also lock up tight away from the frame.

 

[darth_ritis]

I only use the vision forend on my center fire, but are you using polymer mags? I had to file the sides of my mdt polymer mags to get them to drop free. Aluminum mags worked fine but I don’t use them in my 223. Also what weights did you use? The vision weights work with my mdt, rrs and krg arca mounts. They also lock up tight away from the frame.

Yes, standard Vudoo polymer mags. I am attempting to use the MDT external weights. I didn't know Vision offered their own weights, I'll check into that.

 

[never_summer]

Vision Weight Kits | GCP Rifle Co.

gcprifleco.com

I just checked a vudoo mag in my vision forend and it has a lot of room in there, so yours may be tight. I started off sanding the interior of my magwell to remove the cerakote and then smoothed it out. Then did some heavy work on my mags. It seems like the vudoo polymer mags are pretty slim already.
I’d definitely get the mag issue situated first before dumping the coin on some of the weights.

 

[littlepod]

I know balance is semi important but it really isn't that big of an issue on low recoiling rifles. We aren't really free recoiling these rifles so having it just sit on a tank trap balanced isn't really that big of a deal.

You can get a gray ops flat plate with weights which will pull more weight at the balance point on the bag plus give some additional width for stability which might be good enough.