Night Vision Scope Ring Height

[woodsy]

I need to set up a couple Remy LTR rifles for work using an Armasight Co-X in front of Leupold 30mm scope with a 50mm objective. I'll be installing a Badger EFR mount for the NV but will still need to raise the scope. My measurements show that a height of 0.840 from the top of the scope mount rail to the bottom of the scope tube is what will be needed to align the two optics. I realize that alignment doesn't need to be exact but I'd like to get it close.

The problem is that jacking the scope up that high really kills cheek weld. I can add more padding to the stock pack but it still seems a bit of a Band-Aid. Are there any other option to do this that I'm not seeing?

 

[wigwamitus]

The measurement in question is called the "optical center" or just the "center" ... and it is not unusual to have optical centers from 1.4 to 1.5 inches for the rings and the clipons.

The process I use is:

01 - FInd the optical centers of all clipons I want to use.
02 - Find rings with optical centers near the average of those optical centers

And yes, if you've previously mounted your scopes as low as possible, using NV/thermal clipons does usually raise up your optical center.

So, I think this is a pic of an "LTR"

So, getting a different stock/chassis with an adjustable cheek weld is a option.

But most of the Armasight clipons can use the objective bell mounting method also.

Here is a pic of my first nv clipon using the scope bell mounting method

This is not an ideal method because the mounting system comes loose from time to time. And if you tighten it down too much (I tried torquing it to 25) you can crack the piece that slips over the objective bell. I did call Leupold before I did it and they said up to 25 ip would be no problem for the scope bell itself. That's a mk4 3.5-10x tmr scope. But it was too much for the slip on piece that screws on to the back of the clipon. The replacement cost was about $90 ... about 5 years ago.
I don't recommend that method, but you are free to pick your poison.
The pro of that method is the optical centers are aligned.

What I did was go ahead and mount on a rail, but get a stock pack (as shown). It might look crappy, but it works fine for me.

But using NV/thermal clipons does require changes of some sort as you are discovering.

 

[Strykervet]

Shit. I just answered this last week. Maybe look through some of the threads, there was a lot of good info. Long story short, most folks agreed with me, go Badger and don't look back. They cater to this kind of shit. I guess if you have a particular clip on you plan to use you could get rings that way, but I was building these years before I got the clip on, so I went with the industry standard. Glad I did. Also, with AR's, it just so happens that 1.5 or so mounts are about perfect for me with or without NV. Bolt guns you may need a cheek rest, depending.

Generally the clip ons are around 1.44-1.5 but I suppose some vary. 1.54 is the dead eye dick for modern NV clip on devices. If you wanna one stop shop on rings, Badger is where to go. SASR rings for .50's are 1.49 and it's impossible to tell it's off by .05. I have a Leupold in a Larue SPR-S 10MOA mount and it's 1.44. Despite this, despite it obviously being off center, it still works just fine and you can't tell it's off. Due to how they're made, none of this will affect zero (unless you have simrad, etc.). Badger makes a unimount that's 1.54 and MADE for NV. I have 3 of those and even without NV they're just some of the best rings and mounts money can buy. They make lots of upgrades/accessories for ring caps too, like rails, cant indicators, etc.

Here are couple pictures of a KAC PVS 30 with USO scopes in those Badger mounts. The SR 25 has the unimount and the DTA HTI has the SASR rings. Apologize for the wrap between the scope and PVS, it's just how I took the picture but I can assure you that with the wrap removed they're dead eye dick. It's actually kinda hard to fuck one of these up IMO if you have rings around spec.

One thing I didn't consider is how big and heavy of bitch that thing is! I also finally learned why URX2 has built in flip up front sights. These clip ons get in the way, won't clear a front flip sight. So if you look, you'll notice my front sight is in the middle of the handguard in front of the optic. It's the best I could do without swapping to URX2 or investing in $400 offset flip sights, which I'm not fond of.

 

[woodsy]

Well hell. I did search but nothing came up. Must not have used the right terms or something.

I need rings measuring 1.4 to the midpoint of the tube. I'll see what I can find and jack with the stock pack once the optics are in place. Thanks for the input, guys!