Major lapping.... Talley lightweight rings

[Nikolakangrga]

My buddy just had a scope mounted on a Kimber Montana long action with talley one piece lightweight rings. The gunsmith said the rear ring needed "major" lapping. He got it all taken care of but I'm curious how this may affect the set up? He said he did not expect that much lapping being needed using talley rings.

What do u guys think?

 

[texan79]

Logic says it may have been a bad run of rings. The other option is the holes in the action are misaligned to the point of torqueing the entire set up to the point of requiring that much lapping. I think thats probably a far stretch though. If he got them lapped in and the scope seats well, I wouldnt worry too much about it.

 

[Nikolakangrga]

The smith mentioned the action bolt holes were not off. He said the mounts screwed right in. I guess maybe the rings were just a bad set. I did notice looking at the rifle that you could barely see a gap between the two rings where they meet "bolt together". I found that odd since I know u want the gap to be equal but no gap or close to no gap?

 

[texan79]

It has to be a function of the lapping process. If he removed alot of matereial then that makes sense. No gap and he may have removed too much, a little gap= no worries. Put a torque wrench on it if there is any question. Loosen the front ring, torque the rear to spec. If it slides or doesnt hold, then your problem is identified. (If one really exists) I would see how it shoots before doing anything.

 

[Dr. Vette]

I had a set like this and discussed it with the Talley company when I was at the SHOT show in January. They agreed it wasn't normal and sent me a free replacement set.

FYI, in my case (Wby Mark V) I think the issue is either the action height or the ring base height. I used a 1 inch steel bar to bed the two rings in a perfect line and the issue went away so that I didn't have to lap the new set. I can't recall which (rifle is back at Dad's place) but one of the rings set perfectly and the other had a very small gap under it - enough to cause the problem. By torquing the "perfect" base, then that ring and then the ring of the other base I was able to keep it all in line. No, I realize that's not the normal way to do it but it was better than having excessively lapped rings - one of which took a paint chip out of the scope.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[newmexkid]

I have an old hunting buddy in Wyoming that, "had" to lap his rings to the point where all he had was a very, very slight gap between the rings. First he torgued them down and then ended up tightning them up to the max. The scope would slide, albiet very slightly but, enought that by his 5-6 shot it was off. He was shooting a 300 Win Mag. No, they weren't Talley's they were Leupold's.

 

[Nikolakangrga]

Thanks guys for the responses. It's interesting because I have a kimber montana in .300 win mag and also used the talley one piece scope rings and did not have this issue. Interesting how different the same product can be!

 

[WildRose]

Thanks guys for the responses. It's interesting because I have a kimber montana in .300 win mag and also used the talley one piece scope rings and did not have this issue. Interesting how different the same product can be!

When you are talking tolerances in the thousandths it doesn't take much.

Put talc on the scope and rings when you take it out to shoot and that'll tell you pretty much instantly if you have any movement.