Ultralight scope?

[WildRose]

How do they manufacture the body of scopes?

A whole lot of drilling and milling.

 

[th82457]

Nikon actually made some Monarch Titanium tube scopes at one time. But since they quit making scopes no longer pertinent. They were more costly than the standard Monarch models.

 

[WildRose]

Nikon actually made some Monarch Titanium tube scopes at one time. But since they quit making scopes no longer pertinent. They were more costly than the standard Monarch models.

They would have to be due to the expense of the materials and because it takes special tools to machine titanium.

 

[brant89]

Aluminum is still 1/3 the density of titanium. A titanium tube equal in weight to an aluminum tube would be getting pretty thin I would think. Seems like titanium is a better replacement for steel scope tubes, which are basically obsolete anyway.

 

[33nos]

My Vrotex Razor LH weights 16.5 oz, seems like the cost of CF and titanium could be holding the production back, when the market already has some ultra light scopes

 

[WildRose]

Aluminum is still 1/3 the density of titanium. A titanium tube equal in weight to an aluminum tube would be getting pretty thin I would think. Seems like titanium is a better replacement for steel scope tubes, which are basically obsolete anyway.

Titanium is very flexible and thin titanium doesn't react well to scope rings being torqued down. As a result your tubes need to actually be thicker if made with titanium than high grade aluminum.

It's also many times more expensive and exponentially more expensive to tool than aluminum because of the specialized tools necessary.

The biggest holdup in getting titanium into use in the aerospace industry was while it showed fantastic properties for supersonic rockets and aircraft the tools to machine it really didn't exist until the late fifties/sixties.

It's far harder on tools than even the best stainless steel.

 

[justinp61]

Just out of curiosity, what do you guys consider to be "ultralight (weight wise) scope?

 

[brant89]

I would consider lightweight to be under 20oz, and ultralight to be 16oz or less.

 

[Rich Coyle]

brant89 pretty much got it right.

 

[WildRose]

brant89 pretty much got it right.

I dunno, growing up with old Steel Cased Weaver Widefields, I kinda figure anything under 5lbs is a "lightweight scope".

 

[justinp61]

I dunno, growing up with old Steel Cased Weaver Widefields, I kinda figure anything under 5lbs is a "lightweight scope".

I think my Unertl 24X is around 2.5 lbs, LOL.

Some of my Leupolds are pretty light, the 6.5-20 X40 AO is 17.6oz. and the 4.5-14 X 40 AO is 15.1oz. I'm sure the fixed parallax scopes are lighter.