Scope mounting

[Octopus]

Over the years we have used almost all the brands. Nightforce, Farrel, Brownells, EGW & so on. We have also made several using the blank stock from Brownells.

We have found the Mil style picatinny bases to be much better than the somewhat similar Weaver bases. The slots in the picantiny rails are the same on the bases for a Rem 700 as an AR-15. I have several scopes in my safe mounted in the Burris rings. It takes only a couple of mintues to slide the scope on to a rifle with picatinny base. The scope is correctly mounted. If it has been zero'd before on the rifle all I have to do is check the X-Y dial numbers and it will be near zero.

As you likely know sometimes with the REM 700 actions the holes for the scope bases are not always true to the bore. When we encounter these we use the blanks from Brownells to make custom bases. Or, we use the Holland's adjustable pictinny rail which has a windage adjustment. There are many options with the picatinny rail bases. Very few rifles leave the shop without a picatinny rail unless they have a machined into the action rail like the Panda actions.

Years ago I switched all my personal rifles over to the pictinny rail and my scopes to the signature rings to match. Now I can switch scopes as needed.

One issue is bases on most rifles are held in place by #6 screws. A little light for a rifle that sports a large heavy scope. One option to go to #8 screws. The option I favor is to bed the scope base to the receiver. I am now using Loctite 609 for this. I DO NOT LET IT GET ON THE SCREW THREADS.

Octopus

 

[Boyd Allen]

One scope mounting option that I have seriously considered is to actually bond the base to the action. When I discussed this with a prominent benchrest gunsmith, he told me that they had done that, and that they had found that in order for the bond to be reliable, on blued receivers, that they had to remove the bluing under the bases. They would mask them off, and use a chemical bluing remover. My thought was (and still is) that a one piece steel base would add stiffness to an action that has a magazine cut, and that it would make the whole assembly, scope, rings, and base, more secure on the action. With the proliferation of larger scopes, I would think that this would offer a real advantage. Thanks for the additional information. Have you had to had to do much milling in order to do installations of the Holland adjustable bases on Remington actions? If you do, what do you charge for that work? I like his idea.

 

[Octopus]

The Holland Base is easy to install. Do it yourself should be no problem.

Mostly my actions are all SST. I have not had a problem with the blued actions and 609 but your gunsmith may be smarter than me.

The base can add stiffness in some cases. All my Rem and Savage actions are short actions. I like the 40X single shot and the XP100 single shot as they are stiffer. Now days I usually start with the Stiller Predator Action as it is so much better and is a Rem 40X Clone. Considering the time and $ necessary to make a Rem 700 action right the Stiller is a better choice and the Rem barrels fit it.

Some of the Aluminum scope bases are as stiff or stiffer than the steel bases. The AL rails from Ken Farrel or Stiller are very good. Most of the time when I use a 700 action I plug the bottom with a hand fitted aluminum plug that I epoxy in place as even my hunting rifles are single shot. As a single shot the longer 25/30-06 cases feed OK in a short action which is stiffer than the long action.

To me how stiff the action needs to be depends a lot on the barrel. A 6.5-284 31" heavy barrel needs a very stiff action. We built a Rem 7 Mag on a 700 LA repeater with a 26" Kriger Med wt. barrel this year which does very well. It shoots 130 gr bullets under 1/2 mil. Not bad for a "hunting" rifle.

 

[alinwa]

I am now using Loctite 609 for this. I DO NOT LET IT GET ON THE SCREW THREADS.

Octopus

Why not? Do you feel it'll stick the screw?

I've tried the Loctites, Devcon, JBWeld, AcraGlas and perty much every epoxy from Simpson to 3M because I try my best to weld every setup together, especially the base to the action, and I've never found anything that's overly effective.

My current method is to thoroughly degrease the action and base, running degreaser down into the screw holes and blowing it out repeatedly. I try to maximize adhesion to the action and especially the screwholes...... I rough up the surfaces whenever possible and coat either the action or the base(s) with epoxy right up to the screw holes. Regarding the screw holes themselves I use a toothpick to run a tiny layer down into the hole, trying to get it into all the threads but NOT ENOUGH TO BUILD UP A WAD IN THE BOTTOM!!!! This is the really tricky part IMO, if I get too much epoxy in the hole it will push down and block the screw from bottoming out. AND IT WILL NOT PUSH OUT, it will form a hydraulic stop, an incompressible plug so you THINK it's bottomed out but it will stop the base from really bottoming out metal-to-metal. This is really critical, I've taken apart a ton of faulty setups and had to pick out a plug of epoxy which had kept the base from bottoming out... and found the epoxy bond between base and action to be thick, so thick that nowhere did the base actually touch down to the action. IMO a thick layer of epoxy between the base and the action virtually guarantees debonding, but done properly it's possible to take down a setup years hence and find the bases still stuck to the action.


I lightly oil, wax or grease the screws and the counterbore in the base altho when I've forgotten I've never had a screw stick since there's typically enough residual oil to prevent bonding.

So to reiterate, I degrease everything BUT the screws....... I grease the screws.....I've never had one stick.

And I know longer worry about permanent bonding when using epoxies because all epoxies I've used are easily debonded by heat under 350F. Some of the loctite adhesives are rated to pretty high heat, like 500F so if they do really stick that could suck if one screws up.....??

I kinda' gave up on Loctite yrs ago, I don't use it for anything except holding ribs on barrels (the black rubbery stuff) but if they've got something that'll cut grease and produce a dangerously stable bond I will certainly try it some more.



al