Rifle experts - advice on quality brand scope mounts

[MarkT]

Those with expertise on scope mounts - quality brands that won't disappoint.  I'm looking to remount my Leupold VX3 on my Weatherby Vanguard One in 300 Win Mag LA.  I'm looking for a Picatinny rail that bridges the mounts fore & aft of the shell port - they also have a relief for shell clearance under the rail.  I'm looking to move the scope around an inch or so back after I get some measurements or trial & error.  I installed a longer recoil pad as this rifle kicks a lot and my damaged rotator cuff is unhappy with it.  Don't want to mod my Boyd's laminated stock so moving the scope back is the easy answer to getting a good cheek weld with good eye relief.  I plan to bed the scope mount for a good solid mount as this rifle kicks a LOT. Weight empty with Harris bipod and sling right now is 10.75#. The Boyd's stock is heavier then the original poly stock. There are a number of Picatinny one piece mounts for this rifle so bolt clearance won't be an issue.  Oh I'm also looking for 20MOA on the mount.

[phideux]

If you are mounting a Leupold scope, you can't go wrong with one of their mounts. They are solid. I'm pretty sure they make a one piece for that rifle. It's not a Picatinny type rail, if you want one of those it's hard to beat a basic Weaver. They have been making them forever.
Get offset rings so you can get the most adjustment for your eye relief and mount it as low to the bore as possible.

[Jess from VA]

Mark, I am not sure what to recommend, but I think you actually don't want Picatinny, but rather a Weaver style (single) rail to mount various scope rings to scope.  And you will need to choose the rail and rings to match up together for best performance.

This may only be semantics, but should help in your search.  

I do believe you are on the right track to get a single Weaver rail for a scope mount, for solidity and ease of good mount (without having to true up both fore and aft individual mounts), and more flexibility of mount.  It will add a bit of weight (overall), but that can only be good for that cannon.

I have found the SWFA website to be the single most complete site on the planet for information about all optics and mounts (although sometimes I had to go to the individual manufacturer's websites to get particular details like weight, length, eye relief, yada on scopes I was narrowing in on).  But then I kept coming back to SWFA for my comparisons.  And, SWFA (I think) still has a price match deal, and when I found things a bit cheaper elsewhere, I still bought from them (with price match) so I had their rock solid reputation for defects or returns (instead of dealing with some one- off hardware store in New Hampshire running the closeout with the cheaper price).  You just need to be able to fire them a link to the cheaper price website, to get the match.

https://swfa.com/

There is some pretty good knowledge on here (mine is mostly about M1A(14) and ARs, but not traditional bolt rifles), but if no one comes back with what you want, I would consider getting on the telephone and calling SWFA or Brownell's (or maybe Midway last), and asking for tech support, specifically for advice on mounting optics on bolt guns.  I've had good success with calling all three for personal advice over the phone.  The folks I talked to knew what they were doing, and were never in a hurry, and very knowledgeable.  Calling 2 or 3 of them might be well worth your time, before making up your mind. (take notes, and cross check advice between each outfit)

Besides any other long range shooters forums (I have none to recommend, but they are out there), you might also peruse AR15.com, but you have to navigate around looking for bolt guns (and not ARs).

The only other point I can make, is that I never like my scopes to extend even as far back as yours already is (I like mine mounted no farther back than even with the back of the receiver, if not farther forward, and with long eye relief, and I am a small 5'9 guy; but when I go for a tight check mount, unless the stock was too long for me, I'd get scope eye from a big 300WinMag, even as far back as yours is now.  But everyone is different, just like bike seats.

The last thing to consider would be whether you might want some sort of lace on cheek pad for the stock to supply more support for a scope mounted farther back than what you now have.

That's all I got.

[MarkT]

Thx guys.  The Boyd's has a monte carlo style comb now - they are a good attempt but not necessarily a good fit like adjustable ones unless you just get lucky and happen to be the same as the "average" G.I. Joe - I have a superb but spendy Magpul adjustable stock on my AR10 I built, and I got a strap-on riser for my M1A after I bought a milsurp M14 wooden stock for it - love the nostalgia angle but needed the riser to go with the un-nostalgic BDC Nikon scope I put on it. Seems like the Boyd's stock is pretty close now on the comb but I'll see where it is after I get the scope moved back.  Right now with the thick recoil pad my eye is way back from the right relief for that scope.  The good news is this "Decelerator" recoil pad reduces felt recoil "in half" per reviews.  It's a slip-on, rather than having the stock modified which I don't want to do.  I'm thinking I might use some Goop on the end of the stock to help convince it to stay put.

[Jess from VA]

I have both a slip-on rubber butt pad (tight and says on) (but makes the stocks too long), and a strapped wearable butt pad.

Neither are great, but I can't shoot prone without pain otherwise.  

I just gave up on prone (except 22, and 223), and am better sitting or kneeling (or off a rest or barricade) anyway.

Course, I never had anyone shooting back either (a real stimulus for prone).

I'm not a hunter of animals.  I love the hunt and stalk and woods, but I dislike the gut and drag and eat.  So I gave it up.

I live in the East, and most everything I have is for two legged varmints, 200 and in.  Beyond that, the theory is let them go and don't give your position away.

If your slip-on is slipping what about a long zip tie pulled tight?  

[MarkT]

It's not really slipping. It's a good fit.  But I can move it some and that bothers me. I haven't glued it yet.  I'm gonna let it soak for awhile while working up loads at the range, and of course after I get the scope issue fixed.  Then decide if I want to make it semi-permanent.  I'll tell ya, shooting this cannon when you already have a torn rotator cuff takes the fun out of it.  I have no intention of shooting this howitzer anymore without something to reduce the kick. Get out the drawing pad and fit a hydro-pneumatic recoil system on it...

[Jess from VA]

Well, I realize this may be more than you want, but have you heard of the Lead Sled?

All your practice and load work ups could be shot from this pain free (reduces weapon recoil by up to 95 percent), then you just suck it up on the hunt.

There are probably others (more or less expensive), but this is the one I remember reading about for years.

https://www.amazon.com/Caldwell-Lead-Recoil-Reducing-Rifle/dp/B0023MHZLA

https://www.amazon.com/Caldwell-Adjustable-Reducing-Shooting-Outdoor/dp/B00359P0YY  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZlS4wiec9w   (you may be interested in other vids qued up behind this one)





More toys are always fun, anyway.    

[MarkT]

I have a Caldwell Lead Sled. Mine has forward controls more like your 2nd pic. Sometimes it interferes with the cheek weld and in this case it does.  Mostly because I can't get it at the right height in relation to the bench stools and bench.  And it won't work in the hunting blind - doesn't have a big shooting platform like the range does.  It's a geat tool for the range, working up loads for consistency and also to get the rounds zero'd after changes with minimal ammo waste.  I typically have the rounds in the 10 ring with 3 rounds after installing an optic and that's without boresighting it. (The Weatherby has no iron sights - just the optic so there's no backup - I bring another rifle.) But getting a rifle ready for the field or for competition - they disallow such devices - it's time to shoot sans rifle holder to shoot under actual field conditions. My Weatherby and several other rifles have a bipod which is almost as solid for accuracy as the Lead Sled.  But of course you "shoulder" the recoil yourself. Literally. The first shot without the Lead Sled with the 300WM was brutal on my SNAFU'd shoulder - I had let the sled take most of the recoil before.

Thx for pointing it out tho.  You don't know what I have if I don't mention it.

[Serk]

Consider a suppressor... Seriously...

Besides the noise reduction, a quality suppressor eats about 25% of the felt recoil of a centerfire rifle.

(Not enough of a precision shooter to comment on the original topic, I use Vortex mounts mated with Vortex optics as my "nice" optics, the rest being cheap sub $100 garbage mostly.)

[Pete]

Over the years I have mounted many scopes with every ring/base/rifle combination you can think of.
All have worked properly when installed correctly and I have had no failures.

The biggest issue is finding a set that fits the rifle and the shooter. I usually concentrate on that.

As for the movement issue, if anything moves during the firing of the rifle it affects re-peat-ability of the shots. So fix or replace it if it moves.

[Crackerborn]

While I can't help you with recoil on a .300 win mag, I can suggest Burris concentric rings on a Weaver base. I recently used a Boyds stock with a rem 700 in 7mm-08 and a Minox ZX 5i that I couldn't get on paper at 100 yds. Granted the recoil is substantially less than the .300 wm but the variable rings put me on paper without shims. I also use a Caldwell Lead-Sled but a fairly basic one that requires sand bags to keep the larger calibers stable.