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How to mount a rifle scope

How to mount a rifle scope

After choosing the scope for your rifle you have a very important job to do that is often overlooked by many shooters.  That job is securely fixing your optics to your rifles receiver.  If you have done your homework and taken the advice of a competent gun dealer you will have chosen a set of quality scope rings that are the correct height and width for your rifles rail and scope. It is always good advice to buy the best scope rings available.

Firstly you must check that your rifle is unloaded as gun safety is paramount. Then place you rifle or airgun on a solid surface in front of you. Ideally you need a shooters rest which consists of 2 plastic cradles that will allow you to accurately level your scope and rings.

Hold your rifle scope above your rifle in the correct position necessary to have a comfortable head position and correct eye relief (distance from your eye to the scope to make the view clear) Next loosen the receiver dovetail / rail clamp screws on the bottom half of your gun scope rings and remove the top half of the rings. Then position the scope rings on the scope rail as far apart as possible whilst maintaining the rifle scope in the correct position. Lightly tighten with your fingers the dovetail / picatinny rail securing fasteners to keep the scope rings in place.

Now carefully lay the scope into the scope rings and check the eye relief and height of the scope is correct. The next step is to refit the top half of the scope rings but do not tighten the screws fully. The rifle scope needs to be able to rotate. If the eye relief is correct you can now increase the torque level on the dovetail / picatinny rail securing fastener so that it is not fully tight but secure enough not to move.

The next step is to make sure the vertical post of your scopes cross hair is vertical ! There are many devices on the market to assist you with this job but the easiest way is to rotate the scope until the cross hair is vertical by eye and then hold the rifle at arm’s length to gauge if the cross hair still looks vertical. You can now tighten the scope ring screws evenly and diagonally opposite whilst maintaining an even gap on each side of the scope ring. Please note that tightening the ring screws can sometimes very slightly rotate the rifle scope which will affect the alignment of the vertical cross hair. If this happens just loosen the scope ring screws and repeat the process.

It is very important to not overtighten any of the screws on your guns scope rings as this may damage your scope. The body tubes of many rifle scopes is manufactured from much thinner material than you might imagine and can be permanently creased if you are overtighten the scope ring fasteners. Manufacturers of quality scope rings will always provide recommended torque figures on their website. If you cannot find this information it is always worth looking on the companies FAQ page. Failing that just send the manufacturer an email and ask for their recommended scope ring torque figures. Remember these torque figures are a guide as the recoil produced by different firearms varies and some heavy recoiling calibers may require slightly more torque to be applied. Only the best scope rings on the market will be strong enough to withstand the high levels of torque required to prevent your rifle scope moving under recoil.

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Height of Scope Mount Required

In each product catergory we state a maximum (upto) objective lens diameter dimension. Due to both rifle and scope designs varying this can only be used as a guide. If you are unsure that the height of the Sportsmatch scope mount you have chosen will be sufficient to clear your rifle scopes objective lens from the barrel of your rifle, we suggest (prior to purchase) you check. The way you calculate the clearance is by halving the overall outside diameter of your rifle scopes objective lens and then deducting half the rifle scopes body tube diameter. For scopes with a 1″ inch diameter body tube diameter this would mean deducting 12.7mm, 15mm for scopes with a 30mm diameter body tube and 17mm for 34mm scopes. This dimension then gives the figure comparible with the ‘A’ dimension that is shown below. The amount our ‘A’ dimension is greater than the figure you have calculated is the amount of clearance your scopes objective lens will be clear of your rifles barrel (dont forget to allow around 2mm for the scope covers). Calculating your rifle scopes clearance in this way does assume your dovetail or Picatinny rail is not raised above or below your rifles barrel. Please consider that rifles with grooved receivers such as some models of airgun and .22 rimfire rifle will mean the scope sits lower than a rifle with a raised dovetail or Picatinny base fitted. Something else to consider is that some rifles with a high or adjustable cheek pieces may require high or extra scope mounts so that your eye is in line with the rifle scope and your head is kept in an upright comfortable position.