Mounted scope without thread lock. Never. Again.

[HardDrive]

I know, I know. "I've never used thread lock, and I've never had a problem". Well good for you sport.

Took my Henry .44 to the range for the first time with the scope on today. (No pictures....holy hell is it ugly. The rail is longer than the receiver.) I'm banging away, and starting to get some nice groups going. Then I switch over to my .30-06 for jolly and put a box through it. I switch back to my .44, and move on to different ammo. Then I go shoot my pistols for a bit.

Back to the .44, now I'm off. Huh. I get a group, then suddenly I'm 4 inches to the right. I'd been out there for 3 hours in the hot sun, switching guns, chit chatting with people, not thinking straight. I probably ran $50 worth of rounds through the SOB before it dawned on me. I grab the front of the rail, and sure as schnitzel, I can move the damn thing with my fingers. I feel like an idiot. Tore it down tonight, got all the oil off and reassembled with blue. I doubt I'll be mounting too many more scope in my lifetime, but I'm using thread lock from now on.

**BONUS FEATURE**
Henry Big Boy .44 Range Report

When the scope it not flopping around like Hillary's thigh fat (go ahead, no amount of whiskey is going to wipe your mind's eye clean) , this is a surprisingly accurate gun. But I have to say, the ergonomics are not good. All of the furniture is tiny. And it has no cheek rest or a grip. Just a straight piece of (very well formed and finished) American maple. The lack of a grip and the presence of the lever mean either cocking one's wrist forward at an uncomfortable angle, or keeping a couple fingers outside the lever. The recoil is surprisingly stiff. On paper I doubt this is true, but it feels stronger than my .30-06. Sometime recoil speed seems to play quite a bit into its perceived strength. I'm happy with it. But the (quite beautiful) vintage style stocks leave a lot to be desired in the field. But it won't matter. Because I'm going to kill a buck with it.

[legion]

Get a fat wrench and set the torque to 20 foot-pounds. If it wiggles after than, then use some loctite.

[Jeff Higgins]

20 foot pounds on typical scope mounting screws is well past their elastic yield point. More like inch pounds.

Blue Locktite is often not enough. I only use red, assuming the thing has a scope at all. Lever guns don't typically adapt well to scopes; combs are too low, length of pull too short. It's trying to tell you something. You are experiencing that not all too rare "tissue rejection" phenomena inherent in mounting 21st century optics on a 19th century rifle. Put a proper peep on it and save yourself before it's too late.

[Bill Douglas]

A friend bought a reasonably good quality AR-10 and took it to the range. He couldn't believe how badly it grouped - a bunch of shots over here, another over there etc. He was going to go out and buy a match grade barrel for it, but I talked him out of it and said to put 100 rounds through it first and that doesn't fix it get a gunsmith to give it a once over. It turns out when he mounted his scope he didn't tighten the mount screws :blush:

[Rick Lee]

I got my SIG 556 all dialed in, took it home to clean it and the rear sight almost wobbled off. Gotta redo it all now.

[John Rogers]

I would suggest a Wheeler scope alignment kit, well worth the $$$. When I was building the AR-15's I bought one and ended up taking it to the range a would fix people's scope mounting issues for a "donation". They have the purple lock tight which works great for guns and the torque wrench which will get the mounting screws the same on both ends. The torque for most aluminum tubed scopes is in inch ponds if I remember correctly? That is done after checking the alignment of the rings with the pointed tools and if I remember right, most mounts, even one piece have misaligned rings? One of my friends that teaches at the Marine Recon school said their armorers have to tweak/adjust every scope mount they have!

[HHI944]

Originally Posted by john rogers

I would suggest a Wheeler scope alignment kit, well worth the $$$. When I was building the AR-15's I bought one and ended up taking it to the range a would fix people's scope mounting issues for a "donation". They have the purple lock tight which works great for guns and the torque wrench which will get the mounting screws the same on both ends. The torque for most aluminum tubed scopes is in inch ponds if I remember correctly? That is done after checking the alignment of the rings with the pointed tools and if I remember right, most mounts, even one piece have misaligned rings? One of my friends that teaches at the Marine Recon school said their armorers have to tweak/adjust every scope mount they have!

I've seen a few people ding up very expensive scopes because they didn't realize that even high end mounts need to be aligned.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

20 foot pounds on typical scope mounting screws is well past their elastic yield point. More like inch pounds.

Blue Locktite is often not enough. I only use red, assuming the thing has a scope at all. Lever guns don't typically adapt well to scopes; combs are too low, length of pull too short. It's trying to tell you something. You are experiencing that not all too rare "tissue rejection" phenomena inherent in mounting 21st century optics on a 19th century rifle. Put a proper peep on it and save yourself before it's too late.

Like this?

[aigel]

+1 on open sights. The ghost ring sights that I use for dangerous game close in work are nice but probably not precise enough for the work you want it to do. I'd look into a classic tang setup. Lyman?

[HardDrive]

I'm going to stick with plan A and try and get the scope to stick. The screws they sent with the mount are very short. I can see the screw holes in the top of the receiver from inside, and there is another 2-3 mm of thread depth available. If this doesn't work I'm going to source longer screws.

If that doesn't work, I'm skipping the 'red' and going right for the 'grey'

[DanielDudley]

Longer screws FTW.

[sc_rufctr]

Clean threads, good tools and...



Can't go wrong

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Like this?

Now we're talking'. I have Skinners on all four of my Ruger #1A's and Tropicals, along with an XS Sight Systems front post. My Marlins all wear the Williams "Guide" sight that mounts to the aft two scope base holes. I like the Skinners and Williams because with the aperture in, they are quite precise, but it can be removed and the sight becomes a "ghost ring". I used the XS ghost ring rears for awhile, but missed the precision to be had by putting an aperture in them.

[flipper35]

She traded Williams for the Skinners. She likes them better and you can get the different sized apertures for what you want to do with it. She is pretty dead on with it as is but never had to use the ghost ring.

[Jeff Higgins]

I like how low the Skinners mount. The XS, in addition to not being threaded for an aperture, sits quite high due to the nature of the elevation and windage adjustments. The Williams Guide sits a bit high as well, and won't work with the original front sight - you need a taller one. It does, however, work for my face and the drop on the Marling stock. The issue opens were too low, as was the Skinner. The Skinners work to perfection on my #1's, though. Everything else is too tall and too far forward, sitting on the quarter rib as they do.

It's nice to have choices. As little as, say, 20 years ago, the only game in town were the side mounted Lymans and Williams. They always look like an afterthought and just ruin the lines of a nice rifle. We are living in the best of times, with regards to available iron sights.

So, is her front sight a Skinner as well? It looks like it's all brass. Is the side you see serrated or anything?

[flipper35]

Hers is all Skinner, with a serrated front sight. I talked with Andy and he suggested brass for where she hunts and she chose brass for the rear as well with the black aperture. She really likes it compared to a traditional iron sight. Her original sight was too short to work with any of the peep sights available.

[HardDrive]

Brent, color me jealous. My 11 year old girl has zero interest in hunting. She's gone target shooting with me, but has no interest in chasing deer.

[flipper35]

She is an outdoor girl for sure. Dirt bikes, fishing, hunting, target shooting and NOT boys yet.

Good kid for the most part though, but she would rather be hunting than homework. The rifle was a Christmas present so she could participate in the mentoring program at 11.

You never know, your daughter could see an article about a woman that is local that was in the Olympics on the shooting team and find interest.

[flipper35]

By the way, where we hunt she can't see more than 75 yards in the woods so the peep sight was a no-brainer.