The best scope rings made?

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Perhaps Form should follow Function !

ie: To what purpose and on what type of Airgun do you wish to use your unnamed scope and possible scope rings (& did you mean 'rings' or a one piece mount) ?

That is a very basic place to start from

but I would add:

>Age of air rifle

>Finish of metalwork (of air rifle).

So, purpose and type of rifle (springer, PCP / hunter, target / sporter, bullpup)

(Not mentioning the same 2 criteria for the scope !!).
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For Instance :)

I have a particular air rifle that WOULD NOT SUIT 'tactical' looking rings or a 'tactical' scope (esp. a stupidly big Obj. lens 'modern' scope).

It is a Diana 52 dated '89' (Springer) with a hi-gloss finish to the blueing. I used very discrete blued Hilver (22rimfire type) to mount a small Leup M8 scope from the eighties which has a hi-gloss finish - it looks the dog's danglies (as we say here in the UK) :) The only set-up I own with those dreaded one-sided mounts.

(Anyway, I hate large scopes on Springers!!)

PS: Hilver Rings (australian origin) are no longer made.
 
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To get the most of your thread, you probably want to specify which airgun and scope you are using. Money might not be a concern based on your intro but it still should be a factor. Spuhr mounts are badass looking but you have to be realistic with your choices. You're probably not taking your airgun into battle. Besides, the added weight is one of the criteria you wanted to avoid. End of the day, if you're spending north of $100 on rings for an airgun it really comes down to aesthetics. You're going to pick something that looks pleasing to your eyes since any option would probably well exceed the performance needed.
 
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Gentlemen, I'm starting to sense some frustration, and that was not my intent whatsoever. Please accept my apologies. I really didn't want this to become a "What scope mounts should I buy?" thread. It seems so...generic...newbie'ish... To be frank, I consider myself new to air-gunning, therefore I am a newbie.

For the past many years I have been shooting a RWS Diana 52 in 5,5 (.22 cal), and decided that I wanted to "up-my-game" by venturing into the PCP world. I can't honestly say that moving from a springer to a PCP is in fact "upping" anything (feeble attempt at not offending other springer shooters) however, it's reignited a passion in me to do more than occasionally eradicate a pest from my property.

Prior to purchasing a PCP, I had absolutely no idea about: hold-over/under, projectile differences, mil, MOA, relationship between cosine and POI, parallax, Strelok/Chairgun, ....the list goes on and on. It's fascinating, and at the same time, a challenge. It's been fun learning from the good people on many forums. Air guns and the theory/practice behind the scenes has advanced exponentially since the last time I looked at the sport. Everyone I know still thinks of air guns as being "Daisy Red Riders" (which I did own as a kid), and are absolutely shocked when I show them photos of modern day guns.

Now, having said that, I will fill in the blanks that, up until this point, I purposefully omitted. Please know that I truly do appreciate any and all advice.
ie: To what purpose and on what type of Airgun do you wish to use your unnamed scope and possible scope rings (& did you mean ‘rings’ or a one piece mount) ?
Hunting, plinking, and target shooting (for fun only, no competition).
Vulcan .22 Bullpup.
Athlon Argos BTR 6-24x50
You are correct. I did mean "rings" (but I'm open to options).
That is a very basic place to start frombut I would add:>Age of air rifle
Awaiting delivery for the past 42 days, therefore brand-spanking new.>Finish of metalwork (of air rifle).
Flat black with both a black synthetic and a wood stock ordered.
Custom made parallax wheel in flat black. Size to be determined as soon as the gun is delivered and scope has been mounted.
Biathlon side-cocking mechanism from Evgeny at Airgun Technology. So, purpose and type of rifle (springer, PCP / hunter, target / sporter, bullpup)
PCP, hunter & target, bullpup.
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Other information:
Air tank: Luxfer 45cf (30 minute) SCBA, two HP95cf 3442 psi and one 40cf 3000 psi tank to cascade fill.
I work part-time at a dive shop where, among other things, I maintain the air compressor. Therefore, I essentially have unlimited free fills.
Fill station: Air tanks for sale with deadhead and the DIN fill station provided with purchase of the gun.
Range finder: Nikon Aculon.
Sling: Magpul MS4 Dual QD Gen2.
Bubble level: TBD, but most likely will be the US Optics or Vortex.
Elmerfudd: End of the day, if you’re spending north of $100 on rings for an airgun it really comes down to aesthetics. You’re going to pick something that looks pleasing to your eyes since any option would probably well exceed the performance needed.
Click to expand...

Well stated, sir. Well stated.
 
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Well now we can begin to whittle down the list a little,

You need 30mm rings and you need Med-High rings to accomodate the 50mm Obj.lens (the actual OD will be larger of course). As this is for a Bullpup may I suggest you also need lightweight 'Alloy' rings (I believe Bullpups have a tendancy to be top heavy / unbalanced in the hand - but I don't own one !).

Best matching finish (all round) would be a Matte dark gray/black (although you could add 'bling' by using Matte silver :) )
 
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In addition to being brand indecisive, I haven't purchased the rings because I wanted to get an exact measurement between the barrel and top of the picatinny rail. I also wanted an estimated eye-relief height. It's one of those measure 3 times, order on-line once things. Or at least that is my hope.

The Nightforce rings are attractive in that they combine aluminum and titanium parts for weight savings. Not to mention that I know of a pair sitting in a bargain-bin with a substantial discount (probably purchased and mounted by someone who decided they were not a good fit for them).

I do prefer aluminum to steel simply for weight savings. Coming from a scoped RWS Diana 52, I could probably strap a cinder block to the bottom of the Vulcan and it would still feel lighter. Both the recoil and report of the 52 border on teeth-rattling. Moving to the PCP will be quite a change for me.
 
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Only a day (and a bit) to go then - I certainly haven't forgotten the excitement of New Gun Arrival.

Same applies, actually, to a 'pre-loved' gun arrival - there have been some great scores there for me.


back to topic:

With a trustworthy / well-engineered 'pair' of Reach Forward rings you gain the near maximum potential - the reach forward part can be mounted at the Ocular (eye) or Objective end of the scope; it can also be mounted backwards !!!
 
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I ask about the benefits of expensive scope rings here a while ago and the consensus was that there was no benefit at all in buying premium priced rings for PCP rifles.

Given that $20 rings do the same job as $300 rings for most of us, I'm not sure how one would qualify "the best rings". To me it's a binary item. It works or it doesn't. 

I haven't had a problem holding zero with $20 rings. 

If it's for springers then springer rated rings might be a good idea. I believe those Burris rings are specifically sold for air guns. I can't imagine anyone has done any meaningful testing on a range of springer rings to find the absolute best though. 

If my aim was to build the best rig overall, I would probably want to use a decent adjustable mount so I could keep the scope optically centered when zeroing it. For me, it would be easier to find the best product with this approach (I.e. the best adjustable mounts instead of just "the best rings"). 
 
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I now this one, EAW period. Sold a few of their old 14mm airgun adjustable mounts last year, I priced then at full original price (NIB) and they sold in 2 minutes - different ads & people of each set, so in otherwords I under priced them. Now it's hard as heck finging what you might want on their web site:
http://www.eaw.de/en/products.html 
You might contact themn with your needs, they ( at least used to ) make custom one off application mounts also.
They are the best.

Dovetail mounts/rings, not the most expensive but I too agree BKL is an excellent choice if it fits you app.

John
 
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"zebra"I ask about the benefits of expensive scope rings here a while ago and the consensus was that there was no benefit at all in buying premium priced rings for PCP rifles.

Given that $20 rings do the same job as $300 rings for most of us, I'm not sure how one would qualify "the best rings". To me it's a binary item. It works or it doesn't. 

I haven't had a problem holding zero with $20 rings. 
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I don't agree with this opinion. Yes, there's a point of diminishing returns that holds true on a lot of things including rings and etc but you can't compare a $20 set of rings to say a pair of NightForce Ultralite rings for example. Will the $20 do the job? Of course but the quality difference is obvious for many reasons. Even the quality of a $50 set of Vortex rings is noticeable better than a $20 set of generic rings. Just because someone can't justify the cost benefit of spending $100+ on rings doesn't mean a premium product isn't worth the purchase to certain users. I think if you can afford a $1,500 airgun and $370+ scope, spending $100-200 on a set of rings maybe justified. On the other hand if you buy a $400 Spuhr mount for a $370 scope, that's questionable. If it's for a $2K scope on an airgun, it's overkill but understandable.
 
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"elmerfudd"
"zebra"I ask about the benefits of expensive scope rings here a while ago and the consensus was that there was no benefit at all in buying premium priced rings for PCP rifles.

Given that $20 rings do the same job as $300 rings for most of us, I'm not sure how one would qualify "the best rings". To me it's a binary item. It works or it doesn't. 

I haven't had a problem holding zero with $20 rings. 
Click to expand...
I don't agree with this opinion. Yes, there's a point of diminishing returns that holds true on a lot of things including rings and etc but you can't compare a $20 set of rings to say a pair of NightForce Ultralite rings for example. Will the $20 do the job? Of course but the quality difference is obvious for many reasons. Even the quality of a $50 set of Vortex rings is noticeable better than a $20 set of generic rings. Just because someone can't justify the cost benefit of spending $100+ on rings doesn't mean a premium product isn't worth the purchase to certain users. I think if you can afford a $1,500 airgun and $370+ scope, spending $100-200 on a set of rings maybe justified. On the other hand if you buy a $400 Spuhr mount for a $370 scope, that's questionable. If it's for a $2K scope on an airgun, it's overkill but understandable.
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So what are the additional benefits if $20 rings hold zero? 

This isn't my opinion btw. It's just what I got back from the forum when I asked the question. If you have some info on the benefit of expensive rings for a PCP rifle then please share it. It has to be more than "it has to be better because it's more expensive" though.

The broad view what I asked was that the additional benefit of the expensive rings were for high power (and therefore high recoil) powder burners. 
 
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If holding zero is the only thing that matters to you then cranking down on $20 rings and it will fit the bill on an airgun. Starting out, I purchased cheap ebay and UTG rings. They looked decent at first glance but it's different when you're able to compare them side-by-side to quality rings. They worked but I often found the rings to be machined with spotty tolerances. Screw holes that wouldn't aligned correctly without some force and tapped holes that didn't fit the bolts again, without some force. Some of the rings were also anodized poorly (top portion wouldn't match bottom portion). The quality in the grade of aluminum is also different as well as the bolts the rings are equipped with. Strip a tapped hole or break the heads off a bolt and that pretty much ruins your experience. If you force fit rings that doesn't have the best tolerances you risk damaging your scopes. It may not matter if your using $100-300 scopes but if you start venturing above $500 in optics, you want to properly invest in better quality rings. From a functionality stand point, both will do the job but some are willing to pay for quality and aesthetics. You have forum members on here who have nice collections of airguns willing to spend $1,500-$2,000+ per gun! Skimping out on $20 rings vs say $50-100 rings is their decision but might not be the wisest.
 
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"elmerfudd"If holding zero is the only thing that matters to you then cranking down on $20 rings and it will fit the bill on an airgun. Starting out, I purchased cheap ebay and UTG rings. They looked decent at first glance but it's different when you're able to compare them side-by-side to quality rings. They worked but I often found the rings to be machined with spotty tolerances. Screw holes that wouldn't aligned correctly without some force and tapped holes that didn't fit the bolts again, without some force. Some of the rings were also anodized poorly (top portion wouldn't match bottom portion). The quality in the grade of aluminum is also different as well as the bolts the rings are equipped with. Strip a tapped hole or break the heads off a bolt and that pretty much ruins your experience. If you force fit rings that doesn't have the best tolerances you risk damaging your scopes. It may not matter if your using $100-300 scopes but if you start venturing above $500 in optics, you want to properly invest in better quality rings. From a functionality stand point, both will do the job but some are willing to pay for quality and aesthetics. You have forum members on here who have nice collections of airguns willing to spend $1,500-$2,000+ per gun! Skimping out on $20 rings vs say $50-100 rings is their decision but might not be the wisest.
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I haven't had that experience at all. I have seen rings like that but the $20 Leapers ones I got from PA didn't have any of those faults. I'd send them back if they did.

None of my rings have problems with fit, tolerances etc. All of the anodizing is perfect and they hold zero. I'm picky about stuff like that. I can't even live with a scratch on my air guns. 

Most of my scopes are in the $200-$400 range with one or two above $500. If there was a meaningful benefit to me, I would buy more expensive rings. 

Unless it improved accuracy or maybe aesthetics, I'd rather put the money into better air guns or scopes. For me, rings have one job - to hold the scope in place and keep it there. Making rings out of titanium only has a benefit if you need the extra strength, otherwise it's just more weight for no gain. 

 
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Benefits to quality rings: They don't damage or leave marks on your scope. They don't need to be lapped. They come with their own tools and torque specs. My Tier One rings came with the two Wiha Torx bits needed to do the job so I simly plugged them in to my torque wrench and mounted the scope.

They are also made of better materials. I have used cheap alu rings and they felt like you bent them around the scope rather than having a perfect fit that just "seals"

The Tier One rings I have also has a nice finish that is very durable.
 
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