Question on Windage Screws on Rear Base

C

Clevinger

New member
I am using the standard Leupold bases and rings. I have alignment rods and a lapping kit I plan to use

My problem is with the windage screws on the rear base. They are difficult to line up right with the alignment rods. They are getting frustrating. I essentially just want to get the alignment right and then be able to tighten them enough where they won't move.

On videos I've seen it seems like guys just finger tighten them while they are aligning the rods.

Would it be easier just to tighten the dang things down and then just lap out the difference?

Any suggestions for dealing with these?

I wish I had gotten a dual dovetail.
 
Let me ask this a different way:

Are the windage screws useful for anything besides holding the rear ring on?

How much should I tighten them down? To the max of the manufacturers specifications?
 
Those windage screws are useful for rough windage when aligning the rear ring with the front ring. I've never looked at the manufacturers specs for torque on those rings, I simply tighten them with a good screwdriver that fits the slots.

Those dovetail Leupold rings are a system first popularized by Redfield, back in the day, and I've always been told that it's the Redfield System, as opposed to the other type that we call the Weaver, (or Picatinny) system.
 
Those windage screws are useful for rough windage when aligning the rear ring with the front ring. I've never looked at the manufacturers specs for torque on those rings, I simply tighten them with a good screwdriver that fits the slots.

Those dovetail Leupold rings are a system first popularized by Redfield, back in the day, and I've always been told that it's the Redfield System, as opposed to the other type that we call the Weaver, (or Picatinny) system.
Click to expand...

Are they something I may have to adjust later, or can I just use them to hold the rear ring on?

If I lap the rings and those windage screws aren't secure, it would have been a waste of time.
 
As I understand it that is not what those rear windage screws are for. If you have a base with those on, just center it as best you can or with a micrometer. Then install the scope and allow the ring to rotate as the tightening of the scope pulls the front ring and back ring into alignment. Actually I don't use the scope for this but a piece of steel pipe, just because I don't like putting that much pressure on a scope tube. Once aligned I install the (factory zeroed) scope and sight-in using those windage adjustment screws with a hollow ground screwdriver. If you turn those screws like an artist you can zero a scope perfectly for windage, without ever taking the caps off the turrets. My new VX3 is a few clicks up from factory but L|R the cross-hairs are still zeroed.

I do not believe it necessary to lap these kinds of rings... they rotate. And they are the only ones I personally use.

-SS-
 
Those were designed for rifles that had the mounting holes drlled incorrectly. When this happens the scope will be pointed at an angle

They allow you to get the scope aligned when this happens. Unless you have mounting hole issues they are not needed. Some of the worst mounts ever made unless you really need them which is very rare today. This was a common problem when rifles were not drilled and tapped at the factory
 
The windage screws hark back to the day when scopes did not have internal adjustments. The original Redfield base marketed back in the 1920s also had an elevation adjustment (this feature was done away with back in the late 1950/early 1960s as scopes with internal adjustments became the norm.

One issue that shows up by using the screws to adjust windage is bent scopes. The front dovetail on today's bases are much tighter than the original bases, so you can damage or bend a scope if you try to adjust windage using the rear screw. This was not an issue in the 1950s. As I said, the front dovetail was looser, but this became an accuracy issue, so it was tightened up. And scopes back then had steel tubes, today's scopes have aluminum tubes.

The proper way to use the windage screws is to install the front ring base in the dovetail, squaring it up to the base, then install the rear ring on the base, tightening the rings just snug. Install the scope in the rings. Then tighten the rear screws until they are tight. Before installing the scope, center the reticle in the scope, then use the windage screws to bore sight the rifle. This leaves you the maximum amount of adjustment for sighting in.

And I have no idea why everyone thinks rings have to be lapped, they are fine just as they come from the box. I have been installing scopes in various types of rings for the past 30 years, and never had an issue. Have I lapped rings? Sure, but only because customers demanded it. Assuming you can do a better, more accurate job by hand than a million dollar CNC machining center can do is silly.
 
In my opinion they are superior in design. Regardless if the mount holes were drilled and tapped off 12 o'clock. Sometimes a bore can be off-axis in the barrel which over longer ranges cause problems with trajectory/crosshair tracking. These rings/bases allow us to align the center axis of the scope tube with the center axis of the bore.

As long as they are installed correctly, and the rifleman knows how to adjust them with precision ("sympathetically" from one side to the other with less than quarter turns) they will work on all but the heaviest recoiling rifle. I probably wouldn't put them on 338 LM, or a 50... or even perhaps 300 Win mag, but I think they'd be fine on '06 .308. They allow us to use the turrets for adjusting for temporary windage not for zeroing.

-SS-
 
Here is my take on proper usage of the windage screws - your mileage may vary:

1. Center the windage reticals in your scope by cranking them all the way left, then all the way right counting the number of turns. Back off to center (1/2 the total number of turns).

2. Mount your scope in the base. Use the windage screws to bore sight the scope. Don't touch the scope windage adjustments themselves yet. This is where having a sled or cleaning vise really helps. Use the technique of looking down the bore, then through the scope at a distant object to get the windage bore sighted using the screws.

3. Lock the screws down with Loctite.

4. Now, go to the range and finish the job using the windage adjustments on the scope.
 
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