Scope Mount for 700

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yo1dog

New member
I have decided on a Nikon Monarch 3 3-12x42 as a scope for my Remington 700 Varmint SF in 308.

I am a novice shooting paper around 50-100 yards. I hope to move up to longer ranges and may take it hunting someday.

I am trying to decide how to mount it. Doing some research I have found that one piece vs two does not matter much. Nor does steel vs aluminum. It seems like I should spend around $50-$100 on the mount. The most recommended brands in that range are Leupold and Talley.

Given all of this I have narrowed it down to 3 possible setups:

My questions are:
  1. Are their advantages/disadvantages to attaching rings to a base (eg. Leupold Dovetail setup) vs directly to the gun (eg. Talley setup)?
  2. Does a bar over the action (eg. Leupold STD setup) significantly hinder access to the action? I know it will some, but is it substantial enough to avoid or just a minor annoyance.

Thanks,
- Mike
 
I have used a 1 piece mount & rings from IBA with a 20% elevation built in, rings were lapped, 4 screw base. A good one piece mount makes it easy to mount & level your scope, also was not a problem with with bolt opperation. Changed to Ken Farrel base & rings with zero elevation, do to shooting 200 yards, max distance for Ranges here on LI NY. Both worked fine. Rem.700 308 cal.
 
I noticed that some mounts come with 20MOA built in. I am still not quite sure what this means. It seems it is needed for long distance shooters, but I don't know how far "long distance" is. Is this something I should look for? Will it adversely affect shooting at 50 yards?
 
Unless you are planning on shooting 1000 yards, you don't need a tapered base.

I am partial to the Leupold standard bases, I like that they have windage adjustment built in to it, even though you in all probability will never need it.

The one piece base does not interfere with the loading of the rifle.
 
I have a few Rem 700s and only one has a two piece base and ring.

I have added a Weigand picatinny rail to the others to facilitate scope swapping.

Seems to work well for me.
 
It does come down to what you like best. I would recommend to invest in a Wheeler torque rench. It is important getting action screws, scope base & rings torqued to the proper settings. You should know repeatable settings when it comes to accuracy. Hope I helped. Be Safe & good luck with your rifle.
 
Just found the Talley Genesis hidden on page 4 on their website. Looks like a great single piece mount, but they provide almost no info on their products...

Does anyone have any experience with these? Are they 1" or 30mm? Short action or long? They are on the Remington page, but do they fit the 700? Why would they not have this basic information on their website?

Edit:
I posted a new thread on them here.
 
Your Rem 700 308 is a short action, your scope is most likely 1" tube. when ordering any base or rings, their info will ask for make- Remington 700 short action & ring size 1" they will fit the rifle. The tricky part is ring height, you want them as low as possible,without the bell of the scope hitting the barrel & at the other end, have enough room for the bolt to lift without hitting the eyepiece. Knowing the objective 3-12x42 42 is the objestive, check with the company, I would guess medium ring height. When the scope is mounted, if it's to high your sight picture may be a problem & cheekweld. When your cheek is resting on the stock you should be able to open your eyes and have a perfect site picture without moving your head. Thats why ring height is important. Just looked at the site, you will still have to get a rail to mount the scope. Call talley. Did you check out Brownells or MidwayUSA, both company's are very easy to talk to for information. They have a wide range of bases. Give them a call. Hope I helped
 
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I have a set of the Talley's mounted on a 700 Varminter in .223. Mine are two piece bases, so they would fit either a long or short action Model 700, with 1" rings but I believe they are/were also available with 30 mm rings. These have been on the rifle, mounting a 36x Leopold for probably close to 20 years now and never have had a issue with them.
 
I really don't know why these aren't more popular... http://swfa.com/Signature-C633.aspx

From my experiences, they're certainly constructed well enough, they look 100% better than standard Weavers and Chi-com junk, they don't marr up your scope tube, they make the shooter look like he has a little class and cares enough not to spent the absolute bare minimum to make his/her rifle look sharp and professional. IMHO, they are the greatest things since white sliced bread.
 
My personal opinion is that I would use a 1 pc picatinney base and lap the rings. I like the Leupold 1 pc and the Leupold PRW rings at $125 total from MidwayUSA.

I would probably still confirm with alignment bars and lap as required.

In addition to lapping bar and alignment bars, a torque screwdriver, purple loctite, levels and a gun vice are nice tools to have.

You can go cheaper and lap to get alignment, but cheap rings usually lack the rigidity to hold torque. Then you use loctite, but what are you locking with near 0 torque? I guess I'm just saying that cheap mounts are just one drop away from a ruined trip.

I can't tell you which rings/bases will ruin your hunt after dropping your rifle for sure. . . .It has to do with gun weight, scope weight, height of drop and how it drops.
 
Are there any advantages of the picatinny rail over the STD base?
Click to expand...

It is more tacticool.

If you plan on moving scopes around between rifles, or swapping your optics depending on your mission (higher power, medium power, thermal, etc) then by all means get a rail.

For most folks, who mount one scope on one rifle and leave it there for decades, rails are a waste of money.

The tapered base may work at 50 yards, or it may not, depending on your scope. Looking at the specs on your scope from you link, it claims to have 60 MOA Max Internal Adjustment, so I would guess it would probably be OK, but again, unless you are planning on shooting 1000 yards, you just do not need it.

I have two rifles with the standard Leupold rings onw with the standard one piece Leupold base, one with the Long Range base with 15 MOA of elevation built in. I have bounced those rifles around hunting all over the place for 15 years (25 for one of the rifles), including several fights with the airline apes throwing my rifle case round, and the scopes have never moved.

You certainly can spend $150 on some super tacticool sniper mounting system, but for 99% of shooters, all it will do for you is make your wallet lighter.

Take the money you don;t spend on mounts you don't need, and buy yourself a scope level.
 
It might be tacticool to you but if you want the best accuracy you can get then you have to pay to play. If your anything like me you will quickly tire of 100 yrd shooting and will want tight repeatable groups at various distances. That being said I went with DNZ mounts on my Rem 700 sps vermint in .223. I plan on upgrading when I get her shot in more and know what I want.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I am now stuck between Talley Lightweights and Leupold STD... I keep going back and forth! Here are my thoughts:

Talley Lightweights
Pros:
- Simple
- Keeps action clear

Cons:
- Aluminum
- no 1-peice base

Leupold STD
Pros:
- Steel
- 1-peice base

Cons:
- Some say base slightly obstructs action
- Wind adjustment seems like an unnecessary complication
 
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yo1dog said:
Thanks for the thoughts.

Nathan, are you talking about this Leupold picatinny rail and these Leupold PRW rings? The rail says it has 15MOA built in, will that adversely affect closer range (50 yards) shooting?

Are there any advantages of the picatinny rail over the STD base?
Click to expand...

You are right. You would want a flat rail(base) like the Nightforce

If you look at std bases, you see this fairly beefy base and rings, but if you look real close, they lack much contact area between base and rings and rely on a cam fit.

A Picatinney base/ring have lots of contact area and the fit is achieved by a clamp to the rail that usually has either a large nut or 2 bolts. It is quite durable, even in aluminum. That is the benefit. With a 2-7 or 3-9 small scope, maybe no big deal. Something bigger, I would consider picatinney.

I don't know which one is more tacticool, but I'm sure a mall ninja or some other know it all will swing by and let us know.

If it matters, my hunting rifles wear:
- Ruger rings - required extensive lapping
- TPS rings & base - I bedded the bases and just bolted the rings and scope on.


If you use a std type mount, have you ever adjusted your scope with the same load?? Can you explain why?
 
Dual Dovetail was developed during the heyday of mounting heavy scopes on hard recoiling magnums. The dual dovetail is super strong.
I like the 2 pc Talley setup, but their one piece set up is a bit bulky.
Std. Leupold setup is nice if you need to adjust misalignment, but other than that it has no advantage. Its disadvantage is that it is a very weak mounting system.

My favorite is Burris Signature Zee rings on steel Weaver type bases. It is strong. Its best feature is that it in essence is self lapping.
 
I've never seen a Brownell's rail, but would trust it, and PRW rings, to be rock solid. It would also be about the heaviest way you could go.
Burris XT bases and Zee rings would accomplish the same thing, for less money and weight.
 
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