Thread: Scope rings - Steel vs Aluminium

Originally Posted by Ultimitsu

That is correct, I said I did not know, and I did not know.

Since this became a point of the discussion I looked up, I can see that EWG and Nightforce make them. I was not aware of Nightforce ones being made of steel. In hindsight I probably have seen the steel EWG ones when I looked at their site before but because of the price it probably never registered in my mind.

All the rails i have are aluminium.

I also looked at a similar thread on another forum (which did not quite answer the question I was asking). Someone accused EWG 6000 series aluminium rails (the cheaper ones) being too soft and that it bent when he tightened rings on it. That however, could have easily been caused by over-tightening. With enough force you can bend anything. EWG also makes a more expensive and harder version of rail, made of 7000 series aluminium which they brand as "HD". I always thought it was just riding on the "label everything HD marketing wave". Now come think of it, it may well just meant "HarDer"...

Youngs modulus is an intrinsic material property. You could find 100 types of 20mm 1m long steel bars and hang 10 kg off them and they would all deflact the same, to be clear that includes tool steel, knife blade steels, barrel steel #8 wire etc.

You are correct that no one would use pure al to something (well most things).

Also 7000 series alloys are not necessarily harder or stronger than 6000 series or 2000 series, depends on how it is aged and mechanical deformation