Thread: Lesson Learnt - Cheap Rings

Always amazes me that blokes will spend 2-3k on a rifle, 1-2k on a scope and then mate the two with crappy rings.
Optilocks on my T3s - yes they’re a bit heavy, but they never move and they don’t damage scope tubes.
BTW - bloke in my local shop mounted a scope for me and was clearly clueless. He managed to strip the thread on one of the screws. Got him to give me a new set and did it myself. Just because someone works in a gun shop doesn’t mean they are competent.

Originally Posted by Hurricane

Always amazes me that blokes will spend 2-3k on a rifle, 1-2k on a scope and then mate the two with crappy rings.
Optilocks on my T3s - yes they’re a bit heavy, but they never move and they don’t damage scope tubes.
BTW - bloke in my local shop mounted a scope for me and was clearly clueless. He managed to strip the thread on one of the screws. Got him to give me a new set and did it myself. Just because someone works in a gun shop doesn’t mean they are competent.

It's so frustrating. I'm at GC and the amount of people that don't buy good rings is way more than you think. Then they inevitably come back upset and with an issue. It's usually no hassle to sort them but almost all the time we've tried to tell them they should spend a bit more coin on good rings in the first place.

By the way. If the incident you mentioned there was at a GC, feel free to PM me what store and who it was if you know and I'll flick a message to the store manager there and let them know whoever it was needs some more training.

Shooters have way too much trust in the extruded chink alloy rings than they should, buy once cry once its one of the most importat components on a relative scoped rifle. spuhr, NF, tier one, seekins, A419, vortex precision, MDT and youe get what you pay for.. heaps of options if you used a pic rail 😅

Originally Posted by Hurricane

Always amazes me that blokes will spend 2-3k on a rifle, 1-2k on a scope and then mate the two with crappy rings.
Optilocks on my T3s - yes they’re a bit heavy, but they never move and they don’t damage scope tubes.
BTW - bloke in my local shop mounted a scope for me and was clearly clueless. He managed to strip the thread on one of the screws. Got him to give me a new set and did it myself. Just because someone works in a gun shop doesn’t mean they are competent.

For some context, ive owned 6 different tikkas and 2 currently + the .308 i just purchased. all of them have/had optilocks fitted up myself & ive never had an issue. this was the first time i purchased rings for one other than optilocks, simply because i couldnt find optilocks or anything else decent & wanted to get to the range booking i had the next day & get it sighted for an upcoming hunt. in hindsight i should have just been patient & it wouldnt have been a waste of ammo, but too eager to get the new rifle out for a play. retailer refunded the rings this morning no drama and i have some talleys fitted up now

Did they refund your ammo, petrol to the range and a few hours of your life ?

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Did they refund your ammo, petrol to the range and a few hours of your life ?

He's already said he settled for the cheap rings cause he couldn't get optiloks, so I think the retailer has done the right thing in refunding the rings. Can't really hold them (the retailer) responsible for him deciding to buy the cheap junk rings when they had other options there just not the optiloks he wanted.
Anyway alls well that ends well hopefully @6.5 CRD let us know how you get on with the Talleys

Originally Posted by Hurricane

Always amazes me that blokes will spend 2-3k on a rifle, 1-2k on a scope and then mate the two with crappy rings.
Optilocks on my T3s - yes they’re a bit heavy, but they never move and they don’t damage scope tubes.
BTW - bloke in my local shop mounted a scope for me and was clearly clueless. He managed to strip the thread on one of the screws. Got him to give me a new set and did it myself. Just because someone works in a gun shop doesn’t mean they are competent.

Optilocks are overpriced, junk rings.

OK on a Sako but pointless on a T3.

Honestly Sportsmatch are better and cheaper, but still a crap choice.

Originally Posted by Coop

It's so frustrating. I'm at GC and the amount of people that don't buy good rings is way more than you think. Then they inevitably come back upset and with an issue. It's usually no hassle to sort them but almost all the time we've tried to tell them they should spend a bit more coin on good rings in the first place.

By the way. If the incident you mentioned there was at a GC, feel free to PM me what store and who it was if you know and I'll flick a message to the store manager there and let them know whoever it was needs some more training.

Stop selling shitty rings, problem solved?

Originally Posted by BradNZL

Shooters have way too much trust in the extruded chink alloy rings than they should, buy once cry once its one of the most importat components on a relative scoped rifle. spuhr, NF, tier one, seekins, A419, vortex precision, MDT and youe get what you pay for.. heaps of options if you used a pic rail ��

Would not touch 'Tier One' rings with a bargepole.

'Made in the UK' (but with crappy chinese materials) basically Leupold Mk4 knock-offs.

Only use Spuhr but would trust American Rifle Company rings as well.

That's about it.

I have tier one rings and rate them much higher quality and finish than the leoupold mk4s (which ive had on a previous rifle) also made of 7075 t6 alloy (same material as spuhr mounts)

But why are shops selling shit rings when they know they are shit. There is some good economical rings that arnt absolutely garbage

Originally Posted by caberslash

Stop selling shitty rings, problem solved?

Some people are just plain tight and don't want to spend a cent, supply and demand.

Originally Posted by Nugget connaisseur

But why are shops selling shit rings when they know they are shit. There is some good economical rings that arnt absolutely garbage

There are but as long as people want something for nothing or next to shitty rings will be a thing.

Time to move on chaps, you can't blame a retailer for selling the customer what they want no matter who the retailer is, having shopped at plenty of retail stores including Guncity I can tell you I'd be very supprised if they didn't try and upsell.

Originally Posted by 6.5 CRD

Took my newly acquired tikka .308 to the range to sight in today, couldnt find any optilocks in the height i needed so resorted to a cheap set of chinese? i assume rings (from a retail shop). being its not a big magnum thought "should be ok" famous last words. guy at the shop offered to install and boresight so i said what the hell go for it. checked everything was tight when i got home and all seemed well.

Straight off the bat i made an elevation and windage change (quite substantial) to little effect and thought that seems odd. checked everything was tight and soldiered on. got a 1.5 moa ish group of 3 shots pretty well centre. thought to myself this is average. came back to it 15 mins later without touching anything and punched out another 1.5 moa group but it had shifted roughly 2.5 inches left and 2 inches low.

Back home for closer inspection and funnily enough the rings appear to be the issue. everything was tight but clearly the scope has been moving around and some interesting wear patterns on the rings (hard wear on one edge and scope not even contacting ring on the other.) would require a huge amount of "lapping" to even come close to fitting nicely. pretty poor quality.

Makes me wonder how many other people are out there shooting with similar issues considering this is their "go to" ring for majority of their rifle/scope combos they sell. was another bloke at the range this morning with a similar issue, albeit some installer error also.

Anyway, now looking for a solution its a 50mm objective scope, 1 inch tube. have some "lo" optilocks here that dont quite work, need a touch more height. had a bit of a look around and couldnt find anyone with stock of the medium height optilocks to suit 1 inch. Anyone have a set of these kicking around? Otherwise potentially looking at a set of talleys. Would like to avoid putting a pic rail on

Cheers
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Informative post. Thank you for taking the time to post it, particularly with photos.

Originally Posted by dannyb

Some people are just plain tight and don't want to spend a cent, supply and demand.



There are but as long as people want something for nothing or next to shitty rings will be a thing.

Time to move on chaps, you can't blame a retailer for selling the customer what they want no matter who the retailer is, having shopped at plenty of retail stores including Guncity I can tell you I'd be very supprised if they didn't try and upsell.

100%. This whole situation is completely my fault, was in no way a dig at the retailer (hence me not mentioning who it was, even though plenty will put 2 & 2 together.) I was the one that wanted to get something sorted on the day, didnt want to put a pic rail on and use a different style ring, couldnt get exactly what i wanted so i chose to go with the cheapo rings. This whole post was more just me showing what the end result was, and interested to see how many others had similar experiences / wondering how many people out there now are having problems and cant pinpoint it or dont even know its a problem (i know plenty of guys who will sight there rifle with a couple of shots "rough enough" and go hunting, miss alot of animals and wonder why.)

Originally Posted by Hurricane

BTW - bloke in my local shop mounted a scope for me and was clearly clueless. He managed to strip the thread on one of the screws. Got him to give me a new set and did it myself. Just because someone works in a gun shop doesn’t mean they are competent.

If it was optiloks it is a known problem with them having soft screws. Quality Allen Keys, using the correct size and torque settings is obviously important but even more so here.
I think they might of changed to the Torx Head at some stage IIRC.