Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Remington 700 Accurized, Part II.

     On the rifle herself I ditched the ancient Redfield one-piece mount I'd put on thirty years ago (stripped two Allen head screws' heads in the proccess, met the local gunsmith and watched him work the drill press and screw extractor) and shopped around for something more.....solid and less restricting on access to the breech and magazine. I stopped at Leupold Mark IV bases on Midway's site and clicked, "buy", along with their compatible scope rings and an "extra" pair of "PRW" scope rings in case.
     I got over my fear of steel wool, and used OOO triple-ought to remove oxidation that resulted after thirty years despite keeping her wiped down with Remoil and Hoppes. This was critical in bringing back a beautiful finish! After sanding the bottom of the bases for perfect fitting to the receiver, and checking for scope accomodation, I screwed them in to the recommended 22 lbs. torque with the Wheeler fat wrench and checked everything out for fit:




     I "lapped" the rings with the Wheeler lapping and alligning kit, and was impressed with the difference in the allignment of the scope itself, and the added grip of the rings to the scope. It was especially important to allign the rings on these mounts, which are Picatinny/Weaver style mounts, as there is NO WINDAGE adjustment screw. Getting them even with each other reduces the amount of windage manipulation needed, thank God! Bore-sighting has not been a problem out to 100 yards, at least, adn the scope's internal adjustment should be adequate for longer shots. Of note, the Leupold Mark IVs also have a 20 Minute of Angle that you can see, a "downward" angle of the scope along the barrel to allow compensation for raising the barrel way high for turbo-distance shots way out there. Just picture Drew Breeze (or the great Dan Pastorini, who had a rocket arm) cocking his whole body back at an angle for a 60-plus yarder, and you'll get the idea.
     On the scope itself priority Number One was eye relief, the proper distance for full-focus through the scope's rear optic, along with the safety of distance from the shooter's actual eye. Have you met a member of the "Ringers Club"???? You have, if you've seen a man with "the crescent moon" around his shootin' eye. I do not wish to join this exclusive club. I've seen a member as he was being created and it was ugly. I wish I'd realized what was about to happen in time, so that I could have stopped it.
      4-5" of eye relief worked with the old, Leupold Vari-II 4X12 with 50 mm front optic. The "Medium" height PRW rings gave plenty of clearance for this front optic, and, with some 5 mm of clearance,  should provide enough clearance for even the 56 mm front optic of a future scope, provided I can place the large front objective casing in front of the bullet chamber's slope, which seems to be the most restrictive area for scope accomodation. This is good to know, as I love light-gathering optics for night hunting the piggies! I've been very pleased with the old Leupold (1989 model) in this regard, having adequate light for the taking of several boar under the light of the full moon periods, and even three-quarter full moon light. This is what the rifle is made for!



     So now all I've left to do is take her to a range and shoot her? Of course not. Something new will occur and I'll have another "project" but for now, yes, she's bore-sighted and range-ready:

No comments:

Post a Comment