Question on Scope for My AR15

[sksmith75]

Back in '08, as many red blooded Americans did, I "celebrated" Maobama's election by picking up a couple of AR15s as back ups to my M1A, M1 Garand, and a wide selection of other rifles, shotguns and handguns I have.

One of the AR15s is a Bushmaster BCWA3S 20,

http://www.bushmaster.com/competitio...es.asp?cat=16R

one of their Target Models, thinking that some day, I'd put a good scope on it and see how far out I can learn to shoot.

Well, it's getting close to that day and being partial to Leupold, I think I'll get the Mark AR 6-18x40mm.

http://www.leupold.com/tactical/prod...mm-adj-obj-t1/

My question concerns how to mount it.

After nosing around Leupold's web site I found they recommend their tallest rings, but I can't figure out what all of the different bases are for. Some are Quick Connect, which I don't think is high on my list, but could be if there are some pluses.

Can the rings be mounted directly to the rail on the rifle? Do the bases offer an advantage?

A little help would be greatly appreciated.

As an aside, I was told the coatings on Leupold's scopes make the UN Powder Blue color glow, but I suspect that is just an urban legend.

[1blindref]

I went with a LaRue QD scope mount on my RRA Elite Comp and a Leupold Mark AR 4-12

http://stores.homestead.com/Laruetac...tail.bok?no=40

LaRue makes good stuff and the QD is nice to have for cleaning your gun or if you need to get your BUIS into play quickly.

[IronButt]

I'm partial to Leupolds myself & have a Vari-X III 3.5-10 for my AR. The LaRue mounts are top-of-the-line, but I bought a Wilson Combat Tactical mount on sale last year for $49. It's solid & returns to zero. I run an EOTec XPS most of the time, but switch it out with the scope every so often.

http://shopwilsoncombat.com/Tactical...info/TR-MOUNT/

[cpoth]

I think the model you have chosen is pretty ideal. As far as mounts go I used a LaRue Tactical mount for my RRA 20'' build. I have to say that company is top of the line, customer service and product quality are incredible. It is a mount that you will never have to think twice about.

On the contrary I did use just about every other type of Leupold rings I could find on my M1A and must say I am just not that happy with them. And I can't fault the caliber difference because its crazy to assume the larger (but not that big) .308 is to fault.

My vote goes to LaRue tactical as well.

Best of luck!

[sksmith75]

I have a question on the LaRue mount if somebody can give me their thoughts.

If I understand the mount correctly, the scopes front support is cantilevered off the front of the rail. Does that cause any stability or precision issues?

As an engineer, whenever I see a cantilever, I imagine hearing "boing" (exponentially damped sinusoid, if you're into that sort of thing) if it gets hit. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it just might be extremely rigid and I'm being overly concerned.

Thanks for the help.

[Guns4Fun]

I have a question on the LaRue mount if somebody can give me their thoughts.

If I understand the mount correctly, the scopes front support is cantilevered off the front of the rail. Does that cause any stability or precision issues?

As an engineer, whenever I see a cantilever, I imagine hearing "boing" (exponentially damped sinusoid, if you're into that sort of thing) if it gets hit. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it just might be extremely rigid and I'm being overly concerned.

Thanks for the help.

Larue makes top of the line products used in our very own military. So, i kinda think he has things working properly. So, you should not worry about flex. You'd probably bust the scope before you broke the mount.

Having a cantilever mount is much better than putting one ring on the upper and the other ring on the FF rail.

To get proper eye releif, you need the scope mounted forward. The only way to really do that is by using the cantilever or a ring on the upper and the other on the FF rail.

Take a look on the larue web site to see exactly how they look.

[sksmith75]

Great, thanks for the input, that's what I like about this forum. There are so many different variants of just about everything, you can't quite sort it all out just from the advertisements.

[Legion_Prime]

There's a reason I say if LaRue is an option Larue is the answer. YOu cannot go wrong with one of their mounts. They also have a "new" mount. Basically instead of the QD lever they replace it with just a bolt which will take a witness mark for repeatable mounting and it saves you $25 per clamp.

[orionz06]

As an engineer, whenever I see a cantilever, I imagine hearing "boing" (exponentially damped sinusoid, if you're into that sort of thing) if it gets hit. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it just might be extremely rigid and I'm being overly concerned.

Consider that the mount will flex, that is a fact. It wont flex enough to break the scope, and it will be strong enough to hold a repeatable zero. I dont think you can get much more into it than that, despite having that eerie feeling about it. The engineer in me also wants to tell ya to look at the scope and mount as one unit, it becomes much stronger when you consider both.

[sksmith75]

Consider that the mount will flex, that is a fact. It wont flex enough to break the scope, and it will be strong enough to hold a repeatable zero. I dont think you can get much more into it than that, despite having that eerie feeling about it. The engineer in me also wants to tell ya to look at the scope and mount as one unit, it becomes much stronger when you consider both.

Well, I'm an EE, so I'm always a little wary of mechanical things.