Thread: Scope Mounting 101

I've had a look at a few past threads re this topic here and have seen advice given that is not good IMO, hence I will give ya'll some of mine. I notice MANY used scopes for sale on TM that have been seriously marked/ruined by people who clearly don't know what they are doing.
So starting with the scope base/s or rail : this needs to be attached securely to the receiver. Do u glue it on ? Yes ? Is Loctite a good glue for this job ? NO !!!! Loctite is fantastic stuff but it does not have the kind of gap-filling properties that may well be required here. Use a hard two pot epoxy. NOT araldite. I have something in my pants harder than Araldite and as my wife will tell you, that aint hard !
So rough up the mating surfaces a little first, then DEGREASE thoroughly with a solvent like brakeclean, acetone etc. Then apply some poo and screw the bases/s rail down. Use High Tensile steel screws, not stainless ones. The stainless ones will likely break !
Keep the poo out of the screw heads so u can disassemble later if you need to. Just heat the epoxy with a low flame/iron or whatever when you want to remove it and the epoxy will turn to a soft gummy form.
Once the bottom part is set then attach the rings onto it. Do they need lapping ? Maybe if it's a one piece rail and the rings are a top level matched set then you could miss the lapping step. I still wouldn't trust them to be properly true so would lap them in a little first to check.
Lapping is another story and I won't go into that, as it's not rocket science BUT make sure to remove any sharp edges from the rings top and bottom halves when done !!!!! If the rings are ally then you can scrape those sharp edges off with a knife. A good knife will scrape the sharp edges off steel rings too. But REMOVE THE SHARP EDGES or your scope will end up looking like all the other scopes people have ruined.
Obviously age and/or experience adds to the basics outlines above. Cheers.