Leupold VX-R Patrol 3-9x40mm and Mark 4 30mm high rings for the M14 EBR

I've bought and sold Leupold Mark 4 rings in the past, but this was the first time I coughed up for brand new ones and it was a bit hard to swallow, lol!  That being said though, these are damn fine scope rings and I needed them to complete a certain look I was after.  

I understand that my M14 EBR is pretty far from a proper Mk14 Mod 0 clone, but one thing that has always sort of bothered me was my choice in glass.  I can't bring myself to spend $1,900 on a second focal plane MOA scope (Leupold Mark 4), but at the same time, I can't afford to keep a Steiner T5Xi on there either.  I settled for a Bushnell Tactical 5-15x40mm, miildot reticle with 1/4 MOA adjustments.  

It's not a bad scope at all, and was one of my first half-decent scopes, but I've gotten used to scopes in first focal plane, or at the very least scopes with a mil-based reticle with mil adjustments.  

The Bushnell also has a peculiar object paralax adjustment which is something that has been sort of getting on my nerves.

I also wasn't 100% sure on the Weaver Tactical rings.  You can see the ring tops flex if you don't crank them down evenly, and I also found the rings themselves scratch and even get gouged pretty easily.  This didn't exactly instill confidence considering the M14 has been known to be rough on scopes, let alone soft aluminum rings.

Also, if you look at the ring mount keeper screws/nuts, the front one in particular, there wasn't enough clearance to tighten the nut.  The nut would actually hit the ARMS base with every turn.  Not the manufacturer's fault in this case as it just simply wasn't designed for this base in particular, but the material would scrape away with every turn and would probably end up rounded out if I did it often enough.

The scope base is an ARMS unit, and I think these are made of steel.

The Leupold rings fit like a glove to the ARMS base, and the keeper screw easily cleared the base.

Leupold called for 65in/lbs, but when I took the pic, I had it adjusted to 45in/lbs.  I did torque it down properly later on.

So, I know I said I currently prefer first focal plane scopes, and the VX-R Patrol 3-9x40mm is clearly a second focal plane scope, but I wasn't about to buy another Steiner for my M14.  This Patrol came from my Mk12 Mod 1 clone (I got new glass for my Mk12 Mod 1) and I hope the elevation adjustment has good tracking so I won't have to rely on reading the reticle for shot adjustments (either that or keep it at 9x magnification when shooting or ranging).

Anyway, far from being clone correct, but I think it's a step in the right direction and probably a far better scope than the one it replaced.  I would liked to have gotten another Steiner T5Xi 5-25x56mm for the M14, but I'm not sure if the rifle itself warrants premium glass like the Steiner.

Looking forward to taking it the rifle out one of these days and see how she groups.  I've had it for years and still haven't shot groups with it yet, lol!

SWFA SS 10x42mm Mil-Quad Reticle and Primary Arms 30mm low rings

My 700P’s been without glass for a while but as I have a few other precision rigs, the 700P wasn’t a huge priority.  I wanted to keep my 700P as plain as possible, and though I didn’t need a huge magnification range for long distance, I wanted to get something that I was used to, something will a mil reticle and mil adjustments. 

My buddy Alex recommended I try the SWFA SS 10x42mm with the Mil-Quad reticle.  Apart from my Elcan C79 3.4x, I’d never had a fixed power scope and I wasn’t sure I’d be comfortable with using one.  But I’d heard good things about it so I decided to give it a try.

The scope was sold by Primary Arms, the same company that sells scopes of the same brand. 

http://93zj.blogspot.ca/2017/08/pa-scope.html 

The entry level Primary Arms scopes are just that, entry level.  Made in China, mushy controls and a very ugly overall appearance.  They might even be clones of the made in China Falcon line of scopes.  It is however first focal plane and the glass is of decent quality.  The reticle is crisp and fine, with a bullet drop built in.

Anyway, the “Super Sniper” 10x42mm has a bit of history, originally designed and sold by Tasco, apparently built for military applications, though I've seen very few pictures of these on military rifles "in the wild".  I found this image, but I'm not even sure it's legit:

Apparently the QC on these went downhill for a few years, along with Tasco’s other offerings, until it was sort of resurrected by SWFA who purchased the super sniper distribution rights and got QC back up to a decent standard.

The scope came in a plain cardboard box, nothing fancy (not expecting much for $299 USD), with the scope wrapped in bubble wrap.  

The scope appears to be decent quality.  According to Primary Arms, these are manufactured in Japan, though I could not find a manufacture stamp anywhere on the scope.  The finish is a matt black and it appears robust enough.  

The turrets aren’t bad.  The clicks are audible and positive, and the knobs are of a decent size and marked clearly.  After you find your zero, you unscrew the three set screws, lift the cap off and drop it back down to zero and tighten up the set screws again.  

The focus ring is where the magnification ring would normally be.  There is a side focus model for an extra $100, but I just got this one.  

I also ordered a set of Primary Arms 30mm low rings, which appear to be the same design as Millet, Vortex and Burris tactical rings.

The rings are of decent quality for what you pay for.  I would say these are better than the weaver tactical rings.  

Anyway, being in the land of perpetual rain and overcast skies, I didn’t get a chance to get some quality pics of the glass, but there’s a shot of the reticle at least.  I’ll update this when I figure out how to take a decent picture of the glass and see if I can capture the clarity I can see with my eyes.

As far as the scope being fixed a fixed 10x, it wasn’t all that hard to get used to.  It was very pointable, and finding the object/target was fairly quick.  The focus ring was also easy to use and I’m looking forward to trying this scope out when the weather gets better.

Some specs from the factory:

Matte Finish

Patented Mil-Quad Reticle

30mm Tube

Rear Focus

OK for .50 cal

.10 Mrad Turrets

Exit Pupil:  4.2mm

Field of View @ 100m:  3.9m

Rear Parallax Adjustment (m):   10m-Infinity

Eye Relief (in): 3.9

Diopter Compensation:  -2 ~ +1 dpr

Click Adjustment Value:  0.1 MRAD

Adjustment Per Revoultion:  5 Mils

Total Elevation Adjustment:   Mils

Total Windage Adjustment  

 Mils

Type of Reticle:  Mil-Quad

Coating:  Fully Multi Coated

Waterproof:  Yes

Fogproof:  Yes

Shockproof:  Yes

Weight (oz):  18.7

Objective Bell Diamater (A):  49.5mm / 1.949"

Bell Length (B):  119mm / 4.685"

(C):  69mm / 2.716"

Tube Length (D):  148mm / 5.827"

Overall Length (E):  357mm / 14.05"

(F):  49mm / 1.929"

Eyepiece length (G):  90mm / 3.543"

Eyepiece Diameter (H):  46mm / 1.811"

(I):  31.9mm / 1.255"

 Tube Diameter (J):  30mm / 1.181"

M24 sight bases from OK Weber

Normally, I would never consider iron sights on any sort of precision rifle, particularly one for longer ranges (primarily due to my poor eyesight), but this is different.  In comparison to many precision rifles using chassis systems, the M24 is about as sedate looking as a regular Remington 700 Police.  Aside from the ginormous barrel and the adjustable butt plate, there are few other visual cues to tell you that this 700 is not like the others.  

There are few other modern rifles that have back up iron sights, and to the best of my knowledge, the Police and 5R Mil-spec never came with these.  Although, neither are claimed to be exact clones of the M24, they were built and marketed to emulate the original and give the consumer something pretty close.  I knew that the $5,500 MSRP on the M24 would not include the entire deployment kit (I hear those run about $10k USD), but I hoped it would at least include something simple like the sight bases for the back up iron sights.  It did not.

We were told the original Redfield-Palma M24 back-up sight bases would be impossible to source in Canada, and I found that to be quite true.  The company is no longer in business and if you're lucky enough to find a used set that someone is actually willing to part with, it will cost you your first born.  Luckily, the US military still needs these and OK Weber is now has the contract to manufacture these.  The sighs themselves were currently out of stock and I wasn't in a hurry to build the complete deployment kit anyway, so I just ordered the sight bases.  

The barrel itself were drilled for the sights and it just felt naked without at least the sight bases.

Anyway, this is it for now.