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Base & Rings: Mix or Match Steel & Alum

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Category: Mounts & Accessories
Forum Name: Rings and bases
Forum Description: Any brand or type of ring or base
URL: http://www.opticstalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=42168
Printed Date: March/29/2024 at 07:30
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: Base & Rings: Mix or Match Steel & Alum
Posted By: Hollywood58
Subject: Base & Rings: Mix or Match Steel & Alum
Date Posted: October/05/2015 at 18:13

Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Eastern Shore
Posts: 31


Ok, so is there any real information out there that supports you should use steel base and steel rings or it is ok to use steel base with high quality aluminum rings? 

I'm not carrying this rifle over mountains, going to be a target shooting gun. But I do want the combo that works the best together.

Remi bolt .308 sps tactical, vortex viper 6.5-20x44, steel nightforce base
http://nightforceoptics.com/accessories/one-piece-steel-base - http://nightforceoptics.com/accessor...ece-steel-base . 

All of the better rings are between $100-$200, so price isn't really the driving force, just quality, purpose, and warranty.

Rings I was considering:

Steel:
-Badger
-TPS
-Ken Farrell

7075-T6 aluminum:
-Vortex 4 hole low rings (lifetime warranty)
-Seekins 7075-T6 Billet

TIA!



Replies:
Posted By: supertool73
Date Posted: October/05/2015 at 18:47
I have mixed and matched several tumes without issue. I have alum rings and steel base on my precision rifle right now with no issues so far.

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Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.

"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own."


Posted By: cheaptrick
Date Posted: October/06/2015 at 05:53
Me too. 

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If at first you don't secede...try..try again.


Posted By: bugsNbows
Date Posted: October/06/2015 at 07:58
Me three on the mixing. No issues to date ... as long as they are quality pieces.


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If we're not suppose to eat animals...how come they're made of meat?
               Anomymous


Posted By: USMC2111
Date Posted: October/17/2015 at 20:51
Just mounted a Mark 4 with steel Badger rings on a Sadlak alloy mount no issues


Posted By: cheaptrick
Date Posted: October/18/2015 at 05:59
I read somewhere Vortex rings are made by Seekins. I've had all you mentioned, sans Ken Farrell and I'd go with with Seekins now.  

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If at first you don't secede...try..try again.


Posted By: stork23raz
Date Posted: October/19/2015 at 07:33
The Vortex Precision rings are made by Seekins, so they are the same.
Vortex Precision/Seekins or Badgers are top picks in my book

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And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:28


Posted By: Gunshow75
Date Posted: October/29/2015 at 17:38

When a material is heated or cooled, its dimension (length or width) changes by an amount that is proportional its original dimension and the change in temperature.  Called Linear Thermal Expansion, it can be expressed mathematically by :

dw = W x a x (Tinit - Tfinal)

where dw is change in width, W is original width, a is the linear expansion coefficient in m/m deg C, and Tinit and Tfinal are the initial and final temperatures in deg C.  m is meters.  The linear expansion coefficients for steel and aluminum are 0.000012 and 0.000023, respectively.

Lets suppose that you put a set of steel bases and aluminum rings on a rifle and that they are 0.75 inches wide when you install them at a temperature of -25 deg F (-31.6 deg C). Lets further suppose that you shoot the rig at a temperature of 110 deg F (43.4 deg C). 

With a change of 135 deg F (75 deg C), the steel base will be 0.750675 inches wide and the aluminum rings will be 0.751294 inches wide, or a difference of 0.000619 inches.  Even assuming no elasticity in the ring clamp, I doubt that 6 ten thousandths of an inch would allow enough change to be seen. 



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Tom






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