I was gifted a Simmons Model 800068 Whitetail Classic scope. It has a 1 in. tube.

I've already got a good scope for my .308 tack-driver, so I was thinking of purchasing an affordable QD mount so I could swap it in on my AR. I can't do much with the RDS on my AR beyond about 50 yards. This would allow me to check it out at much longer distances.

Burris makes QD mount that looks like it'll work that only goes for about $100. It gets good reviews.

Any other suggestions?

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Burris makes QD mount that looks like it'll work that only goes for about $100.

Burris works, and you can find it for less than $100 at Primary Arms.

Other options include Warne and Vortex.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Burris makes QD mount that looks like it'll work that only goes for about $100.

Burris works, and you can find it for less than $100 at Primary Arms.

Other options include Warne and Vortex.

Thanks, fritz!

Of the three: Do you have a preference?

I tried a Burris mount with demo gun/mount/scope at a team match a couple years ago. The mount seemed plenty good. I heard of no issues with the Burris mount/scope over the weekend, and I know many people handled it, and a fair number shot it.

I won a Warne mount in a competition. It is well built. I only have a few hundred rounds on the rifle/mount/scope combo at this time, but all is well.

A couple of guys on multi-rifle match squads used Vortex mounts on their 3-gun ARs. The mounts seemed pretty good to me. The 3-gun guys tend to be pretty rough on their equipment, therefore a positive vote from them is a good sign.

Bottom line -- I think the Warne mounts are the best built of these three, but any of them will certainly work for you. If price is a primary consideration, Burris should be the lowest cost.

Thanks again, fritz.

The Vortex QD mounts are anything but economical, so those are out. Warne may be possible, if I can just find somebody that sells them (their dealer finder is broken) and get the ring-to-ring dimensions so I can determine if they'll fit. PA also coughed-up ADM for a possibility, but there's zero information about the product on PA's site, and ADM's web site continues to be worthless.

May end up being Burris by default, just because they appear to be the only ones that know how to actually sell a product

PA also came up with a Bobro Engineering mount that looks pretty good. $170, though. I like that it has a single lever, and the distance between the rings is a bit more generous than the Burris.

You might consider not going with QD mounts. This generally reduces the cost of the mount.

My first scope mounts for AR15s were all QD. Then I realized that I don't move mounts all that much. Furthermore, I found that the pic rails between rifles aren't always the exact same size, thus requiring slight adjustments to the QD mechanism to have consistent clamping pressure.

I now buy mounts with a bolts which are torqued to a specific load. I have a relatively inexpensive torque wrench (maybe a Warne?) to ensure the bolts are properly torqued when moved.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
You might consider not going with QD mounts. This generally reduces the cost of the mount.

Yeah, but I usually have an RDS mounted on the rifle. The idea is to be able to quickly and conveniently pull the RDS and slap the scope on for >50 yards.

$170 does not give me heartburn. The scope gets very good reviews on Midway, so I'm thinking it might deserve a bit more coin to give it a better mount.

TBH: I'm mainly doing this just so I can see what my AR can really do out to 100 yards--or perhaps better. It's a light-weight AR with only a 16 in. bbl., incl. flash hider, but it's a premium barrel. So I'm interested in seeing what it can do.

A web search suggested Bobro makes (some of?) Votrex' QD (?) mounts.

I have a higher-end Bobro 30mm QD mount on one of my rifles and it's been great. I also have the Burris 1" PEPR on an AR carbine so I can switch between a RDS and a scope, and it works pretty well. I had a bit of difficulty getting one of the PEPR levers adjusted right, but that may have been due to tolerance stacking. It's fine now.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
I have a higher-end Bobro 30mm QD mount on one of my rifles and it's been great. I also have the Burris 1" PEPR on an AR carbine so I can switch between a RDS and a scope, and it works pretty well.

"Been great" vs. "works pretty well." Hmmm... Do you feel the Bobro is worth about double the cost of the Burris?

Update: I went ahead and ordered the Bobro. Buy once, cry once, right?

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
I have a higher-end Bobro 30mm QD mount on one of my rifles and it's been great. I also have the Burris 1" PEPR on an AR carbine so I can switch between a RDS and a scope, and it works pretty well.

"Been great" vs. "works pretty well." Hmmm... Do you feel the Bobro is worth about double the cost of the Burris?

The issue I had with the PEPR was that one of the two levers either didn't want to lock in place no matter how much pressure I put on it, or felt a bit sloppy after "locking", depending on how far I had the adjustment screw in. It took considerable experimentation to find the right adjustment. It probably didn't help that the PEPR was my first ever QD scope mount, so I was just learning the basics at the time. That said, once I finally got the thing properly adjusted for my rifle, it goes on and comes off solidly and reliably and does a good job of returning to zero. The Bobro was easier to get adjusted, but like I said that may have been because I understood the mechanics of it by the time I got the Bobro. The Bobro, FWIW, does a REALLY good job of returning to zero.

ETA: The rifle the Bobro is on is intended to be a match rifle (F/TR) among other things, so yeah I felt it was worth the added cost. Just as a note, I do not swap sights on that rifle, it always wears the glass, never a RDS or iron sights. The real reason I went with a QD mount for it was just for storage: a rifle with a scope mounted on it takes up twice as much space in the safe as the same rifle without the scope.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Update: I went ahead and ordered the Bobro. Buy once, cry once, right?

True, however I wouldn't use a Bobro to hold a Simmons scope. The Bobro is probably worth more than the Simmons.

Should you wish to upgrade optics down the road, you will be hard pressed to find a quality scope which uses a 1" tube. Thus the Bobro may likely stay forever with the Simmons.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
True, however I wouldn't use a Bobro to hold a Simmons scope. The Bobro is probably worth more than the Simmons.

At MSRP they're about the same.

Simmons Whitetail Classic Rifle Scope 6.5-20x 50mm Adjustable Objective Mil-Dot Reticle Matte (Except mine doesn't have the Mil-Dot reticle)

MSRP for the mount Bobro Standard Precision Optic Mount

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
Should you wish to upgrade optics down the road, you will be hard pressed to find a quality scope which uses a 1" tube. Thus the Bobro may likely stay forever with the Simmons.

Yeah, I pretty much figured that.

I doubt I'll ever upgrade the optics for this rifle. In fact: The Simmons scope will probably rarely ever be on this rifle. I did this mainly because I was gifted the scope and I went with the better mount because I liked it better.

I would never have paid more than what I did for the mount for that scope, though. Mainly I did not care for the dual levers on the Burris. Even then I debated with myself for a full day before pulling the trigger.

Thanks for the comments, fritz, Expert308. Appreciate the help!