$30 vs $150 scope rings for Airgunners

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Pistonjohn

Pistonjohn

Member
Mar 1, 2021
231
18
Tx, United States
This question has been haunting me for a while. Is there a real difference between cheap rings (like $20 rings on Amazon) and expensive rings (such as Vortex Optics Precision Matched at a whooping $150) for air guns?

For all my life I have been using 20-50 bucks rings from 1 in to 34mm, and they served me well. Some of them are harder to put on than others but eventually they all work. I never have to return or replace any of them. I don't bring my airguns to battlefield and hardly field hunt, so my life doesn't depend on it; most of time my scope and its rings safely sit on a table on my gun.

So is there a real benefit of having a really expensive set of rings for your scope? Or has a cheap set of rings ever failed or hindered you from what you want to do?
 
Cost of rings aren’t that different. Back in the days when manufacturing of rings wasnt as mature the expensive rings were a necessity. BUT now and days even cheap rings can be just as good! Also thanks to amazon I have no problem trying cheap rings because return is so easy. Recently bought a few sets of REALLY CHEAP rings, as in 8 dollars shipped cheap! But holy cow they are some of the nicest rings I’ve tried under 100 bucks if not 150 bucks. Unbelievable! Just to show you how much markups are in these things. 
 
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Cost of rings aren’t that different. Back in the days when manufacturing of rings wasnt as mature the expensive rings were a necessity. BUT now and days even cheap rings can be just as good! Also thanks to amazon I have no problem trying cheap rings because return is so easy. Recently bought a few sets of REALLY CHEAP rings, as in 8 dollars shipped cheap! But holy cow they are some of the nicest rings I’ve tried under 100 bucks if not 150 bucks. Unbelievable! Just to show you how much markups are in these things.
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@qball Care to share any links?
 
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I think the mid priced rings are fine but shy away from the really cheap ones. You just get better machining with higher priced rings and less chance of the rings being out of alignment causing the scope to torque under tightening. Guess you could always lap the cheap rings so you know they are straight on your setup.
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I understand the perspective of machining precision. However, the scopes have come such a long way, not only optically, but also in build quality. Even the more affordable rings caused a bit shear force on the scope body due to tolerance, is it that unbearable for the scope? Anybody got experience in that regard?
 
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Regardless of price if you are 2 separate rings, lapping is the only way to know if it ("perfectly"), closely aligned. If it is a one piece ring set the better quality ones are probably close enough out of the box. For my airguns I use inexpensive rings on moderately prices scopes and don't torque the screws too tight. If it f***up the scope I don't lose too much. Now if I the scope was a March, SB, ATACR, or other expensive scopes I would have 2nd thoughts about cheap rings.
 
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Cost of rings aren’t that different. Back in the days when manufacturing of rings wasnt as mature the expensive rings were a necessity. BUT now and days even cheap rings can be just as good! Also thanks to amazon I have no problem trying cheap rings because return is so easy. Recently bought a few sets of REALLY CHEAP rings, as in 8 dollars shipped cheap! But holy cow they are some of the nicest rings I’ve tried under 100 bucks if not 150 bucks. Unbelievable! Just to show you how much markups are in these things.
Click to expand...

@qball Care to share any links?
Click to expand...

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/fantastic-offset-rings-for-unbelievably-good-price/?referrer=1
 
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I’ve found a really good value set of rings recently. WestHunter Optics on Amazon. They are about 30 bucks a set. These are pretty dang good rings. I was surprised at the quality and have bought several more sets since the first one.
8D7B3BC7-7A07-4F29-8284-648513AC8183.1637936294.jpeg

 
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From what I have experienced, over the decades, a few of the $20-$30 rings are made well enough to be quite usable. I have used several UTG and a couple West Hunter and Monstrum branded units and they seem to be fine. Although the UTG and West Hunter seem to be a bit better quality than the Monstrum. But very few of the less than $20-$30 rings are even worth trying. Whereas pretty much all of $100 plus units are well made and accurately machined. The better portion of the rings, but not all, that fall in between the $30-$100+ are most often pretty decent quality also.

I have not had as good of luck with the no name/unbranded Chinese made stuff and they are often lacking in design, material and workmanship. Millet moved their manufacturing to Mexico and my first set of rings from there were crap so I don't buy the brand any longer. My Leupold and EagleVision units have been great as have all of the rings below.


 
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Many years ago I was in contention to win a state FT match but because I used some crappy rings I had a major POI shift somehow during the match. I blame that on the rings because the gun is rock solid and so was the scope. Now these were something like $15 rings back then and at the time I thought I could get away using them, nope.

I replaced those rings with NF rings and didn't have a POI shift since then using that same rifle and went on to win some state matches. I even used a couple different scopes in those rings.

Nowadays I think most rings are solid enough but recently I bought a $60 20 moa base and ring mount that is a turd, so much so that I couldn't sight in a rifle by using up all the left windage in the scope.

I wish I had spent the extra $60 instead and got the other one piece mount! I think I've learned my lesson???


 
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Cost of rings aren’t that different. Back in the days when manufacturing of rings wasnt as mature the expensive rings were a necessity. BUT now and days even cheap rings can be just as good! Also thanks to amazon I have no problem trying cheap rings because return is so easy. Recently bought a few sets of REALLY CHEAP rings, as in 8 dollars shipped cheap! But holy cow they are some of the nicest rings I’ve tried under 100 bucks if not 150 bucks. Unbelievable! Just to show you how much markups are in these things.
Click to expand...


qball, I bought a set of those and was totally surprised as to how nice they are. Should have bought 2 sets


 
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I have to disagree with west hunter while mine looked nice they were made so poorly I could not even hit paper left to right with 2 different good scopes both over $1500 price point , I liked the looks how the cant angles have like a splines so it locks unlike say no limit rings which lock by the interference angles , I guess for me I have to stick with ones which never failed me



1 spurh

2, nightforce lite series

3, warne mountian rings lightweight

4 Larue all QD mounts rock ,

5 Barrett

6,stiener

these I would trust in hunting , competition and even if Zombies attacking , My Barret series never failed even with 50bmg ,

I have had some issues with hi recoil with some good sets of rings and I have had failures with some with metal seizures I wont mention brands But stick what is best and stable LOU
 
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With my Weihrauch HW80, I had the scope move in Leapers Medium rings that were correctly torqued. The double sided tape did not do anything useful. Then I used some no-name (Mizugiwa on Amazon) rings and found that the screws stripped when i tried to remove them. Finally tried Sportsmatch rings and they have worked as expected.
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Do not buy anything with double-sided tape! They are there to compensate for poor tolerance, many cheap rings that don't have tape have proper tolerance and work great! The tape is dead give away that these are sh!t rings! 

Warne is made in china and same EXACT thing cost half as much on amazon, same goes to just about all the lower end main brand rings. Nightforce rings are little better, at least their higher end rings have the tolerance validated but at very high cost. It's not expensive to buy a 30mm aluminum tube or the scope ring alignment tool to really check for yourself. 


 
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I used the eBay $6 rings for years. When I bought my first Impact, moved up to high end rings for the adjustability. The only cheap adjustable rings available at the time were the NC STAR rings, and they lacked the ability to pivot. That means if you need the front ring lower than the rear ring, the rings are out of alignment. The FX and Eagle Vision rings allow for the pivot to keep the rings aligned. Is that important? not sure.

The West Hunter rings do allow for height adjustment, but the way the teeth are ground on the elevation seems to mean it can't pivot for alignment. So, if you need the scope elevated in the rear (shimmed if you will) the rings will apply pressure unevenly to the scope. Old timers can get pretty picky about the alignment of the rings stating that uneven pressure will increase the chance of crushing the scope. I get the idea, but have used shimmed rings and never had a problem with a crushed scope.

I may have to buy a set of the West Hunter rings and try them out. I've seen stuff like this before but never tried them. Looks interesting.


 
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A lot of the things we airgunners use is way overkill. Do we need a $200 one piece scope mount and $2,000 scope to shoot 10-100 yards, on a gun with almost no recoil? Absolutely not. In the engineering world it is called "fitness for purpose". It only has to be good enough for its purpose. The West Hunters certainly look interesting. I'm going to put a set in my cart right now.
 
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A lot of the things we airgunners use is way overkill. Do we need a $200 one piece scope mount and $2,000 scope to shoot 10-100 yards, on a gun with almost no recoil? Absolutely not. In the engineering world it is called "fitness for purpose". It only has to be good enough for its purpose. The West Hunters certainly look interesting. I'm going to put a set in my cart right now.
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West hunter is best of the best, all of our friends own M2 and M3 all have them, From Nightforce to Element Nexus.
 
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I guess I'm something of a quality ring/mount believer... I learned the hard way long ago that a great scope in cheap rings on a high end gun gives crappy results. After learning that lesson I've since invested in quality mounts and rings. Leupold Mark 4 Tactical Steel rings, ADM (American Defense Manufacturing) 1 piece mounts are pretty much all I use. I do have a few Burris Z rings which are serviceable for my non serious guns. My Leshiy 2 has a ADM mount on it holding my Vortex scope. Hold's zero even when the scope is removed and put back on it. I can't justify using crap ring/mounts on a airgun that cost over 2k. YMMV
 
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