Leupold Rifleman rings. Very dissappointed.

[Jakethefake]

So I finally got my SCSA Taipan last week. I had no intention of using the included cheapy scope (nikko stirling) and bought 3.5-10 Leupold to go on top. The rifle was supplied with rings but the dealer forgot to put them in the box, so they are in the mail. So I went to my very small lgs and bought a set of leupold rifleman rings (they were about the only ones he had for a 1" tube, weaver base, and high).
I fitted the scope and proceeded to have tremendous trouble getting it sighted in. I've never had so much grief sighting in a rifle. I couldn't get any where near being on a A4 sized target at 25m, and I bottomed out both the windage and elevation adjustment.
I removed the scope and rings and refit them, thinking that maybe one or both rings were a bit cocked on the rail. This did help somewhat. I was able to get it centered on the target without running out of windage, but at 100m it shoots about 14" low and I'm on the stops of the elevation adjustment.
So I decided to take a closer look at the rings. With them set right next to each other on the rail the difference is very obvious. One ring is about 10 thou higher than the other, and they are offset horizontally. You can't really tell from the picture, but the finish is slightly different on each of them as well. Its like they're from two different batches, or even two different manufacturing lines. Measuring with verniers from the understand of the ring to the bottom of the "valley" the difference is clear.
I will return them to the LGS when I can. Unfortunately I think the rings coming in the mail from the other dealer that supplied the rifle are also leupold rifleman rings. I hope the set I have now are a freak occurrence and the other set will be usable.
I've never had any issue with leupold stuff in the past, although I've never bought their cheapy rings, and I note that they are made in Singapore and not the USA. Anyway, I thought I post this just as a bit of rant and a warning. Maybe a set of Leupold rings for $50 isn't such a great deal after all. I didn't get to spend my weekend shooting groups with my new rifle like I planned.

[JohnV]

Does the gun have a Picatinny spec rail ? If so then weaver rings may not be fitting correctly and from your picture they look poorly made and out of line . So the scope tube was probably in a bind . One of the tests I always do whenever fitting a variable scope in new mounts is put a shot saver into the muzzle . Then view the grid through the scope . Ramp the power up and down slowly taking note of how well the cross hair stays in the one spot . If a scope is in a bind the cross hair center will wander about during those power changes . I have seen as much as two squares varying point of aim on my shot saver grid on a scope in a bad bind ( not my scope ) . That's a large amount on the actual target at 100 meters .

[bladeracer]

Is it a canted rail at all? The Ruger Precision Rimfire has a 30-minute rail so a lot of scopes will be impossible to zero on it at 100m or closer.

[straightshooter]

Those rings look to be made from an extrusion.
I suggest carefully examining what is on the underside of the rear ring causing it to be tilted up slightly.

[Wm.Traynor]

The last time that my rifle needed a mount, I got on this forum's Search function.

[deye243]

No surprises here when you buy cheap equipment expect very cheap performance ...... especially these days

[northdude]

Thats going to be miles off at 100. Whats the clamping area of the ring look like

[Jakethefake]

Does the gun have a Picatinny spec rail ? If so then weaver rings may not be fitting correctly and from your picture they look poorly made and out of line ..

It is a picatinny rail, but the rings are supposed to be compatible with both weaver and picatinny rails.

[Jakethefake]

Is it a canted rail at all? The Ruger Precision Rimfire has a 30-minute rail so a lot of scopes will be impossible to zero on it at 100m or closer.

No, the rail is not canted. Its only a 223 and not intended for long range precision so unlikely they'd put a canted rail on it.

[Jakethefake]

Those rings look to be made from an extrusion.
I suggest carefully examining what is on the underside of the rear ring causing it to be tilted up slightly.

There's nothing on the underside. The dimensions are different. As I said, I can measure a 10 thou difference between the two rings with verniers.

If they are made from extrusions that would make sense. They're maybe each cut from a different extrusion with differing dimensions.

[Jakethefake]

No surprises here when you buy cheap equipment expect very cheap performance ...... especially these days

If they were $20 ebay rings, sure. But they aren't, they're from Leupold, which has (had?) a reputation for quality. They were also one of two choices available to me and they were the more expensive choice.
These particular rings seem to have a reasonably good reputation online as well, from the brief bit of searching I've done. I haven't seen that anyone else has had that issue.

[Jakethefake]

The last time that my rifle needed a mount, I got on this forum's Search function.

I'll be sure to remember that helpful suggestion, next time I'm looking for mounts and not posting a warning about the quality of the ones I've got.

[deye243]

No surprises here when you buy cheap equipment expect very cheap performance ...... especially these days

If they were $20 ebay rings, sure. But they aren't, they're from Leupold, which has (had?) a reputation for quality. They were also one of two choices available to me and they were the more expensive choice.
These particular rings seem to have a reasonably good reputation online as well, from the brief bit of searching I've done. I haven't seen that anyone else has had that issue.

I am not trying to be nasty but $50 for a set of rings if there's one thing I have noticed over the last 10 years decent Rings start at 150 and go up from there especially now .
I come from a long-range background I don't even put cheap rings on a Rimfire.

[SCJ429]

Burris Signiture Zee rings are budget kind of, but are strong and kind to your optics. Chuck your cheepies away and get a set of them.

[JohnV]

Even if I buy a budget rifle and a budget scope I still buy the better quality scope mounts . The scope mount quality is very important .

[bigrich]

No surprises here when you buy cheap equipment expect very cheap performance ...... especially these days

yup, agree . leupold have cheapened their brand with the "rifle man" mounts and their recent budget scope line . older vx3 scopes are fantastic compared to newer offerings , and i still use their steel "classic " mounts with never a problem

[Jakethefake]

Ok, so a little update. The second set of rifleman rings turned up, and this time they're both the same dimensions. I've put them on the rifle and sighted it in and it works. So for now I can use the rifle, although I'll probably upgrade the rings anyway to something better, I'd like quick release rings anyway.

I've returned the first set rings to the local shop. I even took in my verniers along to show the difference between them. To his credit, the grumpy old bugger who owns the shop did take them back and refund my money, but he insisted that 10 thou difference in the rings wouldn't make the difference that it did, and there must have been another problem. I explained that since another set of rings made the problem go away the issue had to the rings, but he couldn't be told. He has 40 years of experience fitting scopes, which he told me about three times, so I guess there's nothing left for him to learn. He told me the rings were fine and he'll put them on another customers rifle. So some other sucker will get stuck with them. Hard to support local when you get treated like that. No doubt you could bugger around with shims and get them to work, but I'm not interested in spending any time doing that, and I'm certainly not interested in paying him to do it.

What I really hoped was they'd go back to the distributor, and then back to the manufacturer, so they know they sent out a faulty product. What incentive does a manufacturer have to improve if sellers and customers don't make any noise about crappy products?

[Jakethefake]

I am not trying to be nasty but $50 for a set of rings if there's one thing I have noticed over the last 10 years decent Rings start at 150 and go up from there especially now .
I come from a long-range background I don't even put cheap rings on a Rimfire.

Fair enough. Rest assured I won't be rushing out to buy another set of these rings anyway.