Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Rifle scopes, iron sights and optics. Spotting scopes and target acquisition devices.

Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by MG5150 » 16 Sep 2025, 10:32 pm

Hi All

I own a Browning X Bolt with a Leupold scope. Can anyone help me identify what sort of mounts/rings are used for the scope?

Are these individual Picatinny blocks or would allow a thermal scope with picatinny grip to attatch?

All help greatly apprecaited.

***Edit - After doing some googling I think i am inquiring about what the mount piece is rather than the rings that grab the scoope
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by SomeoneElse » 16 Sep 2025, 11:10 pm

They look like two pieces of Picatinny base to me, though they might be Weaver bases. Compatibility with a thermal scope would be “it depends”. If the thermal scope is a tube style then a set of pic rings could be positioned wherever they need to be along the tube length to ensure the rings seat into your two-part base locations. If instead your thermal has integral pic clamping then the two-part base might not necessarily have the horizontal slots in the right/useful positions where the thermal clamp is expecting.

I have a single piece pic base on my X-bolt which straddles the chamber. That provides maybe 13 horizontal slots which gives some variety in slot spacing options for different scope types. My day scope uses rings like yours, occupying the front-most and rear-most horizontal slots. When I change over to my Holosun 510C sight it’s integral clamp seems to prefer the cross-pin to sit in the second-from-front slot. Putting the Holosun cross-pin in the front most slot leaves 1/3 of the reflex sight (and its clamping mechanism) hanging over the front of my pic base.

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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by bladeracer » 16 Sep 2025, 11:52 pm

MG5150 wrote:Hi All

I own a Browning X Bolt with a Leupold scope. Can anyone help me identify what sort of mounts/rings are used for the scope?

Are these individual Picatinny blocks or would allow a thermal scope with picatinny grip to attatch?

All help greatly apprecaited.

***Edit - After doing some googling I think i am inquiring about what the mount piece is rather than the rings that grab the scope


Look like Weaver bases to me. I would think it unlikely a one-piece mount would happen to fit into the grooves of them. Does your thermal have separate pic mounts or is it all one-piece?

You could remove the bases and use a single length of pic rail with the side cut out for the ejection port and drilled to match the existing holes. Or you could use a round file to cut out one of the slots until it does properly match your mount.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by womble » 17 Sep 2025, 3:46 am

Agreed. Likely weaver. You need the picatinny rail SomeoneElse mentions. Ideally the browning one for that rifle. Which will probably cost a ridiculous amount of money.

How much do you want for it SomeoneElse ?

Use SomeElse’s quote for the better price you found elsewhere https://huntthenight.com.au/products/talley-browning-x-bolt-picatinny-rail?srsltid=AfmBOopNcHLcMnIb5GWdG0wy-UHqu__6OA3jyDrevkBMaxROL3LQdfYa


Edit that’s a different manufacturer. Make sure it fits your model.

More Edit. Quite a few available according to googly . Different brands. And are they actually available as in stock. Or not really.

And your next question. 0 moa rail. 20 moa rail . :unknown: Which one do you want and why.

Bladeracer can take that one. He uses a 1000 moa rail to fire a 22 rimfire over 100 kms when the wind is right.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by womble » 17 Sep 2025, 4:02 am

You want the 0 moa rail for hunting.

Better to mention that now I think,.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by Wapiti » 17 Sep 2025, 9:24 am

MG5150, as has been suggested by a learned poster prior here, you will more-than-likely need to replace those two-piece bases with a one-piece "1913" Picatinny rail.

That's because picatinny rails have dimensionally consistent, military-standard centres for each slot. So it means that any base, from any maker, will fit on that rail. On some of the more professional rails you will actually see that they are numbered - so that you can remove and replace your optics etc to the same place each time with just a glance.

You never know what length of slot your particular thermal device will use, but be assured it will fit on a one-piece picatinny rail.

With two-piece bases, whether they are "Weaver" or Pic-rail, you cannot be assured of the centres of the slots in the individual bases ever lining up, or even, being the correct distance apart to fit your thermal.
This is because all rifle actions from different makers are all different lengths without consistency, like a mad woman p!ssing. Forcing the rail manufacturer to make the rail (where all the slots are to a dimensional standard) to just have the attachment screw holes drilled to suit that particular action makers' perversions solves that problem.

And, as has been said, look for a "0 MOA" rail, not a 20 or 30 rail.
Reason for this is, despite the rhetoric that some thermal brands tell you, there may NOT be enough adjustment in the electronics to zero your device at the shorter ranges that this kind of hunting is done at. Even if there is, it's pointless, because even the best thermal scopes are absolutely hopeless at longer ranges where you might ever need an angled rail.
It's all marketing bullsh*t aimed at gullible people who need specs better than the next guy to exist on social media. Ability and reality doesn't get a say in it. 2000m detection range, yay!

Add to this that, at the extremes of a scope's internal adjustments, reliability of zero becomes sketchy. Springs on one side of the internal erector are heavily compressed, whist opposing side springs are loose. Your choice of scope here is a very good one, so this shouldn't be an issue. But with Asian scopes where springs are made from old bicycles, it certainly is.

And despite all the other rubbish out there, a one-piece aluminium rail bridging the action doesn't make it any stiffer or more secure or hold zero any better. Aluminium is a comparatively soft, easily distorted material, and is used primarily because it is cheap and fast to machine.
Modern firearms lock up at the front of the receiver, and a rail doesn't make this any stronger.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by niteowl » 17 Sep 2025, 11:52 am

NO ! So called picatinny rails vary hugely from make to make. I / we have seen this many times fitting thermals on some supplied rails.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by Wapiti » 17 Sep 2025, 2:44 pm

Incorrect, if you are referring to ANY of the info I've bothered to spend time posting up.
Pic rails are supposed to have consistent, industry-standard slot spacings.
If they didn't, the concept would be worthless, and it isn't, because of those dimensional standards.
Please show us some of the "hugely" (your description) variations you speak of, particularly the tolerance variations and the brands so we can avoid these bodgy ones.

Edit: Perhaps some pics with a good steel ruler or calipers showing the inconsistencies.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by MG5150 » 17 Sep 2025, 4:01 pm

Thanks for the feedback here everyone.

I've just made an inquiry with HTN about the right size ( I think long action)

Just for my own knowledge, whats the difference between 0 MOA, 20MOA and 30MOA with the picrails?
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by Wapiti » 17 Sep 2025, 5:14 pm

I hope this is going to make sense.
It's the amount of "cant" that the mount rail has, machined into the rail itself.
Think of a wedge.
The rail slopes down, so that 100yds, and when your scopes internal adjustment is centred inside the tube, you have that extra nominal drop to allow for longer distance drop of the bullet.
Think of a "zero" rail being parallel to the bore.
So then, a 20 MOA rail is sloped down so that the scope, when zeroed at 100, is 20MOA down towards the "down" end of your adjustment range, so that you have an extra 20MOA adjustment to allow for long range shooting i.e bullet drop from the normal zero. Or that's the idea anyway.
You don't get any more adjustment from your scope, your scope is just angled so that instead of dead zero being somewhere hopefully close to the centre of the adjustments inside the tube normally with a "0" MOA rail, it's 20MOA on the "down" side instead when at zero at 100. Giving you 20MOA more adjustment towards the "up" for getting zero at the long ranges where you'd normally run out of adjustment.
And so with 30 MOA.
Be careful, a number of 25mm tube hunting scopes cannot handle getting zero at 100 on a 30MOA rail because they don't have the adjustment inside to allow for the stupid ski-ramp rail slope.
But you wouldn't do that anyway, because it's a hunting scope.
20 MOA is now becoming the standard, usually for people who will never need one.
30mm, 34mm and even 35mm tubes are bigger in diameter to fit in more bullet adjustment drop. They don't give more field of view, are not any brighter that a 25mm tube. Only heavier because of the much larger diameter of glass the lenses are to fit in the tubes the bigger they get.
The big tubes are for more internal adjustment only, nothing else.
Bigger heavier scopes are not for carry rifles, in fact not even needed for spotlighting rifles. But modern evolution of opinion says that you can't do without one.
Think of some of the best, brightest, most used night scopes by pro shooters, the 8x56 Kahles with a 25mm tube. Or the other incredibly bright 25mm tube European scope makers.
"Marketing in action" nowadays means everyone needs at least a 30mm tube.
If I'm not mistaken, some scope makers now are making a 40mm tube scope, because you never knew you needed it until someone told you that you did.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by niteowl » 17 Sep 2025, 7:17 pm

Wapiti wrote:Incorrect, if you are referring to ANY of the info I've bothered to spend time posting up.
Pic rails are supposed to have consistent, industry-standard slot spacings.
If they didn't, the concept would be worthless, and it isn't, because of those dimensional standards.
Please show us some of the "hugely" (your description) variations you speak of, particularly the tolerance variations and the brands so we can avoid these bodgy ones.

Edit: Perhaps some pics with a good steel ruler or calipers showing the inconsistencies.


Definitely not incorrect !! We are in the business and see this problem often. You are correct in saying they are (should be) manufactured to a spec. BUT not all manufacturers do this precisely.
Not going to mention brands here for good reason, but among being in the "night vision" industry for some 13/14 years and being a qualified gunsmith since 1968. I believe I might just be able to comment on this.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by MG5150 » 17 Sep 2025, 7:28 pm

Wapiti wrote:I hope this is going to make sense.
It's the amount of "cant" that the mount rail has, machined into the rail itself.
Think of a wedge.
The rail slopes down, so that 100yds, and when your scopes internal adjustment is centred inside the tube, you have that extra nominal drop to allow for longer distance drop of the bullet.
Think of a "zero" rail being parallel to the bore.
So then, a 20 MOA rail is sloped down so that the scope, when zeroed at 100, is 20MOA down towards the "down" end of your adjustment range, so that you have an extra 20MOA adjustment to allow for long range shooting i.e bullet drop from the normal zero. Or that's the idea anyway.
You don't get any more adjustment from your scope, your scope is just angled so that instead of dead zero being somewhere hopefully close to the centre of the adjustments inside the tube normally with a "0" MOA rail, it's 20MOA on the "down" side instead when at zero at 100. Giving you 20MOA more adjustment towards the "up" for getting zero at the long ranges where you'd normally run out of adjustment.
And so with 30 MOA.
Be careful, a number of 25mm tube hunting scopes cannot handle getting zero at 100 on a 30MOA rail because they don't have the adjustment inside to allow for the stupid ski-ramp rail slope.
But you wouldn't do that anyway, because it's a hunting scope.
20 MOA is now becoming the standard, usually for people who will never need one.
30mm, 34mm and even 35mm tubes are bigger in diameter to fit in more bullet adjustment drop. They don't give more field of view, are not any brighter that a 25mm tube. Only heavier because of the much larger diameter of glass the lenses are to fit in the tubes the bigger they get.
The big tubes are for more internal adjustment only, nothing else.
Bigger heavier scopes are not for carry rifles, in fact not even needed for spotlighting rifles. But modern evolution of opinion says that you can't do without one.
Think of some of the best, brightest, most used night scopes by pro shooters, the 8x56 Kahles with a 25mm tube. Or the other incredibly bright 25mm tube European scope makers.
"Marketing in action" nowadays means everyone needs at least a 30mm tube.
If I'm not mistaken, some scope makers now are making a 40mm tube scope, because you never knew you needed it until someone told you that you did.


thanks for a detailed reply.

most of my stalking shots are under 100m and i dont expect the night hunting to be any longer so I'll look into a 0 MOA one
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by MG5150 » 17 Sep 2025, 8:35 pm

niteowl wrote:
Wapiti wrote:Incorrect, if you are referring to ANY of the info I've bothered to spend time posting up.
Pic rails are supposed to have consistent, industry-standard slot spacings.
If they didn't, the concept would be worthless, and it isn't, because of those dimensional standards.
Please show us some of the "hugely" (your description) variations you speak of, particularly the tolerance variations and the brands so we can avoid these bodgy ones.

Edit: Perhaps some pics with a good steel ruler or calipers showing the inconsistencies.


Definitely not incorrect !! We are in the business and see this problem often. You are correct in saying they are (should be) manufactured to a spec. BUT not all manufacturers do this precisely.
Not going to mention brands here for good reason, but among being in the "night vision" industry for some 13/14 years and being a qualified gunsmith since 1968. I believe I might just be able to comment on this.


can you recommend a good brand without s**ting on the terrible ones?
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by womble » 18 Sep 2025, 3:38 am

How many brands do you have to choose from locally.

Reputed brands should have a spiel on their websites about compliance with the standard.

Like this. Talley https://www.talleymanufacturing.com/product-category/picatinny-rails/

I have a bucket of assorted rails and I have no idea what specs they are. Sure mostly look weaver or picatinny. But at a glance there are some that don’t look like either. If the width is right and the mounts go where I want them then whatever.

I think you will find many reputable brands using alloys now and I don’t think it’s an issue. Whatever you can do to shave weight on a hunting rifle do it. All adds up.

I think you should go with a rail you know will fit your particular rifle. Holes drilled in the right places. Right screws that are the right length and seat properly. And probably buy rings from the same manufacturer when you need them.

And compare prices because the one I linked I think is a bit steep. Just local.

Niteowl doing this for a living no doubt she’s seen some weird s**t. I mean, she’s an owl. Pretty decent eyesight.
Or maybe she’s on drugs :unknown:

I should probably change my nick to nightbat. My eyes are s**t. Probably why I can’t shoot for s**t.

But anyway. I wouldn’t anticipate any problems mounting your scope with any well known brands. She’ll be right.

Now I’m getting ads for Amish s**t in german. This is driving me nuts. Piss off with your Amish s**t. I’m not buying your s**t.
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Re: Help Identifying Scope Mounts

Post by MG5150 » 18 Sep 2025, 9:33 am

womble wrote:
Like this. Talley https://www.talleymanufacturing.com/product-category/picatinny-rails/

I have a bucket of assorted rails and I have no idea what specs they are. Sure mostly look weaver or picatinny. But at a glance there are some that don’t look like either. If the width is right and the mounts go where I want them then whatever.

I think you will find many reputable brands using alloys now and I don’t think it’s an issue. Whatever you can do to shave weight on a hunting rifle do it. All adds up.

I think you should go with a rail you know will fit your particular rifle. Holes drilled in the right places. Right screws that are the right length and seat properly. And probably buy rings from the same manufacturer when you need them.

And compare prices because the one I linked I think is a bit steep. Just local..


Oh would you look at that, they even have it painted with the matching cerakote! I'll see if my local can order in. I've definitly seen them stock Tally.

The other option is just buying a dedicated thermal deer rifle

$150-$200 for the picatinny rail or $1050 for a new Ruger II in .308 Tough choice!
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