Weatherby rifles are not shipped with ready to use sighting systems, but are prepared for use with a scope. The receivers are predrilled for front and rear mounts, but because of the running changes made to Mark V actions and variety of actions used in Weatherby products, care must be taken in selecting the proper mount part numbers.
Because the Ultra Lightweight I’m working with has a serial number prefix of “SB”, it takes Leupold matte dual dovetail mounts PN S1706. The rear mount is reversible and care must be taken to place both front and rear mounts for proper scope spacing and clearance, while insuring proper operation of the rifle. I know, sounds very basic, but it really is important to exercise care. I doubt very much anyone will end up in the field with a bolt that can’t rotate, but it’s pretty easy to damage the finish and edges on parts in the process of discovering the existence of such a problem.
The rear mount will clear flipped in either direction; dovetail slot positioned forward or rear. However, with the dovetail slot positioned to the rear, the bolt handle won’t rotate.
Improper installation of a base can cause improper placement of the rings on the scope tube, and a subsequent inability to position the scope for proper eye relief. Probably more common of a problem, and not always so obvious to detect, are the mounts overhanging the bolt and restricting the cartridge loading ejection. Easiest thing to do is put parts on finger tight, look them over carefully, and never force fit anything. If you’re working on this at home, this is not a good place to try live ammo for fit and function. Always nice to have some oddly colored dummy ammo around for this purpose.
One of the reasons I buy Leupold mounts is that the hardware included had been well thought out and covers even odd circumstances, a knack suppliers develop through experience. Screw hold in receivers are frequently “through” holes, so screws that are too long will pass through the hole and into anything (bolt) located beneath them. Leupold packs three sets of screws to cover both front and rear mounts. The longest set is too long and will interfere with the bolt.
Leupold uses Torx fasteners. They are very strong and do not require the use of Loctite when properly installed. Mount instructions always begin with, “clean all rifle/mount contact surfaces and remove any traces of oil…”, and this remains the case with Torx fasteners, except the threads require a very small amount of clean oil when being assembled. This coating will insure they tighten properly and won’t back out in use. Using the small Torx driver that is packaged with the mounts will insure the little suckers are really cranked down, but not with so much force the threads are damaged.
Properly installed, the mounts should look about like this. Dual dovetail mounts are very sturdy and offer the best when it comes to setting ring alignment.
One of these days I suppose I’ll have to try quick detachable mounts, although I doubt I’d ever have enough confidence in any mount system to actually swap optics without assuming the scope adjustments are all off and going through the sighting in check out process. Of course I’m sure there is some circumstance where a rabid jackrabbit will charge and it’s head will appear so large I’ll have to pull off the scope to get a clean shot, and…. Well, I guess we’ll have to cross that nightmare bridge when we get to it.
What you see at work here is an inexpensive Leupold ring wrench, key here is “inexpensive”. When I bought mine I thought it was a throw away, but with any level of shooting activity, these things get used all of the time. It’s only fiber filled plastic, but then the price is only around $10. They are soft and prevent finish damage. They fit rings tightly and contain the whole lower half of a 1″ tube ring, so the rings don’t get tweaked from being twisted around without being properly supported. They work a lot better as a wrench than the tube on a $500 scope.
I do not use ring alignment tools, those $50 dowel sets with points, to get my rings squared. There are so many vertical and horizontal visual references, it’s pretty easy to tell if you’ve over or under rotated a ring in the mount. When I think I’ve got both rings installed squarely, I lay the scope in place and look for any signs of binding at either ring. Then I check the gap between the scope tube and the ring to see if it’s uniform from front to rear, or if the gap indicates the ring is towed in or out. This is an important step because it is possible to damage the scope, or to force the scope out of alignment with the bore to the point there will be very little scope adjustment when it comes time to sight in.
A little tough to see in this picture, but the ring position came out just about perfect. There is a lot of room between the rings and the front and rear tube tapers, as well as from the adjustment tower. This permits the scope to be jogged forward and back for optimal eye position.
The rings also use Torx fasteners and require a slight blop of oil only on the thread surface. I install all four to finger pressure, then work them down, alternating positions, until the rings are secure and have an equal gap that reflects uniform pressure. I use either the tool packaged with the mounts or a Leupold Torx driver. Neither will snap a Torx head off, but both will apply ample pressure.
The extra high mounts insure The large ocular and objective bell clear the barrel and bolt handle. Actually, there is more gap there than I would normally shoot for. My optimal fit is 1/8″ – 3/8″ at the bell. I like to keep the height above bore centerline as low as possible. The weight of the scope really helped the gun’s CG and makes it very steady to hold. The long barreled Ultra Lightweight is really muzzle heavy without a decent size scope in place.
At $40 or so a box, even the little .257 Weatherby isn’t something to use for plinking with factory ammo. Beside, who wants to spent the better part of a day changing scope adjustments all over the range ? Over the years I’ve picked up a few boresighters, but my favorite is an ancient Bushnell TruScope® pocket size boresighter.
Most expensive bore sighters have hard chrome spuds that are inserted in the rifles bore and attached to the sighter. Frequently, the optical portion of the boresighter is steel mounted. As a result, the assembly tends to rotate off center if you move t he barrel very much, and there is all that hard chrome working against the inside of the gun barrel. In short, most were designed with appearance rather than application in mind. The little TruScope® assembly is lightweight plastic, uses a plastic shrouded spud to protect the bore, and is exceptionally accurate in aligning scope to bore. Mine fits .243 to .308 caliber bores and, apparently, never wears out.
I’ve seen ads for bore centering laser devices and all sorts of elaborate optical systems, all beyond any practical application. First of all, basically no gun shoots to mechanical bore center, so no system will do much more than get you close. The easiest way to get a scope to a ball park setting is to place the rifle on a solid rest and pull the bolt. Look through the open bore and move the gun around until it is on target then, without moving the gun, adjust the scope so the cross hairs are on the same spot as the center of the bore. If you can get that far, you’ve basically duplicated the capability of a boresighter and you shouldn’t be putting little holes in the .45-70 shooter’s target next to you.
The Weatherby setting was a drop in. The boresighter took 2 clicks up and 2 clicks to the left to center the scope. It is very important that the boresighter and scope cross hairs remain parallel to one another. If the boresighter or scope is rotated to an imaginary vertical and horizontal line drawn through the bore, the adjustments will be excessive and the scope will be moving in an arc rather than true up or down, or side to side. No, I don’t think this requires a level mounted to a scope, or a ping pong ball suspended from a hat brim on a string. Your brain and eyes will sort it all out as long as you’re paying attention.
These are the only two drawbacks to the Leupold/Burris system. The Torx driver is great, but not if you don’t have one with you. Because of the star head fastener shape, you can’t substitute a standard screw driver, or even a knife in a pinch. Torx fasteners are also a little harder to come by. Not sure what the likelihood of having a mount shoot loose while several thousand miles from home and Leupold.
The Posi-lock driver isn’t that big of a deal. In a pinch a common driver can be used, But it’s another assembly to play with and maybe a shooting distraction.
Brownells Competition Plus™ Rifle Sling
When my Dad (a Marine WWII vet) introduced me to firearms, he took great pains to explain how a sling was used to aid in stabilizing aiming from virtually every shooting position. The only requirement for taking advantage of this use of a sling is to practice and to stay in relatively decent physical shape so your belly doesn’t get in the way when you’re trying to get that inside elbow on your knee in the sitting position, or so you don’t fall over and roll down a hill.
Brownells makes a great shooters sling. It’s longer than a standard carry sling and has heavy duty strapping and hardware. I have to admit it looks to have more purpose than the cobra style products. Available in tan or black, with 1 1/4″ swivels that fit common Uncle Mike’s QD bases, the sling looks like it will stand up to just about anything. Best of all, it should replace bipods, tripods, shooting sticks, x sticks and any other shaky assembly I might be tempted to hang on the rifle to provide a steady hold.
It took approximately 36 hours to properly install the sling. At some point the sling was split between the rifle and holding my pants up. I’m not sure why three little leather straps and a couple of pieces of hardware could be so complicated. But then again, when was the last time you saw a 20 step instruction card for installing a sling ? I will never remove it from the gun, and I will practice with it until I become as one with my sling.
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