Lapping the Big Boys! that is - those Badger Max 50 Rings

Okay, now I'm an expert at lapping... HA! I have one lap job to my credit. This time...I'm taking on my heavy Remington 700. I was always told the heavier something is - the better it is - right - right.  Regardless of reasoning path ... I chose the Badger Max50 Rings ... I don't want my scope to move around - and this looks like one way to make sure it doesn't.

Take a look at the unlapped front ring and the unlapped rear ring.  This will give you a visual comparison. Don't get me wrong... man these are some very well made rings. Remember that question from the 70's "Where's the Beef?"  Well - it's in the Badgers.

Back with the lapping bar again, gooped up with lapping compound, and my homemade miniature barber cloth underneath to cover the action.  Top rings are fastened on - not much more than finger tight if any - and we're ready to lap.

It was a bit of work lapping these rings. I was paranoid about taking off too much material in this exercise. During this process of lap stroking back and forth several times, stop, dismount the bar, clean the rings, check the surfaces... I made sure to check the ring gaps.  It would surely be bad news to have to toss those $150 rings due to over enthusiastic lapping. Yes - you could trim down the flat mating surfaces and go from there - but who wants to go through that.

After enough of this process, I cleaned up the ring halves and ended up with a fairly clean job for the finished top rings and the finished bottom rings.  Since I had worked these fitted together, I decided to mark the rings with a dimple to make sure to put the rings in place as they were lapped.  I used a small punch and put a dimple in each of the rings. From the rear of the rifle - I will always install these rings so that the dimples or punch marks look at each other on the left side of the mount. That way they'll never get criss-crossed.

I blued and oiled these newly cleaned surfaces. For a spot check, I setup the Kokopelli alignment bars - first with an open gap for a visual comparison - then with the ends touching. There is no observable difference in meeting surfaces - even with the fingernail.

The shop log stops for now. I will mount and align the scope in the next day or so.

Ken Hunter.