Quick Detachable Scope Rings
My introduction to quick detachable scope rings was back in the early 80’s when I was doing metalwork out of a small shop in Northern California. One of my customers brought a beautiful pair of BRNO rifles to show me. He had purchased them from the PX early in the Korean War when he was a young officer in the Army. He explained that shortly after his purchase there was an embargo placed on all arms coming from Czechoslovakia in general and BRNO firearms in particular because the military side of the BRNO ARMS plant was supplying arms to the North Koreans. This embargo was to remain in effect for over 30 years, finally being lifted in the mid 80’s.
The pair of rifles consisted of a BRNO ZG47 and A BRNO 21H. They showed the finest craftsmanship I have ever seen on factory rifles; the finish being exceptional and the fit being near perfect. Beautiful as they were they had two problems that interfered with scope mounting. Namely the bolt handle was a good 1/2 inch higher than necessary or practical precluding clearance for the bolt handle and the receiver had dovetailed square bridges when no rings were commercially available in the US. Both of these features added to the rifles near perfect lines but made it near impossible to mount a scope.
It turns out that Tom Burgess would occasionally do a small run of quick detachable scope rings for the BRNO’s, squeezing them in between other metal working projects. They were always sold well in advance of a production run and a waiting list for the next run of rings started. Tom enjoyed steady demand for the rings both in the US and Canada as the Canadians never had a BRNO embargo and the rifles were quite common up North.
My customer was able to obtain a set of the Burgess rings that he brought by with the rifles. I must admit that I was absolutely fascinated with the simplicity of the design and ruggedness of these Burgess rings. A simple 1/4 turn of the locking lever locked or unlocked the rings on the receiver. Tom had springs placed under the cam plate causing a audible snap when the levers were rotated to the open position. The lockup was solid, to say the least, and were fully adjustable if more tension was desired. Best of all, once set, the exact same amount of force was applied to the rings every time the lever was moved to the locked position.
My metal work focus at the time was strictly barrels with integral accessories and I simply did not have the time to manufacture a second badly needed set of rings for my customer. The rings were sent to Stan McFarland. Where the Burgess rings had a Bulls eye pattern on the levers, Stan went with recessed checkering doing great justice to the Burgess design. Stan made a few sets over the years offering them to the trade and using them on his own custom rifles. Like Tom, he had other distractions and made the ring sets available in limited numbers.
Fast forward 20 years. After being sidelined by an industrial injury I now had the time to devote to the rings that I had promised myself I would make 20 years earlier. So after dipping into my retirement for a CNC mill (a HAAS VF2) and Mastercam CAD and CAM software licenses I had the necessary tools for the ring production. As much as I admire the Burgess design, the CNC mill allowed me to make slight changes to the design more in line with my personal taste. The Bulls eye pattern on the lever was eliminated and I added 30mm rings to the lineup. I was now able to offer Quick Detachable rings not only for the original BRNO’s but the newly imported CZ 550’s. These changes took all of two years to design, build tooling and make into something that would have a place on the best custom guns as well as honest hard working rifles. Nothing short of solid and reliable would do and I am pleased to say the rings are something I am proud of.
Here in Alaska stainless steel Rugers are very common; they are affordable and reliable. Making rings for Ruger’s was something I had resisted due to the many combinations of rings used by Ruger to fit its wide array of firearms. Making the rings was one thing, coming up with a reasonable selection matrix was another. Simply put “how will anyone be able to find the rings they need’? A new website with a new developer solved that problem with the creation of an interactive finder matrix that is posted at my webstore http://www.alaskaarmsllc.com/.
The next step was to adapt the Quick detachable camming system I had been using on the CZ’s to Ruger firearms. Ruger has been using the same system since the late 60’s, and there are a good number of rifles in the shooting public’s hands. One of the issues I had to resolve was the recoil lug on the bottom of Ruger ring that drops into the integral Ruger bases. It’s function is to act as a stop when mounting the scope. This lug fits into the receiver slot and the problem was solved with a hardened insert. Something I had to consider is that not all Ruger owners are right hand shooters and I wanted the new ring design to allow both right and left hand shooters to be able to select the location of the camming levers either on the right or the left side of the scope. By designing the block with the recoil lug that can be rotated 180 degrees the levers can be located so that they are suitable for either right or left hand firearms.
One other design change was need for the Ruger adaptation. Unlike the CZ rings (and the original Burgess design) that are split vertically, the Ruger rings are split horizontally. This required a design change in the levers. I was looking for a lever that would clear the side of the ring without sticking out too far that didn’t sacrifice looks.
Ruger rings are offered in a total of seven sizes, heights #3-#6 for the 1 inch rings and #4-#6 for the 30mm rings adding another two years to the design and production process. The last change was to offer the rings with an industrial chrome finish that closely mirrors the factory finish of the Ruger ‘white’ guns.
Safe hunting,
Morris Melani