A short time ago some readers informed us that they were having some problems with their B-Square AA scope mounts. One reader created a post based on a conversation he had with B-Square. Kevin also talked to Bsquare in an effort to help other Straight Shooter customers. Problem symptoms included not being able to adjust the mount enough to compensate for barrel droop and the mounts not holding their adjustments when tightened down. What follows are excerpts from conversations Kevin had with fellow shooters and B-Square. We have also written installation and adjustment instructions which you may print to help you with your AA mounts. As Kevin notes in his response, BSquare had a solution to the problem very quickly and assisted us in helping our customers and we thank them for their prompt response to the issue.
For the last three days I have been trying to install the mount mentioned on an RWS 48. If you mount it with the pin in the front, you have fewer problems. If you mount it with the pin in the apparently conveniently located rear hole, the pin is too long (I ground mine down, Kevin prefers the former method).
A second catch is that to adjust the MOUNT for barrel droop, you have to remove the scope each time and loosen the screws holding the dovetail. That again was not a big concern as I guessed fairly well the first time.
The third catch is the MOUNTS windage (R/L) adjustments. The instructions were less than adequate "adjust the screw that you desire". In my case the shot was 8-9" left of target.
I tried everything I could think of to no avail. I ended up calling the 800 number for B-square. they said in order to move the SCOPE left, first loosen the two screws on the front or back of the ring saddle, then loosen the screw on the left side of the saddle ring and tighten the one on the right. I had tried that. Then they informed me that for what I believe he called a "design flaw", the screws would sometimes either stick, or track wrong, or create a hole--I can't recall exactly. In any case they would not move the scope ring. They said they were working on it. These side screws are necessary also to take the play out of the scope. Mine still has a little. I hope the company offers to exchange the new design, when it comes out, for the old ones who have had difficulties like me.
I want to post this for anyone who is interested in the saga of the AA mount problem, but especially for Evan and Paul. If anyone has been following the posts from a few days ago, they will know that the B-Square AA mounts have a split ring in the ring cradle (lower part of the ring) that would not close properly. This meant that when you tried to "lock" your adjustment, whether up/down, right/left, tilted or not tilted, the split ring didn't hold.
The split ring tightens around the cradle post and holds everything where you put it. When the split ring doesn't tighten properly, the mount just doesn't work properly. In non-technical terms this is known as a "major bummer". An adjustable mount that doesn't hold your adjustment tight is known in the trade as "useless". Straight Shooters happened to receive an order from B-Square that just didn't work right because the split rings wouldn't tighten down and hold everything in place.
We called B-Square and informed them of the dilemma and they were most helpful. In one week, they had assessed the problem, came up with a solution, machined some new split rings and sent us a bag of them. I just replaced the old split rings with the new ones to see if they would tighten down. They tightened down so well that I could not twist the adjustment loose in any way, and I weigh 240 lbs and exert some small pressure when I try. OK, a lot of it is fat, but weight is weight and I leaned into it pretty hard. Cut me some slack.
Straight Shooters will send a pair of replacement rings to Paul for sure and will replace the rings in Evan's and send it back to him. But I wanted to post the findings to everyone who is interested. If anyone was thinking of ordering the AA mounts, we now have the fix in hand. You can safely order these mounts and put any concerns to rest. I have no idea whether other dealers have taken action on their AA mounts, but I assume there are a lot of good dealers out there that will take action as well. At least if they are aware of the problem and received any of the "trouble batch". As for B-Square, my confidence in the quality of their merchandise is intact. To me, it's not whether a supplier messes up once in awhile as that happens to every business, but how they respond when things just "went bad". B-Square came through quickly and solved their problem. Well done, B-Square!! We thank you. Kevin
This post is especially addressed to Paul and Evan. I think both of you may have AA mounts with the split rings that need replacing. All the rest of our stock has the same problem. Actually, the split rings themselves are fine. The holes on both sides of the ring were drilled slightly too large. The adjustment screws then try to thread themselves into the holes rather than push against the hole and close the ring tightly. That's why the adjustment screws don't stay tight. BSquare said they would send us a bunch of new rings with smaller holes. This is vital as the split rings in the base of the saddle ring are the key to elevation, windage and barrel droop adjustments. Evan, try this explanation on for size. See if it helps even if the rings don't hold for many shots. Bill from BSquare explained it to me this way when I used your "8 inches to the left" problem as an example of what we and some customers were experiencing.
These probably won't be his exact words and any confusion will probably be because of my lack of writing skills. So hang in. Here goes. Let's say you opened the wrapping, took the new AA mount, bolted it onto your gun rail, put the scope in the rings and loaded the gun to shoot. Aimed at a "spot", shot the gun a few times and saw that your point of impact was 8 inches to the left. The reality is that that is where your gun shoots. Without bending the barrel, there is nothing you can do to change the point of impact. Rather, what you need to do, is change where your scope is "looking". Bill's point was that every gun is off a bit in some direction. Some more than others. In this case, your scope was "looking" 8 inches from where your gun actually shoots. What he suggested is that you need to point the scope at the "point of impact". It's no different than when you sight in any gun and adjust the scope, just a longer distance to make up. This problem could be due to a lot of reasons. Could be a barrel that isn't straight, the mount was out of whack when you put it on the gun or other reasons
My words here. I never gave any thought to the fact that when mounts with adjustable rings are assembled, they may not always be centered properly. One or both rings could be off center by a little or a lot. I've sure as heck never looked at a mount to find out.
In your case, Evan, Straight Shooters had been using that 48B as a demo and we know that the barrel isn't off the mark by 8 inches. As we had talked about on the phone, it had a bit of barrel droop, but was right on where windage was concerned. So, I explained that to Bill. His thought was that the one or both rings on the mount may not have been "centered" and were off to one side or another. That would cause major accuracy problems, but a normal person would never think of even looking for the rings to be off center. So I disassembled a brand new "out of the bubble wrap" AA mount while I was talking to Bill on the phone and looked at what he was pointing out to me. Lo and behold, the ring on the "pin" end (which would be the front ring for a RWS) was off to the right side. When I had removed the top of the ring and was looking down at the split ring inside the ring saddle (the bottom part of the ring), I could easily see the problem. So I asked Bill how one should go about getting everything lined up and the mount adjusted.
Evan, in your case, Bill said that to correct an eight inch "looking" error to the left, one should first loosen the set screws on BOTH rings. Then loosen the windage adjustment screws. There is one on each side of the ring. Now that everything is loosened, remember that the idea here is to make the scope look 8 inches to the left by moving the front ring in the direction you want to the scope to "look" which in this case is the left. Then you need to move the back ring in the opposite direction which is the right. Again, everything is loose and tilts and rotates freely. When you lay the scope in the front and back ring saddles, they automatically conform to the scope and adjust themselves. If at the same time, you need to adjust for barrel droop because the gun is also shooting low, turn the back ring counter clockwise which raises it a bit on each turn. It will now be slightly higher that the front ring which means that your point of impact will go up which is what you want. Going back to Evan's problem....How far you move the front ring to the left and the back ring to the right determines how much you correct your "looking" for the point of impact. Small adjustments can yield huge results downrange. Of course, Evan, this is all assuming your rings hold everything tight when you tighten them down. Which we know they don't very well without the corrected split rings. But it may hold long enough to see how the experiment works.
I think there is a tendency at times to do the normal thing and try to adjust or move each ring independently. I did that as well. But after talking to Bill, it makes sense to shoot the gun with everything in the original position (right or wrong) and see where the point of impact is. Then, loosen all the adjustments and adjust for barrel droop if necessary, and/or move the "looking" point to the left or right to compensate for windage deviations. And of course, to let the scope "move" the rings into the proper position simply by laying it in the rings with everything loose. I did that, by the way, and the scope lined up the rings exactly as he said would happen. Then tighten everything down and see how close you guessed. You may have to fine tune, but I never would have thought of loosening everything and adjusting everything at once (up/down...right/left) and then bolting it all down and checking it again. I would normally try to adjust one ring at a time for different adjustments. Oh well, that's where better or clearer directions come in. By the way, I have taken the pictures of the AA mount, and am now in the process of trying to figure out why I think I can write better directions than the existing ones. I'll give it a try and hope that the pictures make my words semi-understandable. It's really hard to write tight, concise directions but I'll try my best. That's what I know for now. I'll keep everyone posted. Paul and Evan will both get new rings as soon as we get them. Sorry for the inconvenience. Hope this long-winded explanation helps at all.
Kevin