Video Transcript
What's Included (00:00)
The Scalarworks LEAP Scope Mount is one of our favorite and also, in our opinion, one of the best scope mounts on the market as far as repeatability, how lightweight it is, and they've just recently improved it with a couple little upgrades. And let's go ahead and talk about that. So when you purchase the Scalarworks, it's gonna come in this nice little box right here, and then inside (this one's already opened) you have the scope mount. So in this case, this is a 1.93" 30mm scope mount ready to accept this Vudu 1-8 that we are going to mount. And then you have two Torx drivers to actually mount the scope to the mount itself, and mount the entire thing to the weapon.
New Model Differences (00:43)
One of the differences with the new scope mount that they have just released is the weight difference between the older model. So we have our scale here. And the original 1.93" comes in at 5.9 ounces with the new and improved 1.93" (they're both 30mm) comes in at 5.7 or somewhere around there. This level… This scale may not be a hundred percent, you know, accurate. But there's a little bit of lightening that has occurred, some of the recessing here that has resulted in this being a little bit lighter, which I know the guys over at Scalarworks take very seriously. So that's pretty cool.
But the other main upgrades to the scope mount is the little section here in the bottom that's been cut away, which is probably some of the weight savings that's going on, that accepts their KICK mounts. So basically a red dot, an offset red dot mount that can bolt directly to the mount itself. And I have one right here. This is once again, a 1.93" 30mm mount with a Razor 1-6, and I have the KICK mount installed. So you can see the two screws here sit flush inside that little recessed pocket. And that's gonna give me a Trijicon RMR at an offset and also raised up a little bit because I'm running a 1.93". So it's a little taller, a little bit easier to see with gas masks and night vision. And this is all one nice complete package. And that's pretty cool. So if I have to remove this for whatever reason, all I have to do is pop these two dials and the entire thing can come off—offset and scope—together. Now there's some pros and cons to that. In some ways I like having the dot separate on its own offset mount, the scope can, you know, be removed. I still have that offset there that's zeroed. But there's all also some advantages to keeping all this together in a complete package. So it really comes down to personal preference.
Mounting the Scope (02:29)
So let's go ahead and mount this Vudu 1-8 on the new Scalarworks 1.93". The manufacturer does recommend you torque the scope mount itself to their specs, which is 20 in-lbs for the scope rings. So if you have to, you could do hand tight. I've done that in the past and, you know, hand tight plus a little bit extra, and that's been okay. But if you are mounting a $1,400 scope on a $400 mount, you can probably spring for one of these little guys right here. And then you're gonna take the bits that they include, drop that in, and now you're in business.
When you're done pulling the four screws out, the rings are going to open up to receive your 30mm. Or if you have a different size Scalarworks mount, the scope mount for that particular ring size. This is a great design because you're not gonna be losing the top part of your scope ring or your scope mount; it's all together, and that's really nice. So we're gonna open it up to receive the Vudu. We're gonna shut it. And then this is a fun one. You would think, because the rings close on this side, that the screws would drop in on the side that it's closing on, right? Well, they don't. They actually go in on the opposite where the little 20 in-lbs text is shown. Which is also very convenient if you happen to forget, or you lose your manual, "Oh, I know what I have to do to actually torque this down to spec." So I really like that change that Scalarworks has made to the scope.
So now we're gonna take our four screws and we're going to install them. Once we have all four screws engaged so that the scope will not fall out and it's gonna like open up, you have to level the scope. Now normally that's, you know, a time-intensive process, you got all sorts of, you know, levelers, all this cool stuff. But one thing that Scalarworks does is they have a leveling screw positioned here on the inside of the scope mount that is hidden—this bright red screw. And we are actually going to drive this sucker up against the flat part of the scope, which is typically the bottom of where all the, the turrets and brightness knobs and all that are. And I'm gonna try to shove this far forward. And then we are going to tighten the little red screw right here up against the flat part of the scope. And what you wanna do is you wanna wobble the scope back and forth as you do this, to ensure that it is level. You will be loose in the scope rings here. You should not be fully tightened down. So the scope can move around a little bit.
So we're still wiggling the scope back and forth. And as you can see, there's still a little bit of play with it even while I'm tightening the leveling screw. So we are going to use some of the torques power. Do a little bit. Now there's no wiggle left. So now we're good to tighten these suckers down at least a little bit, maybe not all the way, because there might be some pressure from this being induced. And so we don't want to screw down on these all the way quite yet, but enough that the scope won't move once we start backing off the leveling screw.
Now that we have those tightened down a little bit, now we can start backing off the leveling screw. Once we've backed it off, even just a little bit, we can proceed to go to our 20 in-lbs. Twenty. Then what I like to do is I'm going to back off the leveling screw, all the way. Get rid of that bright red. And what I wanna do, especially on this 1.93", there's enough space here that the screw could potentially wobble out and fall out without me realizing it under recoil. So what I like to do, you don't have to do this, but I do it, is I take a little piece of gaffer tape or something. And I literally stick it up under there.
That might be a little bit overkill to make sure the screw stays put, you could also remove it and put it in the packaging if you really want, but I'm actually gonna leave it installed, you know, just in case because I'm constantly popping off scope mounts, changing scopes out and doing things. But optimally, you may just wanna remove it; save a little bit of weight because ounces equal pounds. And then put that in your box or somewhere safe.
Mounting to a Rifle (07:03)
But now we have the optic ready to mount to the weapon, this case an ACR. And because this is a 1-8 scope, the eye relief is like 4 inches. So we're gonna have to push it pretty far forward. So we're gonna loosen the little wheeley-turneys… Turney-thingies… Looks about, right. It's a pretty close fit with the DBAL. These are… The cool thing with these are, these are hand-tight plus a little extra. We're not gonna have to worry about any sort of torquing or anything.
And there we go. If you have any other questions on the Scarlarworks line of products, go ahead and email us at [email protected].