Rusan-Mikron Aluminium Scope Rings

The weight of a rifle setup is important and any opportunity to reduce it is well worth exploring. One such opportunity is to switch from steel scope rings to aluminium, but this mustn’t result in a compromise in terms of quality, strength, or performance.

What’s on offer?
Croatia-based, Rusan-Mikron, manufactures some superb scope mounts in steel, including less common items for specific rifles, but they have recently added some aluminium rings to their range that are well worth a look. They are made on high-precision 5-axis CNC machines, ensuring the very tightest of tolerances and excellent consistency from ring to ring.
On test are two sets of 30mm rings. One is 12mm high and the other is 10mm high, with the former having quick-release levers and the latter having screws. The quality of the rings is obvious as soon as you open the box, and they are extremely well-finished and presented. There are no burrs or machining marks, and the hard anodised black finish is faultless. All of the threads on the screws are very smooth and they align perfectly.
On the inside face of the rings, there are grooves around the full circumference. These are immeasurably shallow, allowing for a suitable adhesive to be accommodated when you mount the scope (Loctite 3450 is recommended by Rusan-Mikron). Without grooves like these, the adhesive tends to be displaced as the rings are tightened, which can make it so thin that it is ineffective.
The main section of the rings is made from a hard aluminium alloy (7075 T6), and there is a true Picatinny recoil lug that is the full 5mm thick. The lug is milled from solid steel for additional strength and rigidity.
The top and bottom sections of the rings are tightened together with four screws, with two on each side, and there is a flat section on the top of the upper half to assist with levelling the scope during set-up.
The rings are really easy to fit, sitting perfectly in a Picatinny rail, tightening very firmly and locking down and around the scope evenly. Rusan-Mikron recommends a torque setting of 2.3 to 2.7 Nm for the base screws and 1.8 to 2.0 Nm for the ring screws, but you should always check the recommendations of the scope manufacturer too.

Conclusion
In terms of strength, there is no evidence, in normal use, that premium aluminium alloy rings are any less strong or durable than steel mounts. As well as being lighter than their steel equivalents, aluminium rings have another much more beneficial advantage - they tend to be wider. This means that they have a larger gripping area in contact with the scope. This, combined with the recesses in the inner surfaces of these rings to accommodate adhesive, makes them particularly secure and gives them an extremely strong hold on the scope.
Optics Warehouse now stocks a large range of Rusan-Mikron products, all high quality and very well priced compared to some of the more well-known brands, and they can be checked out on their website.