Last year I went to Simmons Rings on my Marlin's. Used them because that is the only matte finished rings I could get in a medium height from my local gunshop.

I've had four of them fail across all three of my Marlin's; a 336-A in .30-30, a 336D in .35 Rem., and a 444P. I experienced two failures on the 336D.

All four failures have been exactly the same. The forward or aft ring's crossbolt starts to fail. Even though the thumb nut is tight the ring is actually loose. It looks as though the crossbolt gives way to recoil. The gunshop made the first three failures good and with the fourth I simply replace all the rings with Weaver steel rings.

http://cuero.nodial.net/~lindareamy/images/simmons b.jpg

In this photo I added a black horizontal line for a reference. Notice that the crossbolt is collapsing as evident by the canted thumb nut.

With each failure, the individual rifles have all started to shoot high and to the left.

Michael

Yeah there not exactly the highest quality ring out there , about as crummy as the tasco rings that usually get thrown in when you buy some sort of gun, scope combo package from some of the Manufacturers. Usually before you get the top caps snug the screws are usually quite near stripping out also .


444fitch

Seems to be a real problem with alloy rings, Michael -

All those that used to be on my rifles and handguns have been trashed or put on .22 rimfire firearms. Only steel rings are used now. Even then, many of the clamp-on Weaver styles have been changed out for the Redfield Jr - Leupold - Burris dovetail type mounting system.

Thought I had a couple of scopes (Nikon and Leupold) go bad on me, but turned out to be the mounting systems. Don't have that problem anymore with the dovetail mountings.

Also, never had a failure with the Ruger mount system, either.

I use either Leupold rings or Weaver 4X4 rings only. I have went down that cheap ring road before. It just does not pay and you take the chance of damaging your scope or mount. When it come to guns and gun accessories quality is a must. :D

It sure seems they use the cheapest metal possible when they build those alloy rings. I've had Tasco's break, too. I use the regular Weaver rings. I know they're cheap, too, but I've not had those fail.

I have had the rear dovetail pull loose on the Redfield-type mounts, so I don't use those anymore, either.