Five years ago, I was setting up a new-to-me Model 70 chambered in 7mm Remington Magnum, and needed a new set of scope rings. I stumbled upon the DNZ Game Reaper one-piece scope mounts and they piqued my interest for this particular set up. They seemed pretty idiot-proof, and I am supremely qualified to evaluate such a claim.
Overview and Experience
Compared to traditional scope bases and rings, the advantages of going to a one-piece mount like the Game Reaper are fairly obvious; everything is machined and align bored for the specific gun they’ll be going on, and the additional rigidity of the one-piece construction creates a really, really rock-solid and durable setup for a hunting rifle. It chunky, which means you’ll be in for a surprise when you pick one up and feel how light they are — around 2-3 ounces per the manufacturer, which makes them under one ounce heavier than Talley Lightweight rings.
Since installation, I don’t think I’ve touched this mount once, other than swapping scopes. I’ve logged hundreds of miles on foot and in the mountains with no issues at all, installed per DNZ’s directions — no thread locker, use a torque driver, etc.. I’m one of those guys who makes witness marks on the mounting screws and the body of the scope itself, and there’s never been any loosening or unwanted rotation.
Eye Relief
In order to get the lowest-possible height-over-bore, I went with the Medium height and took a flat bastard (everyone’s favorite file) and hit the front lip of the mount just a bit to clear the objective on the old Leupold Vari-X. I recommend doing this to achieve the lowest-possible mount height, but have still struggled to get the eye relief to where I think to myself “that’s perfect” when I bring the gun up. With the front objective just a hair off the front ring, the relief is still slightly too long for me to be 100% happy with my setup.
After a brief email exchange with DNZ’s (incredible) customer service, we determined the culprit to be the shorter eye relief on my old Vari-X. The modern VX-6 has an eye relief of 3.7”-3.8”, and while I can’t find exact specifications on the older gold rings, Chuck Hawks suggests that Leopolds of similar vintage can run the gamut of eye relief down to as low as 3.0”. On max magnification at 14x, I’d have to guess I’m closer to 3.0” of relief, which is much less than what modern scopes are designed for, and what the Game Reaper is also designed for.
On the long action Model 70 Game Reaper bases, the outside-outside dimension of the scope rings is 4.46″, whereas on the short action models the distance is 3.92″. This extra length, combined with the relative lack of adjustability in the one-piece design (which is a selling point for me, someone who doesn’t want to spend hours fiddling around with things), means that if you’re shooting a long action 70 with an older scope, or one that simply has less eye relief (for example, a Bushnell Trophy), you may not be able to get your eye relief exactly where you want it depending on your physiology, gun, and the scope itself.
If you find yourself in this situation and have the equipment and a desire to hot-rod your setup, you may find that taking a few tenths off the face of the front scope ring allows you to get that scope back just enough that you’re right in the sweet spot of the eye box. It would then, possibly, become the coolest scope mount of all time. Of course, this comes with a major caveat emptor…
In my particular case, DNZ suggested the Game Reaper 2, the 2 piece variant, and turning a ring around to move the scope back more. Again, DNZ’s customer service was excellent, and was emailing me on a Saturday. This is likely an option I’ll explore at some point, if only to have a solid idea of the differences, if any, between the one and two-piece mounts.
The Last Word on the DNZ Game Reaper
If you want an absolutely bomb-proof scope mount, the DNZ Game Reaper is going to be hard to beat.
I’d love to see this mount updated to address the eye relief issue above that’s sometimes seen on Model 70s, but if you’re running a newer scope with a more generous eye box it shouldn’t be an issue.
As a brief aside… this would look killer in anodized gold. Hmm…
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