>Savage 220 Rings and Bases with Nikon Slughunter Scope

Our compatriot, Ryan, just picked up one of the new Savage 220F 20 gauge bolt action slug guns. I also have one. His has the beautifully done camo stock. I’m jealous because mine is black. These guns have been shooting circles around everything on the market. They are one of the most accurate slug guns ever made. Customers have asked a lot of questions about mounts and rings and scopes for this model, and there’s some confusion out there. Most of the confusion centers around ring height. Mediums rings work well with the Nikon Slughunter 3-9×40, and the eye box does not interfere with the bolt throw. Another point of interest is the long action of the gun and the short mounting area available on most scopes used on this type of gun. The 3-9 Slughunter that I mounted on Ryan’s gun has too short a mounting area to mount with regular rings. The base I used is the Leupold standard one piece base #55701 (gloss only) with the medium extension rings #49911. This is the most perfect set up you can hope for. The eye relief is ideal, and the ocular and objective bells are about 3/16″ away from the corners of the base. Absolutely superb. The base is also cut for ejection and will cause no interference. He’ll be shooting it this weekend with Remington Accu Tip 2 3/4″ slugs and we’ll see how he does. Keep in mind that if you opt for a two piece base, the rear base sits further apart from the front base and will require dual extension rings rather than just the front one. I recommend the one piece base not just because of its size, but the increased rigidity it gives the receiver.

Another option for folks that don’t like to use extension rings (no reason not to, though…) is the excellent EGW HD base (soon to be added to our site) with picatinny or weaver rings of your choice. The EGW HD base uses all four mounting holes instead of the three that most one piece bases use. It is longer than the one piece base from Leupold, and a bit longer than the two piece base, also. Therefore, it will require, in the case of a shorter mounting length scope such as the Nikon Slughunter, high rings instead of mediums because the longer base will touch the ocular bell of the scope. The EGW HD base also does not have the ejection clearance the Leupold base gives. What it will do for you is allow you to use any high weaver style or picatinny base you may have, and not require an extension base because you can place the rings wherever you like.