01-04-2014, 12:35 AM
NugginFutz Wrote:I would personally never mount a scope across the hand guard / upper receiver. You're only asking for trouble and frustration. Doing so introduces the possibility of torquing the scope, and requires a near perfect alignment of the two sets of rails. There are many mounts which only attach at the upper receiver that are more than adequate for the task. If you need to forward mount your scope, Larue, ADM and many others make very solid cantilevered mounts.
As far as being stronger, it's a relative question. Both are strong enough, provided they are attached to the same rail. Most rings require the use of a riser, as the straight geometry of the AR's butt stock places the shooters eye higher above the bore than a bolt action, so you need to factor that into your decision, as well.
Like Nuggin said, its best to keep the ring off the hand guard. The cantilever allows the eye relief for the scope to be correct, and keeps the mounting off the hand guard. Personally I have run Larue and American Defense Machine. They are both very nice, I think for the money the ADM is a much better deal. I went with QD even though I had not planned on removing the scope. But when I pulled the rail off and switched to the MOE hand guard, the scope had to come off. So it comes in handy when doing work on the rifle to be able to pull it off, and put it back on without worrying about the zero. They are strong enough, if you could break either of the mounts some thing is seriously wrong, and the mount is the least of your worries. Plus the height is perfect for almost any AR platform.