Hawkins Featherweight rings for Kelbly Atlas Lite
Both Kelbly and Hawkins say the Savage/Stiller rings will work on the Atlas Lite. While the hole spacing is perfect and curvature of the mating surface is good, the 8x40 screws with the Hawkins rings will not fit the Kelbly action. They will start, but cross-thread in about a turn and a half. Tried every screw in every hole and all were exactly the same. I had a Pic rail shipped from Kelbly with screws included. The screws from Kelbly looked identical in size and length to the Hawkins screws, but were evidently threaded a tiny bit more fine or coarse and worked perfectly on the Hawkins rings to get them secured to the action. Expensive way to go ordering the Kelbly rail just to get the screws in order to use the Hawkins rings, but now that they're in place, they are very good quality and absolutely featherweight. Not as blocky as Talley rings and seem to be machined a little better. Finish matches the nitride semigloss on the Atlas Lite action. I bought the Medium set intending to mount a 44mm objective scope. Decided to try my 50mm Vortex Razor LHT on the rifle intended for the smaller scope and it fit, but there isn't enough room between objective bell and barrel to slide a credit card. A 20# weight piece of paper fits, but not if doubled. I do have a Benchmark carbon fiber barrel contoured similarly to a Proof Sendero, and Hawkins says you need a High set of rings to mount a 50mm objective scope on a carbon fiber barrel. I will be ordering another rail from Kelbly to get screws to attach to the other rifle and will order a set of Hawkins Ultralight rings made for clamping onto a Pic rail. Bottom line: I ordered rings for a Savage or Stiller action and the screws don't fit a Kelbly receiver. Not Hawkins' fault. I also found an uncomfortably low clearance space between the carbon fiber wrapped barrel and the 50mm scope bell with medium rings. Hawkins states a high set is needed for this set up. Listen to what they tell you and don't expect things to go perfectly for products other than the rings were explicitly designed for. If you want to keep weight down, these are the rings for you!
