I recently purchased a Savage 116 Weather Warrior in .30-06 with an Accustock. I have a Nikon Buckmaster to put on it, but I'd rather mount a Leupold VX-3 eventually. I'd also like it to have a silver finish for a change (though matte looks good too, of course—don’t get me wrong).

I know I'll never match a scope perfectly to a stainless steel barrel/action [but that's okay, a blued barrel never perfectly matches a black stock either (which usually looks more charcoal-gray than black IMO)].

Anyway, I want to know if anyone has ever tried matching either a silver or gun-metal-gray Leupold scope to a stainless steel bolt-action rifle.

If not, do you have an opinion either way (besides telling me to get a matte finish)? If not stainless, what is the gunmetal supposed to match up with anyway?

I have tried. I had a silver VXIII 2.5-8 X 36 on a Tikka T-3. It was an o.k. match (somewhat lighter) but looked pretty good actually. I also had a gunmetal grey VXIII on a Remington model 7. It did not match perfectly, but still looked o.k. I still prefer black scopes though. I just tried the silver ones to see.

Although black was your favorite, which one did you prefer? Silver or gunmetal grey?

Watch it with Leupold scopes and the LA Savage 116 or 110....the scope is too short and you will have to get extended bases that will slightly hang over the bolt at the rear. I had that problem with my 116 in .270.

I preferred the silver as it was kind of matte finished. The gun metal gray was rather shiny.

Here is a shot of the .300 Iv'e been talking about with a silver Bushnell on it. I think I'll stick with a silver scope due to that seems to go so well with the entire gun. Should be able to go pick up the new Leupold in a couple weeks--------John