Mounting/lapping a scope

[jay.sharkbait]

I have been using a quality one piece base instead.

[Kenaiwild]

 Scope bodies are a swaged or spun tube and therefore should be concentric.  Question is how "concentric / perfect?".  We're talking thenths of of a thousandth so what does it matter?  Is the glass in the scope set perfectly?

[Reidus]

IMHO, lapping is more about reducing or eliminating stresses in the scope that lead to failure, rather than accuracy gains.
If I had a R700, I'd definitely lap.
No telling how screwed up the mounting holes might be.

[Reidus]

I have been using a quality one piece base instead.

That probably helps but it still does not mean your rings will be aligned.

[JimmyHoffa]

There is a law of diminishing returns in shooting as in just about everything else.  Lapping is more about more evenly distributing the force/contact area of rings to scope to eliminate binding.  After seeing the improvement from action bedding/free floating to eliminate binding within the gun, I figured lapping probably couldn't subtract from accuracy.  But after bedding, using higher QA handloads, some trigger work...there's not much noticeable room for lapping to work with for chasing a smaller group.