Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
The Project 47 Force 360 takes a machine-shop solution to a decades-old scope-mount problem, using collet-style 360-degree clamping and a clever built-in leveling system. After installing it, shooting with it and digging into how it works, I came away impressed.
There are plenty of good scope mounts on the market. There are also plenty of expensive scope mounts that are basically variations of the same design we have been using for decades.
The Project 47 Arms Force 360 is different.
I tested the 34mm standard Force 360, and after installing it, shooting with it, and spending some time understanding how it actually works, I came away impressed. This isn’t another conventional one-piece mount with a different machining pattern or another way to attach accessories. Project 47 fundamentally changed how the mount grips the scope tube.
They did it by borrowing an old and extremely proven idea from the machine shop: the collet.
Table of contents
- Why the Force 360 Uses a Machine Shop Trick to Grip Your Scope
- How Force 360 Collet Clamping Changes the Grip
- Aluminum or Steel Force 360 Collets: Pick Your Recoil Level
- Force 360 Installation Has More Parts, Not More Pain
- Built-In Scope Leveling Is the Force 360’s Killer Feature
- One Force 360 Leveling Caveat Precision Shooters Should Know
- Force 360 Torque Specs Are Not What You Expect
- Does 360-Degree Scope Clamping Actually Deliver?
- Force 360 Downsides: Price, Parts and a Learning Curve
- Project 47 Force 360 Verdict: Innovation That Earns the Word
Why the Force 360 Uses a Machine Shop Trick to Grip Your Scope
If you have spent any time around a lathe or milling machine, the concept immediately makes sense.
Machine shops have been using collets to securely hold round objects for generations. Instead of grabbing a cylindrical part at a handful of isolated points, a collet closes radially around it. Commercial CNC workholding manufacturers specifically cite 360-degree part contact as an advantage of collet systems.
Project 47 essentially took that concept and asked a pretty obvious question in hindsight: Why aren’t we using something similar to hold a round scope tube?
Traditional scope rings work. Good ones work extremely well, and I don’t want to invent a problem that doesn’t exist. High-quality conventional rings have been proven on everything from hunting rifles to military rifles and hard-recoiling ELR guns.
But traditional rings generally depend on two ring halves being pulled together with screws. Ring alignment, screw torque and the dimensional relationship between the rings and scope tube all matter. Tighten things unevenly, and you can create uneven pressure. Tighten too much, and you can actually deform a scope tube. Vortex warns that excessive ring torque can crimp or even crush a tube and can interfere with the scope’s ability to dial or hold zero.
How Force 360 Collet Clamping Changes the Grip
Instead of relying primarily on traditional ring-cap screws to squeeze the scope, the Force 360 uses segmented collet pads around the scope tube. Threaded collars tighten around those collets, forcing them radially inward around the circumference of the tube.
The result is what Project 47 describes as 360-degree clamping pressure. The company’s patent-pending system is intended to spread the clamping load around the entire scope tube rather than concentrating it predominantly between opposing ring halves.
The small screws you see on the upper portions of the Force 360 are primarily for assembling the mount around the scope. They aren’t doing all the work of generating the final clamping force the way conventional ring-cap screws do. The large threaded collars and collets provide the primary grip.
Spreading a load over more surface area generally reduces localized pressure, and a collet is already a proven way of securely gripping cylindrical objects. Project 47 didn’t invent the collet. What is innovative is applying the principle to a riflescope mount.
Aluminum or Steel Force 360 Collets: Pick Your Recoil Level
The 34mm mount is currently offered with either aluminum or steel collets and with either 0 or 20 MOA of cant. The mount itself is machined from 7075 aluminum and hard anodized. Price is currently $299.95.
Project 47 recommends aluminum collets where minimizing weight is more important and steel for heavier-recoiling applications. The company claims the steel version provides twice the holding force of a traditional mount while adding approximately half an ounce over the aluminum collets. I did not independently measure clamping force, so I would treat the “2X” number as a manufacturer claim rather than a finding from my testing.
Project 47 currently offers standard mounts in 30mm, 34mm, and 35mm, plus a 30mm cantilever version.
Project 47 Force 360 Specs and Key Details
| Tested Configuration | 34mm standard Force 360 |
|---|---|
| Standard Mount Sizes | 30mm, 34mm and 35mm |
| 34mm Collet Options | Aluminum or steel |
| 34mm Cant Options | 0 or 20 MOA |
| Mount Material | 7075 aluminum |
| Finish | Hard anodized |
| Cantilever Version | 30mm |
| Price | $299.95 |
Force 360 Installation Has More Parts, Not More Pain
Installing the Force 360 isn’t difficult, but the first time through it takes a little longer than dropping a scope into traditional rings.
There are more pieces involved.
The components are numbered and labeled so the front and rear pieces stay together correctly. The collets themselves are interchangeable. Depending on the geometry of your scope, you may have to disassemble one or both sides of the mount so the components can be installed around the tube. Project 47 supplies a special spanner wrench for tightening the large collars.
Once you understand what you are looking at, it makes sense.
And this is where something interesting happens.
The Force 360 may take slightly longer to physically assemble around the scope, but it gives much of that time back when you level the optic.
Built-In Scope Leveling Is the Force 360’s Killer Feature
Scope leveling is one of those jobs that should be simple and frequently isn’t.
You get the rifle level. Then you get the scope level. Then you start tightening ring screws, discover the scope rotated slightly, loosen everything, and do it again.
The Force 360 approaches leveling differently.
Project 47 includes a leveling screw and pad that install in the center portion of the mount. With the collets only lightly gripping the scope, you run the leveling pad upward until it contacts the flat underside of the scope’s turret housing. As it comes up, it squares the scope body to the mount.
Then you snug the collets.
Remove the leveling fixture and the scope and mount are already assembled as a leveled unit.
In my experience, this largely erased the additional time required to assemble the Force 360. It takes a little longer to get all the components around the scope initially, but leveling is considerably easier. Overall, installation was basically a wash compared to a conventional mount.
Maybe even easier.
More importantly, I wasn’t fighting the scope as I progressively tightened four or eight conventional ring screws.
One Force 360 Leveling Caveat Precision Shooters Should Know
There is one technical distinction worth understanding.
The Force 360 leveling device squares the bottom of the turret housing to the mount. That is what scope manufacturers are supposed to level the reticle to. It does not directly measure whether the vertical stadia of the reticle itself are perfectly plumb.
Those two things should correspond on a properly manufactured precision optic, but they aren’t conceptually the same measurement.
For almost everyone, I think the Force 360 method is an exceptionally fast and practical way to install a scope. If I were setting up an ELR rifle where tiny amounts of reticle cant matter at extreme distance, however, I would still verify the finished installation against a distant plumb line.
That isn’t really a criticism of the Force 360. It is simply recognizing what the leveling system is actually measuring.
Force 360 Torque Specs Are Not What You Expect
Here’s another unusual part of the system.
Project 47 says the little 4-40 assembly screws can be tightened to roughly 20 to 25 inch-pounds, but says exact torque isn’t critical to the operation of the collet. The mount-to-rail fasteners are specified at approximately 45 to 50 inch-pounds in the company’s installation video.
The big collet nuts are a different animal entirely. Project 47 recommends roughly 25 to 40 foot-pounds, depending on application, when using a torque wrench and the supplied spanner. That number sounds enormous if you are accustomed to 15 to 25 inch-pound ring-cap screws, but you aren’t applying 40 foot-pounds directly across the scope tube with a little ring screw. The threaded collar and collet geometry convert that tightening force into radial clamping pressure.
Project 47 also says you can simply tighten the collars firmly by hand with the supplied wrench rather than use a torque wrench.
The company additionally instructs users to fire several rounds and re-snug the collars as the collet system seats.
That is worth remembering because it is different from how most of us treat a conventional premium mount. Installation isn’t completely finished until the collets have seated.
Does 360-Degree Scope Clamping Actually Deliver?
I don’t have laboratory instrumentation to measure circumferential pressure around a scope tube, and I didn’t conduct a destructive test against several competing mounts. I therefore can’t independently confirm Project 47’s claims about having the highest gripping force in the industry.
What I can say is that the mechanical concept makes sense, the machining and system impressed me, and the mount worked as intended during my use.
More importantly, this isn’t innovation for the sake of looking different.
The Force 360 is applying a mature industrial workholding principle to a firearm component that has historically been held using some variation of two opposing ring halves. That is a legitimate engineering change.
And it addresses two genuine issues at once: how pressure is applied to the scope tube and how easily the scope can be leveled during installation.
Top Ring Accessories Make the Force 360 Even More Useful
Project 47 also designed the Force 360 with the ability to mount accessories directly to the top of the rings.
I added the top ring accessory that accepts an RMR-pattern red dot, which gives you a clean way to piggyback a secondary optic directly above the primary scope. That can be useful for close-range shots, rapid target acquisition, or simply as a backup sighting system.
I like this approach because the accessory mounting capability feels integrated into the mount rather than added as an afterthought. If you’re already buying a premium scope mount, having the ability to configure the top rings for additional equipment makes the Force 360 considerably more versatile.
On my setup, the RMR mount worked exactly as intended and added another useful feature to a scope mount that was already doing something genuinely different.
Force 360 Downsides: Price, Parts and a Learning Curve
The biggest disadvantage is simply that the Force 360 is unfamiliar.
There are more components than a traditional mount, and the first installation isn’t quite as intuitive. You also need to follow the seating procedure and recheck the collets after firing.
Availability is currently more limited than established mounting systems. As of this writing, Project 47 has standard versions in 30mm, 34mm and 35mm, but only the 30mm is offered in a cantilever configuration.
At $299.95, it also isn’t a budget mount.
Then again, I wouldn’t put a bargain mount between an expensive precision rifle and a $2,000 to $4,000 optic anyway.
Force 360 Pros and Cons: Where It Wins and Compromises
- Pros: 360-degree collet-style clamping, remarkably simple leveling, aluminum or steel collet options, 0 or 20 MOA options on the 34mm mount, integrated top-ring accessories, excellent machining and a mechanical concept that makes sense.
- Cons: More components than a conventional mount, a less familiar first installation, collets need to be rechecked after firing, limited cantilever availability and a $299.95 price.
Project 47 Force 360 Verdict: Innovation That Earns the Word
I review a lot of shooting equipment, and “innovative” is one of the most abused words in the firearms industry.
A different texture isn’t innovation. Moving a screw isn’t innovation. Machining the same part into a slightly different shape isn’t necessarily innovation.
The Project 47 Arms Force 360 actually is different.
It takes a clamping technology that has been proven for decades in machine shops and adapts it to the problem of securely holding a riflescope. The collet system distributes its grip around the scope tube, removes much of the sensitivity associated with traditional ring-cap screw torque, and makes leveling remarkably simple.
Traditional premium scope mounts aren’t suddenly obsolete. They work, and many of them work exceptionally well.
But after installing and using the 34mm Force 360, I think Project 47 has come up with a genuinely better way to approach at least some aspects of scope mounting.
The first installation takes a little longer. The leveling process takes considerably less time. By the time everything is finished, I’d call installation a wash.
The difference is that I like the way the Force 360 holds the scope better.
I’m impressed.
And for once, calling a new scope mount innovative doesn’t feel like marketing hyperbole.
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