Conetrol doctrine is as old as the company. If you're going to do something, do it right. With advent of its AQD quick-detach system, Conetrol took painstaking care to once again get things done right.

The AQD mount utilizes horizontally split rings which feature a solid ring-stud, similar to Conetrol's Quik-Zero rings. But the QZ setup, though ever so solid and foolproof as it was designed to be, provides neither windage adjustment nor the prompt scope removal that would qualify it as quick-detachable mounting. The AQD system, on the other hand, is the ultimate refinement in quick detachability, offering prompt scope removal with replacement to zero and windage adjustment. Once it is zeroed in you can detach and attach your scope a thousand times knowing the Jam Screws will secure the scope to zero as solidly the thousandth time as the first.

The mechanism is relatively simple: There is an angle cut in the front of each ring-stud which slides along the underside of a permanent press-fit crossing pin partially exposed inside the front of each ring-hole in the base. Entering from the left side is a flat-face set screw that can be turned to adjust the ring-stud from left to right in the ring-hole. The cone-point Jam Screw enters the ring-hole at the right rear and when tightened crams the ring-stud hard against the front cross-pin and the left-side adjustment screw. Both windage adjustment and scope removal are enabled by the diameter of the ring-stud being smaller than the diameter of the ring-hole.

Windage adjustment (one or both rings) can be made by turning the left-side Adjust Screw prior to tightening the Jam Screw. To detach the scope, the single cone-point Jam Screw under each ring is loosened a couple of turns and the AQD rings and scope will then shift back enabling the angles on the ring-studs to clear the front cross-pins so the scope can be lifted off. To reattach, push the scope and mounted rings back down on the base and tighten the two Jam Screws. You're back to zero.

Not to be overlooked in the list of primary features above is the first line pointing up a superb attribute of AQD and all other Conetrol horizontal-split rings --- absence of torque.    This is a gift of hard-twisted-on but still turnable ring studs that is provided by no other scope mount.    It is a trail the Conetrol mount rides alone.    For other mounts the question is not whether they inflict torque;   the question is,  how much.

In addition to the small key-wrench that is normally packaged with Conetrol bases, each AQD base comes with a complementary screwdriver-like tool which can be utilized to provide an extra measure of convenience when attaching or detaching a zeroed-in scope.