How to mount a red dot on a milsurp bolt gun.

[Space Ghost]

I'm old. I have old messed up eyes. I love old military surplus bolt guns. However, I hate their stupid sights.

I like red dot sights. Mount the gun, and boom, your brain does all the work for you. I looked, and looked, and looked at all the different picatinny rails, scout scope mounts, and such you can get for these old war horses, but they all have one thing in common... they sit too high for my liking. I decided I was going to try my hand at some gunsmithing. I took the pin out of the sight on an old M44 Mosin, and got to work on a piece of old picatinny rail with the dremel tool. Well I did manage to get it the correct width, and it did fit in the sight base with the pin, but then I discovered something. I was never gonna be able to get the base leveled off enough to get it to sit right without a proper mill. Well, turns out the rear sight base itself, is just about the correct width to mount one of my favorite little red dot sights... the Sig Romeo 5, so...

Off to my gunsmith I go with my idea. I had him mill the sight base flat, with a cross slot for the screw. Then he cut grooves in the sides for the claws to grab onto. Now I have a red dot that mounts very low, and in a perfect spot. Looks right at home too with the original wood. He did a M44 Mosin, and a 1916 Spanish Mauser for me. I went one step further for the Mosin, and copied the M1 Carbine guys with their ammo pouch idea. I took a set of Russian ammo pouches, and laced them onto the stock with gutted 550 cord. The rifles aren't ruined either, because all it takes to put them back original is a rear sight base. Something my gunsmith has boxes of.

 

[22250Rem]

Very cool. And something this old guy can appreciate, too. Have a red dot, a Leupold Scout Scope, and a holographic sight laying around here that can be put on anything desired as long as I can mount it without permanently altering anything. Had the scout scope mounted on a post WW2 Yugoslavian reworked K 98 Mauser for years and got to liking that forward mounted optics concept, and it's also a good location for things like red dots. I used a no gunsmithing mount from S & K Scope Mounts, ( www,scopemounts.com). Just checked their web site and they still list the no gunsmithing scout style mounts for most common mil-surp bolt guns. Last year I put my K 98 back to original and you can't tell that it ever had a scout scope. Not a mark on it. They still list Mosin 91/30's and I have one here in the safe that could be a lot of fun with a red dot or scout scope. I shouldn't be on this site so much.... It gives me too many ideas.

 

[Odd Job]

Those look great. It's a good idea for making things work, well done!

 

[Space Ghost]

Daylight, so I took a nice shot of the Mauser.



The boy is coming up to get the Mosin today.