Installing Scope Mount and Scope On A Classic Mauser Sporter

[mrh477]

New project rifle. Lucky me. It was made by George Honold of Ulm, Germany. Can't find much information on him or his shop but there's a good chance this rifle was made before WWII. The craftsmanship is excellent but this rifle has definitely seen some tough days in the field. The stock is scratched and dinged, and there are a couple small cracks around the wrist that I'll have to repair.

But the next order of business--this thing is gonna need some more modern optics. I like iron sights but I don't intend to own a rifle that isn't a useful hunting tool, and the reality is I'm not confident with iron sights beyond 75-100 yards. BUT, that all said, this is an old rifle and I want to keep the aesthetics consistent. I know, I know, this is the era of the black rifle and I should probably put a vertical foregrip and ACOG on it if I want to fit in with the cool kids. But we can't all be tactical operator extraordinaires so let me be!

Anywho, I know the real classic sporter-y thing to do would be German claw mounts. But I read about the process of fitting those. So no. I am not a professional gunsmith but I prefer to do as much work as possible on my own. So. Anyone got any suggestions for a good scope mount and rings that would fit well on this rifle? Hopefully something made of blued steel rather than aluminum? Something quick-release would be even better so that I could still use the iron sights but I realize that might be asking for too much.

Then, the next thing...scopes. Scope technology has improved quite a bit over the years. My newer Leupold VX-1 is probably as good an optic as the top-of-the-line scopes from 20 years ago. But keeping with the aesthetic thing, are there any vintage scopes that are still effective hunting optics in today's world? There are a lot of old Zeiss, Pecar, Kahles, etc. scopes to be had. Some of the Pecars I see on ebay even have variable magnification which would be nice but a 4x or 6x fixed power scope would probably be adequate as well. Does anyone have any experience with any of these old optics? Are they a pain or do they still have a place in the field?

 

[eastbank]

if mine I would leave it as is and repair the stock and use the open sights. no matter what scope mounts you put on it you will have to modifiy the rifle(D&T-soft soder) for a scope. there are lots of older scopes that would work and I think you would not have to give up much for decent light condition hunting, where the new optics realy shine is in the low light condition hunting and bad weather. eastbank.

 

[mrh477]

there are lots of older scopes that would work and I think you would not have to give up much for decent light condition hunting, where the new optics realy shine is in the low light condition hunting and bad weather. eastbank.

Ya, that's my fear with the older scopes. Not a big deal if I can find some sort of mount that allows me to use the iron sights easily but certainly not ideal.

As for mounting the scope, I would have to think more about it if it requires soldering. I forget that back in the day a lot of mounts were soldered on rather than screwed. Drilling and tapping doesn't bother me so much because I can fill the holes with set screws if I want to take the scope mount off. Soldering...I'll have to think about it. It might still be worth it to me.

 

[BrocLuno]

The bolt handle and the safety swing quite high. I know I ended up with fairly high mounts on my old Mauser custom. But that meant I could use a 50mm objective lens so I do have good dusk and dawn light gathering. The issue is the size of the ocular bell ... If they get too big, you will not be able to swing the safety ... Also the variable knobs often end up right there too ...

The biggest issue I'd have with that rifle is the slope of the stock. Looks like a cheek banger to me ... But, with a nice 1/4" pad I can see getting a good "eye" behind the scope.

So I used Weaver mounts on mine. Steel bases and you can find nice used steel Weaver scope rings in gloss blue. Leupold (high $) and Weaver (modest $) make a modern gloss scope for older rifles. Don't remember which series. Both they are both out there.

If you can find a blued steel tube Weaver, say a K6W with Micro-Trac - that should be very nice. The W is for wide field and the ocular bell is flattened on top and bottom giving you some extra clearance to work with. Both of my W scopes are still pretty bright and definitely useful, even in today's world.

No, they don't have the latest gee-whiz coatings, but they are coated and very well made. Micro-Trac is a four point suspension system and is pretty durable. In forty odd years and maybe 20 scopes I've only had one go bad ...

 

[Clark]

For 98 Mausers I like a steel Weaver #46 scope in the front:
1.168" length, 0.860" centers on holes, 1.290" diameter of concave bottom, 0.250" thickness

I like a steel #45 scope base in the rear:
0.812" length, 0.504" centers on holes, 1.050" diameter of concave bottom, 0.222" thickness

There are several problems to fix:
1) The height of the front ring relative to the rear ring is not invariant from Oberndorf to Czech to ect.
2) The diameter of the front ring is not invariant from Oberndorf to Czech to ect.
3) The rear ring is not semicircular in the interface with the rear base. It is round on top and sloped flat on the sides.
4) The front and rear bases should be coplanar and parallel with the bore, if you don't want a bind on the scope, or worse, lapped scope rings.
5) There is a rear charging hump for stripper clips with interferes with the rear scope base.
6) Some short scopes have the bell and eyepiece too close together for Mauser receiver length.
7) One piece bases are slightly in the way for loading the magazine.

There are schools of thought on how to fix these problems:
a) The sniper school goes to a one piece mount, replaces the 6-48 screws with 8-40 screws, and puts epoxy between the base and receiver.
b) The African Safari school Silver solders the bases to the receiver.
c) The Steve Acker school [Home shop machinist magazine] puts mills out the bottom of the scope bases with a boring bar to get the right radius, height, and left to right offset.
d) Grind down the rear hump vs buy a scope base with hump relief vs grind a hump relief in the base.
e) The short scopes can be accommodated with a one piece base or with the extended Weaver #402 base substituted for the front base.

What do I do?
1) adjust reticle to center of scope tube with either a mirror or rotate scope in ring bottom halves.
2) drill and tap Mauser receiver with (4) 6-48 holes spaced to fit #45 and #46 bases
3) Place scope in rings, bases on receiver, and look through bore sight for fitting.
4) Mill scope bases in modified V blocks with boring baruntil scope aligns with bore sight.
5) Put epoxy between bases and receiver with base screws loose.
6) Use modified AR15 riser to fixture bases while epoxy hardens.
7) Clean base screw threads and threaded holes in receiver.
8) Torque screws based calculation based on Caterpillar design manual for root size, steel strength, screw coating, and engagement.
9) Verify no scope bind and rifle will be on the paper at 100 yards. If not, chisel out epoxy and start over.