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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

03-A3 Leopold One Piece Scope Base


tinkerfive

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I've got an 03-A3 project on my bench and the Leopold base I ordered arrived today.

 

I also have the weaver style bases and am trying to decide which way to go.

 

When I set the Leopold base on, the Front-rear screw barely clears the rear of the ring.

If it were on a Columbian Mauser modified for stripper clips the screw would be in air.

 

So here is where the discussion comes in. If the Columbian's can notch behind the upper locking

lug for 30-06 and Leopold clearly intends to drill a hole in the upper locking lug; why have

we had so much discussion about upper locking lugs being sacred when it comes to drilling

holes for mounting scopes? The Columbian's notched Mausers by the thousands for 30-06. The

Turks notched small rings and 03's for 8X57 by the thousands too. Leopold surely must have

determined that the screw placement must be safe.

 

I've passed on a number of guns that had scope base screws in the rear locking lug because I've

been taught that the gunsmith 'didn't know what he was doing' by drilling a screw hole there.

 

This Leopold base is the first that I've encountered that can't be slid forward to drill the Front-rear

screw forward of the locking lug.

 

So as long as I can miss drilling into the face of the locking lug, is actually OK to drill a hole into

the locking lug?

 

A little confused.

Tinker

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I would skip the leupold and use something else. Is it possible that the wrong mount is in the right package?

Personally, I like the old redfield mounts with the vetically split rings.

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The Leupold one-piece base for Mauser 98 does NOT position the holes through the lug unless you elect to drill it that way. If properly positioned to put the rear of the two front holes just in front of the lug seat, the base will fit on the ring just fine.

DTMauser014.jpg

 

Clemson

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Clemson, i believe this is a Springfield project, with a mauser reference.

 

"I've got an 03-A3 project on my bench..."

Exactly!

 

I also said "This Leopold base is the first that I've encountered that can't be slid forward to drill the Front-rear

screw forward of the locking lug."

 

I had a phone conversation on this with Tanglewood the other night.

The short version of what we came to was that as long as you drill clearly in front of or behind the FACE of the locking lug you are probably OK. Probably the further to the rear the better if you are going to drill into the

lug at all. In fact Leopold had the screw hole just about as far back as you could drill a complete hole without

making a "C".

 

Thanks for the input.

Tinker

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