Non perminent scope mount for 1908
- Thread starter hitch.bd
- Start date
Yup, you're in luck!
The rear sight leaf comes off quite simply and you replace it with a special mount made either by S&K or by B-Square. Then you put on a set of rings and a LER (Long Eye Relief) scope and you're in business.
LER scopes used to be difficult to use and shockingly expensive. In recent years, however, and especially since the start of the Scout Rifle trend, the cost has gone 'way DOWN and the ease of use and the quality have gone UP.
I salute you, Sir, for not ruining a wonderful old 1908 Mauser. These things are a work of art.
The rear sight leaf comes off quite simply and you replace it with a special mount made either by S&K or by B-Square. Then you put on a set of rings and a LER (Long Eye Relief) scope and you're in business.
LER scopes used to be difficult to use and shockingly expensive. In recent years, however, and especially since the start of the Scout Rifle trend, the cost has gone 'way DOWN and the ease of use and the quality have gone UP.
I salute you, Sir, for not ruining a wonderful old 1908 Mauser. These things are a work of art.
Thanks my friend, I'll have to look and see if I can find out more about the mount. The 1908 is a great rifle to shoot, I just haven't had much time to play with it! I wouldn't dream about altering it permanently, but I would like to see how accurate it can be without me holding it back!!!
regards Hitch
Friend of mine, very recently deceased, spent a couple of years in Scotland just after the War. Almost every church he was in had long lists of names of men who hadn't come back from the Boer War. This stuck in the back of his mind for many years.... most of a lifetime, in fact.
We met about 28 years ago and spent half an hour comparing rifles: my dou 1945 Kar98k which had only 40 rounds through it versus his 1948 FN Browning commercial in .270 with a scope. We shot together a couple of times and then a nasty suspicion started forming.
A point I must make: my friend was the single most precise handloader I have ever known. He handloaded ammo for better than 40 years and he did not even OWN a powder measure. Every single round was done with weighed brass, weighed bullets, weighed powder. He could happily take 2 hours to turn out a single box of shells and then take another 2 hours to shoot most of them off. He was also a great believer in the 2-shot called group, off the sandbags, starting from a dead-cold barrel with the follow-up shot less than a minute later. He felt that this would prove what a rifle could do in a hunting situation.
Of course, it ALSO proves exactly what the same rifle will do in a sniping situation. Neither man nor deer generally sticks around for you to warm your barrel; the deer runs away and the man shoots back.
Then he started picking up old military rifles and testing them to see just what they could be MADE to do with careful bedding (just like when they were made) and the best ammo he could create. He had a pair of 1908 Mausers, one VERY nice indeed (22 rounds fired when I got it for him) and the other more than a bit worn (but it WAS s/n 25!).
Old Number 25 settled in, off the sandbags, at just a hair over an inch, once in a while a tad under an inch, but the barrel had seen a fair bit of wear. The other rifle shot too well to judge, so it got scoped with a cheap old scope he had lying around (Leupold Vari-X III with up to 16x power).
With the big Leupold cranked up, he got regular half-inch groups at 100, inch to inch-and-a-quarter at 200, which he figured wasn't too terribly bad for a 90-year-old rifle.
After that, we spent the next 20 years playing with military rifles and carefully-done ammo. We got half an inch at 100 from a 1918 Lithgow SMLE (although it usually goes 3/4), an inch exactly with a 1918 NRF SMLE in factory-original condition and absolutely untouched. My very-low-number Mark III ROSS shoots groups half the size of the ones coming out of the cut-down Ross with the 10x scope and IT is under an inch. His prize was his Norsk 98k in .30-'06: it regularly, through about 15 seasons, shot 1/3 MOA at any range you tried it at..... and I am VERY SERIOUS about that.
He went through my collection pretty well and through about a dozen or so of his own (which cost a LOT more than any of mine, generally), proving a rifle and then disposing of it and buying another of a different type and proving it. It was a 25-year-long testing session based mostly around rifles of the Boer War and the two World Wars.
As far as the 1908 is concerned, he had GREAT respect for them.... and really enjoyed shooting the ones he had.
After he started having serious heart trouble, he gave up competitive shooting, just proved rifles and ammo. He enjoyed putting an old Army rifle and home-rolled ammo up against the best and the latest and it sometimes was shocking just how well the old ones stood up against the VERY best of modern rifles. His rifles and ammo actually beat out Accuracy Internationals on a few occasions, and they are very darned good indeed.
But you know what this sport is like: never any hard feelings. To give credit where it is due, it must be said that three of Wolverine's top shooters attended his funeral this Tuesday. Their presence was noted.... and it was very much appreciated.
But Gavin Tait proved what he tried to prove: the gunsmiths of a century ago could build a rifle and a barrel which could give a good run for the money against any modern rifle.... just so long as the shooter.... and the ammo.... were up to the challenge. He will be missed by a lot of people.
But the Brazilian 1908 was one of his favourites.
The targets showed exactly why.
We met about 28 years ago and spent half an hour comparing rifles: my dou 1945 Kar98k which had only 40 rounds through it versus his 1948 FN Browning commercial in .270 with a scope. We shot together a couple of times and then a nasty suspicion started forming.
A point I must make: my friend was the single most precise handloader I have ever known. He handloaded ammo for better than 40 years and he did not even OWN a powder measure. Every single round was done with weighed brass, weighed bullets, weighed powder. He could happily take 2 hours to turn out a single box of shells and then take another 2 hours to shoot most of them off. He was also a great believer in the 2-shot called group, off the sandbags, starting from a dead-cold barrel with the follow-up shot less than a minute later. He felt that this would prove what a rifle could do in a hunting situation.
Of course, it ALSO proves exactly what the same rifle will do in a sniping situation. Neither man nor deer generally sticks around for you to warm your barrel; the deer runs away and the man shoots back.
Then he started picking up old military rifles and testing them to see just what they could be MADE to do with careful bedding (just like when they were made) and the best ammo he could create. He had a pair of 1908 Mausers, one VERY nice indeed (22 rounds fired when I got it for him) and the other more than a bit worn (but it WAS s/n 25!).
Old Number 25 settled in, off the sandbags, at just a hair over an inch, once in a while a tad under an inch, but the barrel had seen a fair bit of wear. The other rifle shot too well to judge, so it got scoped with a cheap old scope he had lying around (Leupold Vari-X III with up to 16x power).
With the big Leupold cranked up, he got regular half-inch groups at 100, inch to inch-and-a-quarter at 200, which he figured wasn't too terribly bad for a 90-year-old rifle.
After that, we spent the next 20 years playing with military rifles and carefully-done ammo. We got half an inch at 100 from a 1918 Lithgow SMLE (although it usually goes 3/4), an inch exactly with a 1918 NRF SMLE in factory-original condition and absolutely untouched. My very-low-number Mark III ROSS shoots groups half the size of the ones coming out of the cut-down Ross with the 10x scope and IT is under an inch. His prize was his Norsk 98k in .30-'06: it regularly, through about 15 seasons, shot 1/3 MOA at any range you tried it at..... and I am VERY SERIOUS about that.
He went through my collection pretty well and through about a dozen or so of his own (which cost a LOT more than any of mine, generally), proving a rifle and then disposing of it and buying another of a different type and proving it. It was a 25-year-long testing session based mostly around rifles of the Boer War and the two World Wars.
As far as the 1908 is concerned, he had GREAT respect for them.... and really enjoyed shooting the ones he had.
After he started having serious heart trouble, he gave up competitive shooting, just proved rifles and ammo. He enjoyed putting an old Army rifle and home-rolled ammo up against the best and the latest and it sometimes was shocking just how well the old ones stood up against the VERY best of modern rifles. His rifles and ammo actually beat out Accuracy Internationals on a few occasions, and they are very darned good indeed.
But you know what this sport is like: never any hard feelings. To give credit where it is due, it must be said that three of Wolverine's top shooters attended his funeral this Tuesday. Their presence was noted.... and it was very much appreciated.
But Gavin Tait proved what he tried to prove: the gunsmiths of a century ago could build a rifle and a barrel which could give a good run for the money against any modern rifle.... just so long as the shooter.... and the ammo.... were up to the challenge. He will be missed by a lot of people.
But the Brazilian 1908 was one of his favourites.
The targets showed exactly why.
I'm sorry for your loss. He sounds like a shooter's shooter. It is nice to hear a personal story about a person that felt so passionately about a sport that we also hold dear. I'm looking forward to having the time to put into testing and playiny with my 1908.
regards, Brad
regards, Brad
