I've decided to trade my Savage 23B in .25-20 to another Nut for a smokepole, and he was quite interested in my idea of a scope mount for it that wouldn't drill any more holes in the gun. Having just finished it, I thought I would share it with you, in case someone else was pondering the same idea. There are two holes already drilled and tapped in the top rear receiver on these guns, and are there for use in mounting a peep sight. These peep sights are apparently made of platinum and less available than chicken-lip-sausage, if you were to believe what you find (or don't) on the Net. The rear hole is tapped 5-36, the front 10-32. I decided to utilize one of these holes for the rear mounting duties. I started with an aluminum EGW one-piece picatinny mount I had purchased by accident. I chose to use the rearmost hole on the mount with the rearmost hole in the receiver. My next task was how to attach the front. I struck on the idea of attaching an extension bar to the mount, that would then mount onto a blank in the rear sight dovetail. In this manner, one would be able to drift the front of the base over just a little to correct for windage, and would, of course, be utilizing something already on the gun. I chose an old rear sight to be the dovetail donor, and cut off the back section, leaving the blank and a small decorative finial on the front. I drilled and tapped this to 6-48. I proceeded to mill a 1/2" wide slot in the bottom front of the scope base, underneath the front pair of mounting holes, to a certain depth that matched the extension bar I was making. The extension bar I made to just fit exactly into the slot, and drilled and countersunk a hole in the front for the dovetail attachment. I also milled out a section of the bottom front of the bar to sit down on the dovetail blank and provide a slight shoulder in the back to butt up against the back of the blank. I then milled screw head recesses in the front two mounting holes in the base, drilled and tapped two 10-32 holes in the extension bar, and made two matching 10-32 screws to mount the bar to the base. Finally, a little clean-up, polishing, blueing, and chamfering the front of the bar, and we have a complete project! I seems very solid, but the proof will be in the pudding. Hopefully, the new owner will chime in at a later date to tell how it works in the real world.
