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Scout/Long-Eye Relief Scope vs. Drill/Tap regular scope on Mauser M-48

5K views 12 replies 9 participants last post by  devitor 
#1 ·
I received my Mauser M-48 last week and bought a scope mount and rings for it. I may be a newbie, but I learned fast that you need to pull the rear sight off and put this mount in place, then you put your scope on. Simple enough....except....the rear sight is ahead of the bolt and you need a long eye relief scope -- 12 - 14 inches. This limits my options. The mount I have is Mitchell's -- it's a Weaver rail with weaver rings.

Now...the Mauser in question is a premium grade rifle from Mitchell -- matching serial numbers, teak stock -- the whole works -- I really don't want to drill and tap this -- it's too beautiful a weapon. It will mainly be a range queen and I'll also occasionally use it for hunting. The range I shoot on is good to 300 yards. If I can find one where I can shoot further, I will.

If I go with the scout scope, Mauser sells a 2.5 - 7x variable. I'm not sure if a scout setup is suitable for what I'm doing. Again, I'd like to fool around with longer range shooting -- some guy on YouTube shot his K98 out to 900 yards with a 15x scope -- but he drilled and tapped his.

Question is -- is there a rail that I can affix to this mount that would essentially cantilever back towards me -- so that I can mount a regular scope? If it does exist, is it worth doing/reliable, or should I just get the scout scope and be done with it?

Both Mitchell's Mausers and the FFL who I picked it up from don't like the idea of drilling and tapping -- and for this rifle -- neither do I.

Thanks much for your thoughts.
 
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#2 ·
I know i would not drill and tap a quality Mauser. I've got several Mauser and enjoy firing them all. I bought a scope rail a few years ago out of Shotgun news. Don't remember the company name, but they build great equipment. The scope rail is mounted in place of the rear sights. So you don't have to alter your rifle. This rail is about 8" long and is a weaver rail, and rock solid. I thank I paid $125.00 for it. I don't like the scout as it's just not what I need.
 
#4 ·
The Iron Elite unit looks solid. I did some searching...couldn't help myself:

Iron Elite Scope Mount with rings for M48 Yugo Mauser - eBay (item 120425450365 end time May-31-09 18:07:29 PDT)

There is also this one:

No gunsmith scout & regular mount 4 Yugo M48 M24 Mauser - eBay (item 310131747104 end time Jun-24-09 21:22:10 PDT)

I'm going to get one of the two. Don't know which. The Iron Elite is solid -- one piece. The other one is both scout and regular. You cantilever the base off the scout mount, which means the scope is a bit higher too.
 
#6 ·
Bellson,

I agree. Absolutely no drilling/tapping/gunsmithing. These mounts I'm referencing above do not deface the rifle. You pull the rear sight ladder off, by removing some screws, and put one of these mounts in its place. The rifle retains its value, because you're not doing anything permanent to it. If I ever wanted to sell, I could pull this mount off and put the rear sight back on.

Mine is a shooter -- not a beater -- but a shooter, so it's not going to be just locked away -- I didn't get it for that -- I got it to use -- but I'm going to use it respectfully. ;-)

I went with the accumount -- the one that's both scout and regular. Now, I can mount a scope in peace. ;-)
 
#7 ·
You never know what kind of damage can occur when doing simple projects like this. I love shooting these rifles in original form with open sights.
 
#8 ·
I'd still be worried that the mount would mar the finish on the rear sight block, or even worse break it as it was never intended to receive that much stress of having a heavy scope on it. I also wonder how well it would hold a zero with even mild handling such as when hunting. Its getting kind of late in the year for the good buys, but usually around jan-feb you can pick up used hunting rifles cheaper than any other time of the year because dealers don't want to sit on them for 9 more months and people who over spent on the holidays need some $. I got a like new remington 78 (field grade 700ADL) 30-06 for around $180 out the door that way a few years ago. I'd go the used hunting rifle route before putting an aftermarket scope mount on a mauser.
 
#11 ·
Mauser Revisited

Gosh, we're in December now and well....I have not resolved much of anything with this rifle in all this time. A lot of personal matters kept me away from it, but now I can deal with it.

Accu-Mount Cantilever -- WAY TOO HIGH

Basically -- eldogg to answer your question first -- I'm going to pull off the scope and the cantilever portion of the Accumount. It is simply too high -- way too high up and you can see this in the photos I have attached. If I plant my cheek firmly on that stock -- and that's with the 1/2-inch cheek piece -- the scope almost 2 inches above my eye! How I even got 5-inch groups at 300 yd -- even with a bench rest -- is a miracle.

This is not to say Accumount is a bad product -- just don't use the cantilever.

No Drill and Tap, No New Stocks, No Barrel Clamp Mounts

So, with the cantilever and scope off, I'll leave the underlying scout mount. I'm not going to drill and tap this rifle, because that job involves a lot more than drilling and tapping. It means destroying and rebuilding the bolt, and modifying the safety. I could use an ATI stock, but look at the wood on this. No way. And the ATI barrel clamp mount requires modifying the wood. I'm not doing that.

So...with the underlying scout mount, it's either going to be an Aimpoint Comp C3 2 MOA red dot, or a 2-7 pistol/scout scope.

Aimpoint or Scout Scope?

I'm leaning toward the Aimpoint right now, because a friend experienced with the pistol scopes told me they always shoot off center -- high and to the left and you have to compensate all the time. A 2-MOA dot is 6 inches at 300 yd. Fed. 170 grain drops 22 inches at 300 with a 100-yd. zero. So 3 - 4 "dots" above center with the Aimpoint should get me centered.

A really good pistol scope -- not the junk brands like BSA and NC Star, but something halfway decent -- like a Bushnell costs up to $300. If I'm going to have to drop that kind of money, I might as well go for the Aimpoint. It will fit the mount and stay low to the mount. I can pull that blasted cheek piece off. I can mash my cheek into the stock because the Aimpoint does not change focus, parallax, etc. like a scope does. As long as I can see the dot, I'm in business.

So, that's what I'm leaning toward now. As for the scope, I bought QD rings and when my FAL finally arrives (yep, I'm still waiting for that), the scope will go on the QD rings and get plopped on the FAL. Ultimately, I might get an M1A and move the scope to that, then put an EOTech with Mako 7x magnifier on the FAL, but that's later on.
 

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#13 ·
Mauser M-48 Issue SOLVED

After all this time, I finally took care of this. I mounted an Aimpoint Comp C3 on the underlying scout mount. Now...you saw the pictures of the rifle before, with the 20x scope on the cantilever.

Photo.jpg shows the rifle at my dealer's with the scope removed and the cantilever base on. The next two photos show the Aimpoint mounted. You can see also that the cheek piece is also gone. I don't need it anymore.

I also bore sighted it differently this time -- no fancy laser. I pulled the bolt out lined up the bore with the target and looked down, then set the dot and fired test shots as appropriate, using the Lead Sled and 25 lbs. of weight. Satisfied that I was sighted in, I then set the rifle up as you see in the photos....on a sandbag sitting on my ammo can. I was able to achieve 3-inches dead center at 100 yards. Mind you, I had the dot intensity dialed up too high and the dot was covering the entire target.

That did not serve me well at 300, so I need to work on my 300 yd shots.

With the Aimpoint, I can get a proper cheek weld and not have to position my head just right to line up with a scope. I don't need a comb raiser. I can use stripper clips again. I can enjoy and use the rifle without modifying it or doing machine work to it. And I can still put the iron rear sight back in if I so choose. This was a rather costly solution, but the right one for this rifle. Now, it's a pleasure to shoot.

The 20x scope will go on another bolt action rifle which is pre-drilled and tapped. All I'll need is a Weaver base. to attach the rings.

I also finally got my FAL and it can be seen next to the M-48 in one of the photos.
 

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