I'm not sure how to even ask this question, but I just love the Old World ie German, Mauser, type of scope rings and mounts. Now the Dumb part. Can something of new manufacture be purchased, or do I need to start keeping my eyes open for somebody selling something. Does this make any sense? I don't even know who made them to start with.

EAW and Recknagel sell them, I believe.


GEorge

Most of the old style or originals are claw rings and bases, and they are still the best made ever IMO...
The problem is that in 99.9% of the cases they are more or less permenently attached to a rifle.
I sometimes buy a rifle with claws and rings and rebuild it. I end up with a very nice rifles with full ribs, oct to round barrels with full ribs, and sometimes a rebored barrel, new stock and rust blue..and at a cost much less than having a custom built gun made to the same specs, but still not inexpensive.

A half oct/half round with a rib from a custom gun builder would run you close to $2000. Lots of work involved. Same with having a gunsmith build you a set of claws.

Griffen and Howe will make you a set of claw mounts for about $2000.00, that may or may not include mounting on the rifle, but I think it does.

I've bought various European mounts on ebay for less than $150. Most old German scopes come with rails and many have claw mounts attached. Finding and fitting suitable bases then becomes the problem and fitting them usually requires smoke and stoning.

The claw bases I've found so far had previously been soldered on double rifles (deep between the barrels). I'm thinking of grinding some flat underneath then screwing them to a home-made attachment to fit my old Greek MS. This attachment will be cut from some heavy steel tubing, the inside dia. of which corresponds to the barrel at the Nock's form. After grinding flats on top and removing unnecessary metal where possible, it will be fitted to the action and glued with clear Araldite. This may sound dodgy but I think it will work with the extensive glue coverage, as I have had good results using it for sights in the past.

If this fails, it only needs 80 degrees Celcius to melt, so holding it over a gas stove for a moment should get it off again.

The original German Sühler claw mount is still the best to be had. However, it needs to be installed (often soldered wich implies rebluing) by a true crafstman able to handfit parts (no machine work here). This makes it a costly project. Worth it, knowing there are less expensive mounts nearly as good ? That's for everyone to judge. Here's my claw mount fitted FN-Browning double o/u rifle in 9,3x74R. It has served me flawlessly for décades and I personaly coudn't think of another mount on a classic handmade double rifle.


This last photo shows the mount feet, handfitted, checkered and soldered on the rib as well as the handfitted hooks and their slots.

Love Claw mounts!

NECG makes beautiful claw mounts, you can buy bases or rings or both..They will install them or you can install them if you have that ability. Roughly $700 for base, $700 for rings, and as I recall, $700 to $1000 to install.

A good gunsmith can build a set of rings for about $250 to $300 if you have the bases, but the bases cost consideralbly more...

I,m glad I ask this question, Thank you to all who responded. Randy

I guess you've acted by now, hdxr750, but one thing I find hard to like about re-using claw mounts is their usually precarious positioning. The front one has to be at the objective end to allow for the forward-tilt removal. This would be fine if the rear one could be placed well back but that can't be done with db rifles and combinations, leaving the back two-thirds unsupported.

I guess this is OK on expensive rifles kept in cotton wool - not so good for hard hunting in tough country. Also, the re-use of a scope with tippy-toe claw mounts soldered on is damned near impossible if the new rifle is a bolt-action.