I found a nice Type B Mauser with a set of claw mounts soldered to the front and rear receiver rings. Is it possible to remove those without damaging the action? I realize that refinishing would be in order.

Solder used on those mounts melts at a low enough temp so as not to affect the receiver heat treatment. Heat the mount just enough for it to come loose. Has to be that way because a receiver with something soldered onto it can't be heat treated.
I assume they are not original and do not look good; otherwise leave them alone.

Actually they are very nice mounts but interfere with seeing the original tangent rear sight. The rings aren’t available and I was wondering if the rifle could be returned to its OEM form.

I’m exploring options before I plunk some cash down. There is also a chip of wood missing from the stock behind the action but it appears to have been gone for decades.

Thanks!

Photos please.

quote:

Originally posted by D Humbarger:
Photos please.

I gotta buy it first.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick R:
Actually they are very nice mounts but interfere with seeing the original tangent rear sight. The rings aren’t available and I was wondering if the rifle could be returned to its OEM form.

Have you tried New England Custom Guns? In the past they have fitted rings for me for several rifles with pre-existing claw mount bases.

quote:

Originally posted by xausa:
Have you tried New England Custom Guns?

I looked at their website first. It appears that fitting rings would cost as much as the rifle!

Yes buying, and then fitting claw mounts is not a casual undertaking.
It will be easy to pop them off.

Dennis Olson Plains MT.. modified a set of Leupold rings to fit the bases of a old Mauser I had, cost was minimal as I recall, $150.oo or $200. and they worked well indeed...Ive delt with your problem on a number of cases, and have one now..I think I prefer to remove them and start over! The rifle Ihave now is ultra rare and the bases had small dove tails and solder, took them off filled the dovetails used custom bases that covered the dovetails and it really looks nice and has Detachable talleys..basically had to add a very small wing on the Talley bases solely to cover the dovetail cuts..Hope this helps, Im sure their are many other options, some good and some not so good.

DPCD, xausa and Ray,
Thanks guys. I like shooting iron sights, so I’ll shoot and tinker with this rifle before I change anything. This is one I’m caretaking for a later generation.

I picked it up today, a rare gunshow find tucked between the AR15s and 80% Glocks. I’m at the inlaws, I’ll try to post pictures when I get home.

How high do the claw bases stick up, Rick? Most I've seen are only about 3-4mm thick after you whip the claw mount off.

Considering half the purpose of claw mounts is to allow use of the open sights for delivering the coup de grace, it is strange that you can't see them over the base.

However, assuming you still have the claw parts, and knowing the extraordinary cost and work required to deploy that kind of mount, I'd be wondering if you could possibly install a higher front sight and use a higher leaf with it for close range.

Sambarman338,
Now that the rifle is out of the chaotic gun show venue I can see the sights much better. It has a 50 - 1000 meter tangent rear sight, with the sight set on “50” I can barely see the “V” thru the groove in the front claw mount. With the sight set to “100” or higher the rear blade is proud of the claw mount giving a much better sight picture.

Where I normally hunt shots are usually between 30 and 100 yards so I’m good as long as I can still see irons.

Depending on the solder, some solders break loose at high temps (silver solders) and others at about 400...and some are dovetailed and soldered..Ive delt a lot with the old German and Englis rifles, and if the welder is up to snuf he can get them off no matter how difficult, just a tad of heat at a time I suppose and always the option of reheat treatment, not to costly..A good gunsmith can do anything, the problem is cost..

Ray,
While my curiosity about the script hiding under that front mount is killing me I’ve decided to leave it as is. I’ve ordered a couple taller front sights to get the irons regulated and then I may try to tackle a set of scope rings.

What is the marking on the left receiver wall, if any?
As for solder; no one would, or could, use silver solder (brazing) on a receiver; that melts at higher temperature than the receiver heat treatment; it is lead/tin solder.

dpcd
The left side of the receiver has Crown B & Crown U proofs, the serial number and
“WAFFENFABRIK MAUSER-OBERNDORF A/N.”

Does anyone know what ammunition a fellow would use in his rifle in 1906? I’ve confirmed that it’s a .323” bore. I’m curious as to what style bullet was in common use for hunting back then.

It should have a MAUSER rolled onto the top of the ring.
Standard hunting rounds of the period was a 157 grain soft round nose at 2750 fps; 47K psi.
Is it 8x57 or 60?

8x57 with a .323” bore. It shoot about 7” high at 100 yards with two 200 gr loads I tried. Curious where 150ish gr loads would shoot?

Two inches lower. Still need a higher front sight.

Those bases do look pretty high. Am I right in thinking the front one has a dovetail insert to help with scope windage adjustments? If so, fitting a non-original claw mount might be easier - but not much.

Continental gunsmiths have made nice livings out of keeping these matters arcane as possible, and finding and fitting claws just the right size and height decades later could be much more difficult and expensive than it was originally - and it may have cost nearly as much as the rifle then. Even if you find the right claw parts, they usually need to be used on a rail (various sizes) or soldered on to a steel tube (which used to require stripping the scope, losing the dry air or nitrogen inside)...

Have you by any chance still got the claws?

No, the rings have evaporated in the decades.

NECG will fit new rings for about $900. They replace the block that is dovetailed into the front sight with one sized for their claw mounts.

Dear as that $900 sounds, Rick, if NECG can mount a scope in claws so that the reticle is properly centred, it may still be good value, esp. if you can find a good, old reticle-movement Zeiss/Hensoldt or Nickel to put on it.

Seems easier to find a donor action and swap the other parts over.

He doesn't need a donor action; removing the bases is child's play, if he wants that.

Once I get a proper front sight sorted out I’ll shoot it for a while then make a decision to scope or not to scope.

Wonder if there’s much market for used claw mounts?

I have found old European Mauser rifles with Claw bases but no scope. I have always passed on them as I have no clue how to put a scope on them. I always get frustrated as the rifles are often very attractive classics at a good price.

Does it need a gunsmith to do the work ($$$)?

The most I have had to do is get the bolt turned down and the action drilled & tapped so I could fit bases and rings myself.

Compared to this job, fitting rings to preexisting bases is pretty simple: Lee LeBas (Le Arms, LLC, 1356 Raeline Lane, Minden, NV 89423) is fitting rings to the Mauser type bases he has fashioned out of my double square bridge 9.3X62 Mauser commercial sporter.





[URL=https://s1231.photobucket.com/user/xausa/media/DSB%20Mauser%20scope%20mount/DSB%20scope%20mount%20008_zpsudtoykrm.jpg.html] [/URL

Fitting to existing bases is not a piece of cake. The foot and claw were and still are furnished as sets with matching numbers.

So happens,I did this job for Lee. Had to use up a lot of inventory (most of it obsolete) to come up with acceptable tolerances both for the front foot and rear lock up ,not to mention the machining on the bridge.

This was a spendy job!

xausa,

That’s going to be a gorgeous rifle!

Mr. Wiebe,

It seems these claw sets are basically custom affairs and there wasn’t any attempt to standardize sizing by different smiths?

Well...with the advent of CNC, the assemblies are getting pretty darn close and require about 25%of the fitting from a decade ago (I'm talking about the front foot/claw assembly)

The rifle shown is from a bygone era of prism on the bottom of the tube...with windage adjustment yet!

The ring types are pretty straight away careful machining IF you use available base hardware

This scope has no windage adjustment and the reticle wll go WAY off center is you use a lot of elevation adjustment...You just have to get it as close as possible and cross your fingers

I love your little scope, xausa, but take care if there's a small screw holding the ocular in place. Mine let go and it's ended in all sorts of trouble.

Actually Safarikid’s thread about putting a red dot sight on his double barrel has me thinking bad thoughts.



I just need a replacement for the claw block:



that is threaded to attach a mounting plate:



This might be do-able.

Duane or any good gunsmith could fix you up with a QD peep sight and a Talley QD peep looks like it coud be attached easy enough..If you intended to use the irons you should have taken that into consideration first the added the scope bases..My 8x57 with a full rib half Oct and half round barrel with the original rib sight just dovetailed and the front in the rib but raised was sighted in at 100, so I added very low custom bases to clear the rear sight, worked out perfect...