Hello,

Very good and informative thread, indeed ! And with peopple who seems to know what are they talking about!
My short experiencie with side mounts have been with a Gastinne-Rennete side mount in a pristine Mannlicher-Schoenauer GK (1964 made) long rilfe in 7x64 Brenneke I bought 12 years ago. The scope was a Hensoldt Diavari DA 1,5-6x36 with Nº 11 Diavari, the conical three post Nº 1-type reticule. I, allways regrett it, sold the rifle to a wealthy friend who cannot live without it. He made me an offer I couldn´t reffuse...then. Well, the mount was a rotary type, extremely well made with a very strong front stud and a rear anchor with a lever. That lever in the scope, not in the base. The base was smooth and low, like the low G&H. I took 2 Red Deer with the rifle prior to let it go. I developed many loads with 160 and 173/175/177 grs bullets and I NEVER needed to touch the adjustments in the scope !! That scope was of the descentered reticle but from Gastinne-Renette instalation, the reticle was dead centered. I think, also, this M-S rifles was one of the best made and finished rifles. For example, the bolt lugs had almost 100 % contact on the receiver! I never saw another rifle as well adjusted. It could be taken apart, stock and barelled action, and mounted again and ALLWAYS the cero was mantained.
But (sorry for all this rather long tale) apart from the M-S rifles that came prepared for a lateral mount in a very smart way, in my three Mausers and my only M70 pre-64 in .375 H&H, I prefer and use Warne mounts. The first ones, well machined. I bought them in 1992 and I am very pleased with how it works! I think this type of mount with 4 base screws and equal grip in the front and in the rear ring/base, INSTALLED WITH PERFECT ALINGMENT, is very strong and has a very good repetability. I had the bases made by my gunsmith to get that alignment goal. Talleys i saw but never use seems to be simmilar.

Regards

PH

quote:

Originally posted by Marc_Stokeld:
JD-

i have a couple of questions for you. I have a matched pair of rifles in mind (among the bazillion future gun projects Ihave in mind ) and they will both have G&H sidemounts. I have actually accumalted some parts for the pair, so it is ahead of most of the projects I have in mind.

First, i was curious about the use of a milling attachment to grind the radious.

Why do you grind instead of cut this?

Do you dress the stone to match the curve of the action, or do you use it the diameter is is when you get it from Brownell's?

Do you have any pics of you doing this? I am curious about the set up and how you make sure the mount is in line with the center of the spindle, how to be sure your feeds are tight, etc.

is this manner easier than setting it up in the mill and making the cut with a boring head, or soemthing like that? Or even to tile the head on the mill so a regular endmill will cut the proper radious? Or even to have a special ball end mill ground for perfect fit?

Secondly, well, iguess i just asked it above. I have a milling attachment i got in some sort of complicated machinery buy/sell/trade a few years ago. It has sat in a corner of my shop since I brought it home and I was thinking of selling it this month, along with some other stuff I never use. I haev never used a milling attachment and never really saw the need for one since I had a large knee mill.

So where I am going with all of that is this-do you use the milling attachment for anything if you have a large knee mill? If so, what jobs do you find it easier to use the knee mill and when do you find the milling attachment useful?

Thanks!

Skunk

Skunk, the ONLY reason I use the milling attachment is because I don't own a mill. In my experience the milling attachment is a disaster waiting to happen unless firm precautions are taken to ensure rigidity, and even then it's nip-&-tuck in some applications. My shop is in a semi-portable building with a wooden floor and unfortunately a good knee mill is impractical.

If I had a mill I would probably use a fly-cutter setup to achieve the proper radius for the job. The grinding wheel is strictly a field expedient, but the simple grinding setup is available to most folks with a drill press and therefore fits in with my philosophy of KISS.

I have broken lots of tooling and made some MIGHTY ragged cuts while using a milling attachment but sometimes it's the only thing I have that will work. That's one reason for the grinding, there's no chance of FUBARing the work if a tool breaks or the work wanders.

There are fifty ways......
Regards, Joe

Thanks for the reply! I iwll go ahead and sell the attachment. There are a ton of metal working things I need to buy and have only been buying as I am able to sell stuff I never use.

Back to the G&H mounts-do you smoke them in before drilling for the pins and screws? Do you use some sort of soft solder, such as Hi-force 44 or something?

What do you do get the base aligned with the centerling of your lathe's spindle? I can think of some ways to do it, none of which would fall in the "fun" catagory.

My buddy nate Heineke is a former G&H employee and he can really fit those mounts like they grew from the side of the action. Can't remember if he uses any soft solder, but know he does not "hard" silver solder (err, ahmm, excuse me-the nuclear certified term is "silver braze" just screwing with you in a buddy kind of way) or tig them on. As with all of his work, his isntallation of the side moutns is world class. It is like all signs of those pins just disappear into thin air.

Me personally, I may TIg them on.

I use the Forster jig to drill the holes in the receiver, I simply rotate the barreled receiver 90 degrees in the veeways and then use a cross-test level (from Brownell's or many tool supply houses) to line it up. I drill the screw holes in the base first, centered in the blank base at the proper elevation for the chosen scope, and then drill the screw holes in the receiver using the previously-drilled base to space the holes. After checking and adjusting the vertical alignment with the aid of a bore collimator and making any necessary fudges with the base screw holes (usually not necessary) I grind the radius in the base and then drill for the alignment pins while clamping with the screws.

No, I don't use the G&H procedure, exactly, but it serves the purpose quite well indeed, at least for my purposes it does. Since I can't soft-solder reliably, I prefer to use epoxy as an aid to a reliable and semi-permanent installation in addition to the usual 3 screws and 2 pins.

Remember, there are fifty ways....
Regards, Joe