One of the things that annoys me about classic G&H rifles is how it is necesssary to remove the Lyman 48 staff to use a scope. It seems to me, looking at the staff of a 48, that it would be easy enough, in principle at least, to let the peep aperture hinge about the windage screw and simiply fold flat. You would have to cut a chunk out of the arm of the staff to let it go down. Then the scope in the G&H sidemount could be set just high enough for the eyepiece to clear the sight arm with its folded down peep. You would need a little flat spring under the arm to hold the sight in the up position or maybe it could be done with a very small coil spring and a plunger in the sight arm. Has anyone ever tried this?

On a related subject, there are a lot of G&H rifles with 48s and scopes and you have to do something with the 48 staff when the scope is on. Many prewar rifles of course had that typical German trap buttplate and the sight staff went under. But others, and most postwar rifles, used Winchester 54/70 buttplates. I have a very nice G&H Mauser that way - 25" brl., '06, tang safety, Hensoldt Zeilklein very low. No place to put the 48 staff and some year I will lose it. To install a trap buttplate is tricky because the border has to match up the 70 plate existing contour, the curve may have to be refitted, etc. But if you cut an oval hole in the 70 buttplate and then got A SECOND 70 buttplate and cut out a matching piece to fit the hole and hinged it, you would solve the problem. Simple in theory but perhaps not so easy to actually make, again, has anyone ever done it?

Yeah, I have the same problem. I carry the scope in a shoulder-slung leather tube I bought in Germany. When the scope is on the rifle the sight arm goes in the tube. Like you I worry about losing the sight arm.(Think frozen fingers fumbling that small part)

Maybe it's time for someone to re-invent the reciever sight to correct issues such as this.

I have a transition model Mdl 70 .270 that has the original Lyman WJS reciever sight on it. I have a Leupold M8-6X in a Leupold bridge mount on it. The reciever sight fits neatly under the scope tube with the disk removed. It necessitates a higher front sight blade which is not a problem. Just set the reference marker on side of the Lyman to a reference point and run the arm down. If you remove the scope just run the arm back up to the reference. It would work even better with a G&H mount.

Many of the early G&H’s were made so both receiver and scope sight could be used but more folks wanted the scope lower. It always sounds like a good idea and I’m not sure why Lyman, or someone else did not make a fold down peep.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Petrov:
I’m not sure why Lyman, or someone else did not make a fold down peep.

Just conjecture, but my guess would be that a fold-down peep was not made because in those days most of the rifles actually had to work for a living.

Having been a shooter when those things were still the "in" thing, I can recall that everyone hated any kind of a fold-down sight, whether on the barrel, the action, or elsewhere.

Why? Because even if you were careful to put the sight in the "up" position just before you actually started out of camp in the morning, there was always the chance it would be folded down right at the instant you needed it. At least that was the theory that was propounded in those days in the shooting press....and in the around-the-campfire arguments.

There seemed to be a lot more emphasis on "still-hunting", "trailing", and "jump-shooting" in those days. Shots under those circumstances didn't provide time to make sure the sight was up, or to put it back up, when the game was briefly sighted.