Can you mount them either way?

No. The flat part has to go up.

Custom Talley bases have a recoil shoulder. If off-the-shelf mounts have a recoil shoulder (ledge) it needs to go to the front so that it can push against the ring when the rifle is fired.

quote:

Originally posted by EDMHUNTER:
Can you mount them either way?

All the Talley bases I have seen, except for the custom-modified ones, have two recoil shoulders, a thin one at the rear of the base, and a thick one at the front of the base.

If the base has no special cut-outs as for the Dakota bolt release on the left side of the rear base (for a right hand action), they can be flipped 180 degrees.

This will put the weak (thinner) recoil shoulder forward, and the strong (thicker) recoil shoulder rearward. Not good.
That is the opposite of how it should be.

The "weak sister" recoil shoulders on the back ends of the bases are largely aesthetic, nonfunctional.
They should stay rearward.
The rear shoulder on the rear base is routinely milled off to allow the Talley peep to slide onto the rear base dovetail.
It is really not missed at all.

You want to keep the thicker recoil shoulders of the Talley bases forward, both front base and rear base.
They resist the forward slide of the scope rings (containing the scope) in recoil.

I have a set of Talley bases that have only one recoil lug. They are installed with the lug at the front. The other pair I have have lugs front and rear.

Don

The Talley setup on a Sako action will only go one way because of the tapered dovetail.

Thank you for the info!