Scope mounts have always intrigued me for some reason. I'm a fan of the old Stith mounts and even thought if someone took the time to reintroduce them there might be a place for them today. EAW style or Holland & Holland. Mark Silver's to the modern day Talleys. Even the good ole Unertl that look flimsy (springs????) and as unlikely to hold a zero if your life depended on it (although we know that not to be true). Well today I think I've found the ultimate in over-engineered and unique mounts. These are from a German K98 WWII sniper rifle. Can't imagine the time it took to machine these. Anybody feel like taking on the challenge to make a set of these for me? I am leaving for a hunt next Friday, so if you can get them to me by Wed. that will leave me plenty of time to work up some loads

Great photos and very interesting. I've never seen anything like this before.

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Well today I think I've found the ultimate in over-engineered and unique mounts.

I think we are interested in mounts because there are so many goofy, bad ones and we are always looking for a better one. I once saw a Redfield base that had been stick welded to a Mauser.

I have not seen a steel tube scope TIGed to a receiver .... yet.

In addition to the engineering, they are a fine example of a master machinist's skill. Very impressive to say the least.

My catalog says $799.97

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=317558

I had to pick my jaw up off the desk. I can't believe you found that and of all places in the Sportsman's Guide! Unbelieveable.

The catalog was sittin on my coffee table, and I had remembered seeing those mounts about 8 months ago

I did some quick googling, looks like there are quite a few reproductions of this "turret" style mount and I'm guessing the ones in the catalog are too. Ebay turned up a few sets described as such. I also found that an original set of mounts with German scope sold on Ebay a few years ago for $5,000! That was an anomaly but the going rate for good condition original turret WWII mounts and scope are $2,000 and up. They apparently have quite a bit of collector value.

Looks like they are sold out.

As simple as mounts are today, I've often wondered why the old ones are so complicated- like anything out of that era and before, those mounts are really a testimony to the skill in making them.

FWIW, off the topic a little, I've always found the slots for claw mounts, the ones with the cross-hatching around them, to look like they were done with a file, a little crudely- the holes don't look square to my eye , many times.

A friend of mine's father brought a scope like that back from Germany after WW2.

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I had to pick my jaw up off the desk. I can't believe you found that and of all places in the Sportsman's Guide! Unbelieveable.

Leave it to Gary to dig something like that up. I buy my wife a "100% wool" (French/Swiss/??) doublebreasted military overcoat every three years from him- my wife wears them til they fall off of her, and I get to be a hero for $19.95.

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Originally posted by tin can:
As simple as mounts are today, I've often wondered why the old ones are so complicated- like anything out of that era and before, those mounts are really a testimony to the skill in making them.

My guess is that the windage adjustment for the scope is in the rear mount. The early scopes were limited in their internal adjustments and the robustness of same. The external adjustments in the mounts just made sense then.

I saw that rifle too....amazing.

Item #9689 Price: $11,250 (listed in New Arrivals)

http://www.joesalter.com/index.html

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I'm a fan of the old Stith mounts . .

I own two sets of Stith mounts. One on a 30-06 and the other on a 22-250. Just amazing how accurate those mounts are!

Tip Burns told me the other day that he used to have a bunch of those at his shop.

I have several complete sets in boxes not to mention the ones I have on my old Winchester 70s. They are well machined, good steel, nice blueing, sturdy, accurate, and some are detachable with a decent return to zero. I just keep buying them when I see em, at some point I'm going to have to stop doing this.