A friend bought an old Browning A Bolt from his widow neighbor, new and unfired, supposedly 1987 vintage. I offered to mount a scope for him and ordered Weaver bases and rings. He brought the gun over and the bases do not fit correctly. They are exactly the same. front and rear, and while the rear base seems to fit the slightly rounded receiver OK, the receiver has only 1 hole while the base has 2. The front of the receiver is higher than the rear and is perfectly round, so while the holes in the base line up with those in the receiver, the contour is off, and the height is way off. I checked an old Brownells catalog, and they indicate that A Bolts made after 1996 use a base set with #47 rear and #84 front, but guns made prior to 1996 use #47 front and rear. My friend is confident of the age of the gun, but a pair of #47 bases is clearly not correct. Any ideas, other than just ordering a #84 base for the front to see if it fits? And what about the single hole in the rear of the receiver?

I found the answer on the origin of the gun. It is a BBR, which was made by Miroku in Japan, but preceded the A Bolt, and is different in minor ways. This one was manufactured in 1979, A Bolts weren't made until 1985. The bases that Browning has listed for this gun are all 2-piece sets. I ordered the correct set of Warne bases. I'm still confused by the single hole in the rear receiver, seems like with a 2-piece base I run the risk of torqueing the scope under recoil. Any thoughts?

quote:

Originally posted by big_bwana:
I found the answer on the origin of the gun. It is a BBR, which was made by Miroku in Japan, but preceded the A Bolt, and is different in minor ways. This one was manufactured in 1979, A Bolts weren't made until 1985. The bases that Browning has listed for this gun are all 2-piece sets. I ordered the correct set of Warne bases. I'm still confused by the single hole in the rear receiver, seems like with a 2-piece base I run the risk of torqueing the scope under recoil. Any thoughts?

usually a 1 pc base is indicated by 1 rear receiver hole.