doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com 1908 Mannlicher Schoenauer offset claw mount

Buddy of mine has a scope-less carbine and is exploring his options.

Does this style base have a specific name beyond 'claw mount'? What sort of dimensional variations are there? Or should it be a set standard?

I ask as I tripped over this comment on the interwebz
As the old European claw or snap Mounts on Mannlicher-Schoenauers were made and fitted individually by many gunsmiths, the ways of mounting the front base on the receiver ring or Barrel differ from rifle to rifle.

His preference would be to unite an orphaned mount/assembly rather than go down the NECG route. Thanks in advance for any insights.

My 1908 has the same bases and while they look very similar I don't know if they are the same. As far as rings.....I'm afraid coming across a pair would be good fortune. I hope someone else has a better answer because I too would like to know.

At your leisure, could you take a micrometer and measure the needful lengths and breadths?

I was in such a situation a decade ago. It took me a few months to find a seemingly suitable scope online (no dimensions given), and I took my chance. It did not fit (of course) but was not too far away in my humble opinion. So I took both pieces to an old gunsmith. He called me soon saying that the job was done. But when I came back home I soon found out that there was a serious tension and the bolt lost its legendary smooth movement to an alarming degree ... So to another gunsmith I went. This was a young chap that came from the Ferlach school recently. He made new claws and the fit is now as it should be. These days such gunsmithing can be rather expensive.

Cheers,
Jani

You are probably never find something that will drop in, but if you find a set of rings that are a bit oversized, they can be hand-fitted to your bases. I’ve got some orphan claw scope rings.

You can buy new rings that can be fit to the rifle easily enough. The challenge will be to find a scope that will fit the ring spacing and will have proper eye relief. The turret is often in the way of the rear ring and hardly anyone solders half rings to scope tubes under the turret anymore, and that would rule out alu. scopes. If the scope has an objective bell, the front ring has to be considered, if it is behind the "bell" the scope is likely to hit the barrel (when mounting and dismounting) unless it is mounted very (maybe too) high. The scope needs to be "in hand" to allow checking these things and measure the scope tube diameter, bell diameter, and verify if bolt handle clears the scope (especially if variable power). A new front ring will come with a base already fit to the "claws" but will need to be fit to the dovetail in the receiver ring (must be considered in choosing scope's height). A new rear base will come with a square or rectangular foot that can be pretty easily fit to the existing base on the rifle, after bore sighting to determine the required final length of the foot. In fitting the "lock", the bottom of the "slider" has to be filed to fit the slot (which has to be cut about the width of a scribe line higher than the bottom of the "slider") in the foot. Don't file the slot any more than a slight angle at the lead-in to the slot. Since it has been filed to fit the original ring, a new "slider" might or might not have to be bought also. There is more than meets the eye in fitting a scope to existing claw mounts. Conversion to "swing mounts" might be easier/cheaper.
Mike