Drilling and tapping for Weaver bases on 1896 Mausers.

by Wendell Dwight Deaner

Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind… –Margaret Mitchell

I have been accused of being mired in the past. I admit I still think Elvis is The King and Frank Sinatra is the Chairman of the Board. I like older movies best and I still open doors for ladies (when I can find one.) I’m fairly optimistic about the future but I think all that will be decided long after I’m gone, so I don’t worry about it too much.

I did get a small shock the other day. I found out B-Square has stopped manufacturing most of its line of gunsmithing tools. I already knew that their nifty little barrel vise and bushings were no longer available. Now it seems their scope mounting jig has went the way of the Dodo. This jig was about perfect for doing the job of drilling and tapping the holes needed in military rifle actions for scope mounting. It not only made it easy to this job well, the jig was inexpensive. Now it’s gone. Oh, the humanity!

Although I have briefly written about this subject in the past I wanted to do a complete article showing how to do this job with this particular tool. Despite the potential change in availability, I’m going to anyway. This jig is available on the used market and other, similar (and more expensive) jigs you can buy operate on the same principles. Plus, I don’t own the other ones, so that will have to be left until I get some discretionary income – money, as some call it.

First, as hinted in the quote above, are there any convertible Mauser actions available anymore?

Read more in our August 2013 issue. Back issues are available.

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