Popular ways to mill sights off surplus arms in the 50's & 60's?

[cpttango30]

Ok so I have this 1917 that started life as a usmc rifle. It was then bought by my grand father and turned into a 300 h&h hunting rifle. He then didn't like that so it became a 308 win target rifle. The rear sight was milled off and I'm not sure what the rear of the action was milled to I thought I read one time in a book that it was popular to machine the rear of the action to accept Winchester mod 70 bases or Remington 700 bases. It doesn't look like my 700 but I don't have a 70 to look at my dad does but for some reason he won't ship me his super grade varmint rifle.

So I ask here was the mod 70 a popular way to machine a Milsurp rifle back in the day?

[Jim K]

Removing the "ears" of the M1917 rear sight and filling in the hole in the receiver ring was common practice in the pre-and post-WWII era when "sporterizing" those rifles. There was not, however, any consistency or precision in how it was done, each gunsmith basically doing it his way, and often differently each time.

The best way to determine what scope mounts to use (if that is the goal) is to find a gunsmith with an assortment of Weaver bases and use a collimator to get the scope lined up with whatever base(s) will work best. That sounds very difficult but actually doesn't take long, though it is a bit of a PITA.

Jim

[cpttango30]

It has bases on it. But I am using it to shoot midrange matches and f-class matches. So I need a better system than it has now.

[Jim K]

Unless the bases it has now provide a clue, I can't give you any more info. There was no spec that said every gunsmith had to mill off exactly .7253" or that the rear ring had to have a .52534" radius or anything like that. And they weren't even milled, most gunsmiths hacksawed off the ears and filed down the rest by hand.

Jim

[cpttango30]

Nope I had the rear base made for the rifle.

[TRAP55]

Remington Model 30 was the commercial version.

[Jim K]

For the Model 30, Remington did mill off the rear sight ears and base, but even if you can find the right base for the Model 30, there still is no guarantee it will work on your gun.

Jim