Postwar dovetail claw mount scopes, rail removal?

On edit: Forgot, Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I have seen a number of what appear to be good deals on post-war German scopes on Ebay, for scopes with a dovetail rail on the bottom of the tube, such as this one:


(photo shamelessly lifted from an ebay auction)

Seems like these could be a decent scope for a repro sniper, provided the dovetail could be removed.

Anyone ever try to remove these?

Thanks.

before you buy understand if you are getting an alloy or steel tube -rail -e.g Nickel made many lightweight alloy models

that one has been taken from a break open single shot rifle or drilling

attempting to remove the rail can be done but is essentially impractical

either buy a scope without a rail or , if your semi-skilled or have someone who can do the work you can modify a railed scope to fit a 98 easily enough by (1) re-working the removable parts that have the claws these will always be of steel construction so that they now can be used with your choice of commercial US style bases ie remove the claws machine and weld on some other fixture- and make sure you also 'extend' them to get enough clearance height so you can use the scope with a 98k bolt and (2) you can also easily get the correct 98k receiver spacing by simply drillling a fresh hole in the rail to bring your now modified rear ring into the correct spacing/location

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emcon5 said:

On edit: Forgot, Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I have seen a number of what appear to be good deals on post-war German scopes on Ebay, for scopes with a dovetail rail on the bottom of the tube, such as this one:

(photo shamelessly lifted from an ebay auction)

Seems like these could be a decent scope for a repro sniper, provided the dovetail could be removed.

Anyone ever try to remove these?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

The alloy vs steel tube is a consideration, but do you (or anyone else) know how the dovetails are attached? Or are they not attached at all but made as part of the tube?

From the looks of things, there are a lot of different options in scopes which have this sort of rail. A quick look at current eBay offerings, finds among others several
6x Zeiss Jena DDR ZF6, a Zeiss Diatal 4 x 32, a couple different Hensoldt Wetzlar 4x, and a Hertel & Reuss/Kassel 6x.

Thanks.

the rails on the dural scopes are made as part of the tube.i have seen a few scopes with the rails removed and they are always file finished.when you remove the mounting rail of the scope you also remove much of the value of the scope.the scope becomes a parts scope.since the dural scopes are made to be mounted by using the mounting rail the tube outside diameter is not the same as a steel tubed scope.the outside diameter is different enough that it takes special rings to use the scopes.you would at least need 30mm rings with custom bushings.removing the rail is like taking a good K98 and cutting down the barrel and cutting the stock off for a rubber buttplate.

Thanks for the clarification. Not worth messing with then.

Cheers.