long safety and turret scope mounts

I suspect one of the reasons why the Germans had high turret mounts was clearance for the safety. They later developed a lengthened safety that allowed for lower objective lens & scope body in relation to the bore. It was ugly but it worked.

Modernly a good gunsmith can install a swing type safety (think modern Win M70) that won't interfere with the scope, but that would be more complicated and who has time to do that when there's a war on. The longer safety does the job without modification to the bolt shroud (more machining, hand fitting to get it to work).

So, what are your thoughts on the turret scope mounts? With those high mounts, you really don't get much of a cheek weld. More of a jaw weld which I think is awkward (but hey, that's me). The British compensated for it by screwing on a wood cheekpiece on their No. 4 (T).

A lot of things to answer here. First I’ll start off by saying that you should get newer reference material concerning snipers. Law’s book on snipers is full of outdated information. He did good for the time but we have learned a lot since then. The best books are the ones in the link above by Karem and Steves.

Now to address some of your questions including the ones in other posts. Scope clearance has nothing to do with low and high turret mounts. The high turret mount was a simplification of the low turret Mount. Nothing to do with scopes.

The long key safety was developed late in 1944 and used only on Long Side Rails. Hope this helps

Got the books and read that the high turrets were developed as a simplification.

There is still the issue of the safety on the low turrets. Were they that high just for the clearance of the safety? Does anyone have a low turret and if so, can they swing the safety over to check how much clearance between the scope and the safety?

You do realize the rear ring and base are the same height on low and high turrets, right? All of the rear pieces are dimensionally interchangeable.


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Never physically examined one. Don't own one. I can only see them in pictures in books or at museums.

I'll go be poor somewhere else.

Lol, I don’t have one either, join the poors. It’s just the misconception that high and low turret describes the height if the scope. You can put a high turret scope on a low turret rifle, it looks odd but you can do it. I’m just pointing that out - your question can be answered using either.


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To my knowledge the term "low turret" comes from the fact that the locking spring in the front turret is mounted on bottom, so low. Compared to the later high turret, where the locking spring is mounted rather on top of the front ring bottom portion. This also results in the fact that the cutout for the locking mechanism of the low turret is milled on the very bottom of the base, whereas on the high turret the cutout in the front scope base is milled about in the middle.

The longer safety is not really lower than the shortened sniper safety. It just makes the safety easier to engage and disengage with a scope installed.

Both low and high turret snipers still kept their original Flag safety on the bolt. They typically would have minor amounts of them ground to add extra clearance though, the safety flag was only found on the LSR mounts.

Now going from my thoughts as a shooter with a K98k High turret as my fav rifle:

I've had two replica K98 Snipers put together professionally, but I left the flag safeties alone and they still clear the scope just fine with no hassle, even though its close.

Now honestly the chinweld, mid cheek weld for me you get easily used to with even minor amounts of practice. These weren't sub Moa rifles so don't expect it, but even then in a braced position or bench rest, I get on average .95-1.6 inch groups with S&B 8mm mauser ammo.

With my High Turret replica, i've put at least 2,700 rounds according to my log, probably more, and I absolutely love it. My favorite rifle that follows me everywhere in life, except around town and work on the ranch.

The turret mounts are very stable, but add lot of weight to the rifle which helps in stability, and perfect return to zero when detaching and reattaching the scope.