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Yes! My wife knows I fall down a lot and that I shoot irons pretty well. She would kick my ass if I blew all a hunt's worth of money and vacation time by not having iron sights when I trashed my rifle.


Okie John

Yup, good point, OJ, I have always quietly chuckled when I am in a remote camp in northern B.C. and see guys who have paid BIG $$$$ for a hunt and they bring a rifle wearing a large variable scope in something like Leupy DD mounts.

I have seen this quite often and I have good irons on all my hunting rifles as an incident in my second season, 1965, when a brand new Bushnell scope fogged on me up in the then-remote Lardeau area of B.C. taught me a lesson, the hard way.

I prefer the P-64 Mod. 70 Alaskan in a synthetic stock, with a one-piece Leupy QR base, QR rings, Leupy 1.75x6 scope and an old, steel receiver sight with sourdough front for all my serious backpack hunting. Not the lightest rifle around, but, the reliability, power and available spare irons has worked for me since the early '90s; before that, I used Redfield one piece mounts and the receiver sight setup for years, especially on work rifles.

Part of my preference for the .338 "old" Mod. 70s over the .375s, at one point I had five in .338 and three in .375, is the fact that the .338s can be setup this way and the .375s cannot. Here in Canada, where good gunsmiths are very few, one has to often work out practical setups on one's own rifles and this works just fine.

kute, any chance we could see a photo of that sight setup?


Okie John

Where are the differences between one piece and 2 piece bases (on the leupold QR format)?

I'm sorry, but, I do not have a digital camera or the gizmo to post pix and I don't expect to get one until next year. Just visualize the old Redfield 1-piece base, only in the Leupy QR style, with high rings and an old type steel receiver sight mounted in the factory side holes, slide left in.

This only works well with Leupy scopes, synthetic stocks with their high combs and the sourdough front, but, if done with 8/40 screws as mine are and epoxied to the receiver, it works and it has yet to fail me. I also have a spare B&L Balvar 1.5x6x32 in Leupy QR rings for the two Alaskans I use most and even some spare parts from a beater P-64.

You cannot do this with an FN, Brno, HVA or any other CRF actioned rifle I know of and this is one of the reasons I prefer the P-64-.338 and have been willing to seek them out and pay the high $$$$$ they command in the market.

The major difference is that the 1-piece base is attached by 3 screws, so, I strengthen it by 8/40s and epoxy and the 2-piece has four screws and it's design precludes a setup like this. I started using this type of thing many years ago due to the influence of older guys I worked with in the bush who used the Redfield 1-piece base and a receiver sight.

I don't consider this the ultimate solution, however, it works for my needs where I hunt. There are alternatives, such as Brockman's peep-base for Talley rings, which I ain't real keen on and this costs a lot more $$$$.

Each to his own, but, the Talley's I just put on my very lovely older Dakota 76 do NOT impress me, I would go with EAW mounts if I did it again.

I'm going w/ leupy QR 2pc basses on my M70 LH. I liked the talleys, but I want a solid QR setup with least weight added.

I have tried about everything over the years and I prefer properly setup Leupy mounts and scopes to anything; I can afford the other stuff and do like EAWs for certain things, as the Leupy bases on the Dakota look like hell struck with a club, but, all BS and "snob appeal" aside, Leupy makes gawdam good stuff!

My other choice, IF, you could find them, would be Tom Burgess rings on custom bases with Recknagel irons.

"My other choice, IF, you could find them, would be Tom Burgess rings on custom bases with Recknagel irons."

...That just "pronounces" too expensive. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The leupolds will be fine until Talley makes a better offering.