Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing crooked scope base holes

picked up a 1903 Springfield bubba for a project, i noticed whoever had D & T'd it for weaver bases did both the front and rear holes crooked, he must have been half in the bag at the time, even got the holes on the side for a lyman peep sight crooked as well. however i use the Redfield 1 pc windage adjustable base and it looked like it would miss the crooked holes,allowing me to have new ones drilled properly. almost. the rear reciever hole is fine, however the one that goes to the rear of the receiver ring lines up over a crooked one, the front most hole has unmolested steel underneath.

i am wondering if i have a new one drilled on the front, if i can get away with only having 2 screws holding the base on instead of 3, i don't intend to build this into a heavy recoiling caliber, probably a 6.5x54, 257 Roberts, something along those lines. would it help if as a final step to drill the offset hole a little larger, and have a permanent pin inserted to help reinforce a bit. not expecting miracles, but would like to make it work, this can turn into real nice rifles with a bit of work.

First make sure Bubba didn't put any of those holes in the receiver ring where he shouldn't have. My guess is he d/t'ed without benefit of spot annealing or guidance of the bit (center punching, drill guide, etc.) and the bit just skated around until it bit. That, or like you said, he was in the bag. Darn shame. Swiss cheesing it further probably won't hurt anything but it would bother me. Even though the holes will be covered over I would still see them every time I picked up the gun. I would look for another action, or at the very least fill the old holes. As for two screws vs. three, even with a light recoiling round I would feel a lot better if it had three. I guess there's but one way to find out. Just my opinions, others may vary!

They should make it a Federal crime to possess drills and taps if you don't know what you're doing!

Well I've got a compotent smith, so I guess I'll just take it out to him later this week. I'm not into it for a lot, but its hard to find one around here for a resonable price that hasn't been buggered beyond repair, and yes I plan to fill the holes before bluing, if it gets that far.

It would have to be done with a vertical milling machine and a carbide milling cutter, but I would suggest milling the old screw holes out and re-tapping for 8-40 threads.

That is considering that the milling cutter would clean up the crooked holes and place the new holes in the correct place.

Plug the holes that are out of line,then drill the new ones.
I have had to use some sleeve retainer type loc-tite on the plugs.

Just knock the holes straight up and down with a carbide endmill, tap for #8's and make bases to match the off set.

It is not uncommon to find a DHT receiver drilled off center. My DHT 257AI is .020 off front hole to rear hole. It was still an '06 when I found it in a pawn shop. The bases that accept Zee rings and #8's I made with the same offset, and as long as they remain with the rifle, all is well.