Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Stith mount options

Currently I have a Weaver K 2.5 1" Stith scope mount that I put on my Dad's 250 Savage 99. Now I'm getting older I can see the near future need for a scope on my 303 savage 99. I have another 1" Stith mount but do not have a scope for it, at least not yet.

Will a Weaver K3 1" also work on the Stith? Can the eye piece be removed the same as the K2.5 to install it on the Stith?

What other options are available for a 1" Stith Savage 99 mount?

Pm Lightfoot on here he makes a split ring, that you can use with the stith front end, and you wont have to remove the rear bell!

K3s and K2.5s work, but you better check them out before you buy because not all have removable eye pieces. You can step down in diameter and go with a 7/8-in Lyman Alaskan given you can find one cheap enough. Going to 3/4 will get you into a Weaver 330 or a J2.5. If it was me I'd go with the J scope. But my favorite is a Lyman 2.5 in a 1-in Stith mount. One scope that does intrigue me is the Unertl 3 power. I haven't messed with those so I don't know if the eye piece is readily removable. I don't recollect the name of the Unertl but their scopes went by names such as Vulture and Hawk. Best of luck.

How do you tell if the K3 and K2.5's have removable eye piece? The K2.5's I've seen all have threads on the eye piece, does this mean they can be removed? I already have a 1" Stith so changing to 7/8" or 3/4 isn't in the works. If I didn't already have the Stith I'd be getting Lightfoot's design. I didn't know that Lightfoot made just a split ring for the Stith front end.

The more research I do the more I can see that it's best just to get a early Weaver K2.5 (one without the screw caps), otherwise they might be nitrogen filled. Any other way to date them to determine if eye piece can be removed?

The Lyman Alaskan is just to difficult to find for a decent price.

Every K2.5 and K3 I ever saw had an un-screwable ocular bell (edit: removable that is). Just unscrew it and assemble your rig. Don't worry about losing the nitrogen atmosphere from inside because even if it ever had any, by now it has leaked out. Old Weavers weren't exactly air tight. The biggest hassle will be in getting the ocular ring back to where it was to assure it's as focused as well as it was before the operation. (You do know that is the chief reason behind an adjustable ocular, right?) Be darned careful not to poke anything into the scope tube while you have it apart.

The old basement gunsmith's trick was to hold the scope vertical (objective lens up) while unscrewing the ocular lens to do tricks like this. The theory was that nitrogen is lighter than air and won't leak downward out of the open tube until the ocular lens went back on. I dunno, but like I said an old scope likely doesn't have any nitrogen in it anymore and if it's a new scope that does, I'm not taking the ocular bell off to find out.

Those old Weaver K-series were decent scopes in their day. I use a factory refurbished K2.5 in a G&H QD mount on my Mauser sporter. It's ok for what I use it for. If heaven forbid I stoop to using a scope on a 99 for a serious hunting trip, you can bet it'll be a Leupold or better. Quaint old scopes have their place, but remember why the old guys were reluctant to switch over to them from iron sights- they sucked.

Ah, but grasshopper- you get what you pay for is doubly true when it comes to optics.

I used to live in Las Cruces, New Mexico, 45-miles up the road from El Paso where Weaver was located. I always thought that Weaver scopes were filled with nothing more than hot Texas air. There is an abundance of that stuff down there. Desert wise that is.

Gnoahh, this is where you and I respectfully disagree. I'm not giving no 4 or $500 for a Weaver steel tube copy. powdr

??? 'Splain yourself Lucy!

Yes, I worked up an aluminum ring for the rear mount so you don't have to worry about taking the scope apart. BUT, it only works with the windage adjustable style mounts.

I've heard that the latest K3s won't come apart but don't know the breakpoint.

Hopefully, the split ring will accommodate other 1" options.

Of course Lightfoot also makes another excellent solution for non-drilled 99s. On the subject of K3s, I have examples of both. I have K3s that come apart and some that don't. I have an outstanding K3 with a duplex reticle I picked up a few years ago and I'll be damned if I can get the eye piece to come off. You get to the end of the threads and it binds up. And I know if I force the issue it won't end well. Stith mounts are a crazy thing when you think of it. They represent the most expensive mount you ever will buy for mounting one of the cheapest scopes you can find. I know that last statement will cause some problems with a few of you guys but an old steel tube Weaver is not a new Leupold. There were even better scopes on the market when the steel tube Weavers were being made. But what are you going to do? It is the combination of scope and mount we are pretty much stuck with unless you drill the gun or go with the aforementioned Lightfoot mount.

There is a way to get a Leupold on with the old system. I have done it. Though, it takes some talking to with the people at Leupold. And, they recharged the scope.

My favorite system is the 7/8 inch with a Lyman Alaskan with either plain crosshairs or post with cross wire.

The 7/8 inch set up seems to fit the gun better, esp on the carbines.

Gary: I don't know how your eyes are with irons, but as soon as it gets a little dark, I cannot look through the aperture disk. With a scope, I can still see.

Well, Jeff, I'm not all that concerned anymore about killing stuff so as to worry about not seeing to shoot early in the morning and late in the evening. On the other hand, I truly never felt handicapped by aperture sights at the edge of darkness- that's why god gave us Merit adjustable apertures (which open wide for low light and narrow for bright light) and genuine gold bead front sights. You Eastern woods hunting scope guys might gain 15 minutes or so on me at either end of the day but that's really about it. Those 15 minutes aren't enough to cause me to wreck the wonderful handling/carrying characteristics of my favorite deer rifles by hanging scopes on them.

Two of my faves (bolt guns) are adapted to G&H QD sidemounts, but the scopes ride in leather tubes slung over my shoulder to be installed if I take a position at the edge of a field or clearing across which I may possibly get a shot. The rest of the time the rifles remain a joy to carry in my hands all day, topped with aperture sights. (Note: I shot the one Mauser, .30-06, this past Saturday for the first time in two years. With sights, the first three shots went into the bullseye, just where I left it two years ago. I removed the sight slide to make room for the scope tube and locked on the old refurbished Weaver K2.5. The next three with the scope overlaid the first three shots taken with irons within an inch or so, at 100 yards. I then removed the scope and fired three more after re-inserting the Lyman sight slide. Yup, three more into the original group. I'm satisfied with the system.)

The rig in question:





The system can be adapted to a 99 too, if you have a gun that you don't mind attaching a side mount base to. And obviously I could take advantage of those extra couple of minutes at dark with this system too, if I felt like it.