Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Lets talk d+t?

So a few years ago i inherited an old savage 99 that had been in my family presumably since it was manufactured in the 20's. The stock was broken when i got it, so i brought it to a gunsmith to see if he could turn it back into a shooter. He pointed out that the rear scope mount was in the wrong place, and as a result the scope was not true. He removed the scope mounts,and filled in the holes with some tiny screws, but ive still got the scope, an old weaver k2.5

My question is this: would getting the reciever re-drilled and tapped, this time in the proper location affect the integrity of the reciever at all?

I doubt it , but a picture is worth a thousand words

https://imgur.com/a/ScRUnns

The picture with my thumb and forefinger show the location of the old holes, and where the holes are supposed to be

You could go with a Lightfoot scope mount.

Check Savage sub forum on here.

Uses rear sight dovetail and tang peep sight holes. IIRC about 160 bucks (base only, uses reg Redfield/Leupold/Burris rings).

But since somebody already added holes...........

The only problem i see with using a scopemount that uses the tang screws and the rear sight dovetail is that this particular rifle happens to be a take down model. The rear sight is damn near halfway down the barrel, i'd need to buy something damn near the size of a telescope to bridge the distance between the tang screw and the rear sight dovetail.

It was used all these years as is. Why did the gunsmith feel it was nessary to change it?

The short version is that the rear mount was placed too far back on the tang, resulting in a scope that wasn’t level.

Now, in my 30 years on this earth I had never seen the gun until it became mine, but people had told me that previous owners had a hell of a time zeroing the scope

Saw your pic in the image gallery. I only see 3 holes at the tang, the two standard rear for an aperture sight, and the 3rd just behind the cocking indicator ... looks like that was tapped for some type of 3-hole scope mount, 1 rear and the two on the receiver ring. Not sure if the two on the receiver ring are standard spacing. As over on the Savage Collector forum here.

It actually appears that when drilled and tapped, the only drilled 1 hole for the rear mount, and used the front tang screw for the other hole.

If it were me, I would buy a picatinny rail type base and drill it and counterbore it for the existing holes and the cocking indicator. Cut it to the length you need, Then mount your scope anywhere you want...

Bob

To answer your question, no it won't effect the integrity of the receiver one iota. Why would it?

I don't think you understand the Lightfoot mount. Sure, it's long but that's just to span the distance between tang sight holes and barrel dovetail (so as to obviate the need to drill and tap any new holes in a factory original gun). The scope base itself is a regular old Redfield or Leupold one piece base integral with the long custom Lightfoot mount. You can use any compatible rings you want and any scope your heart desires.

Im buying that williams mount from lightfoot. Checks going in the mail tomorrow. It seems like everything should work just right.