Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Leupold style bases for mini Mauser?

Are there any Leupold style bases available for a Charles Daly/Zastavas mini Mauser? I have one that may be the scope or it may be the holes, front and back are not aligned. The scope is out of windage adjustment and still a four inches out. I’ll change out the scope first but wondered about the availability of Leupold style bases. I’ve not found any yet. And I’m not sure on the windage adjustable Weaver rings. Never used them.

Another option would be to have a smith open up the holes to 8x40 and get them aligned proper while doing so. That cures the problem rather than just treating the symptoms.

Leupold catalogs a 1-piece base for the Remington 799, which should fit. Whether one can be located, I don't know.

There are rings for Weaver bases that are windage adjustable. They have clamp screws on both sides.

Mart, the Interarms/Charles Daly/Zastava 'Mini Mark X' (aka Mini Mauser) receivers are notorious for the rear bridge height not being anywhere close to working with available bases. It's not a base issue, regardless of brand. It's a receiver issue. In fact, two piece Weaver brand bases come with a shim set to shim the rear base higher. Depending on the scope, this can also show up as reduced windage adjustment available.

Other than just slapping stuff on and hoping that something will 'work', the best approach is to equalize the base heights to start with and go from there. If that interests you, I'd be happy to post up some pics on how I did mine.

My little 223 Interarms is one of the handiest hunting rigs I own.


Good shootin' -Al

Al,

I have several mini Mausers. This is the first one to show a problem. I need to find a few minutes to pull the scope off and check the hole alignment. I’ve not had to use the shims on any of my others. Most of them are Charles Daly imports. Wonder if the QC was better on them. This one is a Zastavas 7.62x39.

Al, I would be interested to hear of your method. Thanks

Al,

I’d like to see your method as well. I seem to keep finding lefty mini Mausers and may run into one that needs your treatment.

Mart

First, the Hackett Base Align jig is used to orient the bases straight to each other. This also tells you if the receiver holes aren't in alignment with each other:


Then the bases are bedded to the receiver to equalize the base heights. You can see the epoxy oozing out from under the bases:


After lapping, the scope tube is bedded to the rings:


On this Mini, I did two sets of rings:


The result is aligned bases perfectly centered on the receiver, maximum base-to-receiver contact and maximum scope tube to rings contact.

Good shootin' -Al

Thank you sir

Al, where do you get that jig? Thanks for posting that.

It was designed by my friend, Dan Hackett. They were mfgd by Delta Tool in Iowa. One side does Picatinny/Weaver bases and the other does the Davidson/Kelbly style bases. When Dan passed quite suddenly, production ceased.

I can't tell you how many times I've used it....and think of Dan every time.