Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Period correct scope mount 88 winchester

Well I'm a classic auto enthusiast and I guess my idea of "period correct" applies to the right look, the right wheels & tires, the right paint for a certain build whether it's an early 70's muscle car, a late mid 60's build, an early mid 60's... a 50's nose high gasser etc. And for this rifle I simply had the same path of thought.

I had no idea that the term period correct was reserved for or pertained specifically to firearms of collectable status.

With "period correct" in my post title I certainly wasn't implying that I had some sort of wonderful collector gun here.

I just have a hunting rifle that I do hunt with and I want it to wear 45 year old optics, rings & bases. That's all.

Sorry I got hot headed, I may have incorectly read/interpreted things as a relatively condescending reply and that set me off a bit.


My stupid Millet rings have got to go and I'm just looking for ideas on what mounts to shop for on ebay or on other sites that might be peddling trinkets like that.

These are as period correct as any you'll find. The "big knob" Weaver's are what was on my 1955 vintage 336 SC when I got it. It had an early to mid-60's Weaver 3X on it so figure it was scoped about the same time as your rifle was made.

The only problem with the ones I show on that K2.5 weaver is that they only open far enough to slide on the 1" tube.

Good for straight tube scopes only. I was going to use these until I realized they wouldn't open so I could put them on the old Leupold I've got. The need to slide on from the end, know what I mean?

Ray, sorry i was a dick.

I took offense & shouldn't have

Dave, my M88 is a 63 vintage and I have Redfield rings and one piece base from the mid-1990's on mine and a Leupold 3-9x40 from the 100 year tin box (think it is a VX-II derivative). The Redfield base looks vintage to the gun, but the Redfield rings from the 1960's used four screws instead of two screws like the mid-90's style. You might find some older Redfield rings in a gunshop somewhere on the shelves or on one of the auction websites. Good luck in your project, I think the M88 will look cool decked out in vintage optics.



Ps. At one time Redfield made a set of rings that had some light engraving on them and the screw came up from the bottom, it was blind on the top side. I know they are older than the 1990's but don't know if they go back into the 1960's. I think I still have a used pair somewhere out in the shed if you think they might work for you.

Thats cool odessa. We put one of those 100 yr tin box leupolds on my boy's M70, I believe they are a VXII

Dave,Just for your info the Weaver refurb facility in El Paso closed a couple of years ago.The guy finally retired.He started that business after Weaver closed in El Paso.He was the guy who did refurbs for Weaver.I managed to squeak one in right before he closed.
Incidentally the term "period correct" can apply to anything you wish it to.

Stan in SC

Dang Stan, I didn't know they closed.

Thanks though.

Supposedly these folks took over repairing old Weavers from Frank Ruiz in El Paso. They bought all of his repair parts inventory.

http://www.ironsightinc.com/

Here's the thread where I found this: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth..._Maintenance_of_El_Paso_Weav#Post4405884

Also, if I understand you correctly the old rings just won't slip over the scope tube from the side. That was common on Weaver rings up until a while ago. Wrap a narrow piece of paper just a tad wider than the ring around the scope tube to protect it, notebook paper works okay, and you can pop those rings over the tube. You should be able to do it without the paper, obviously, but that could scratch it. You can even double the paper for a little extra protection.

Don't know when they changed the rings but do know what you mean. The Weavers I've bought in the last couple of years will easily slide right over a 1" tube from the side with no problem.

Hmmm, seriously?

They have that much spring and memory to them?

That's interesting. I might take a look at that today but my initial thoughts were that if you tried to open the clamp style ring it would just bend open & stretch/distort the ring's metal?

I'll look at that today though. If that works then I'm done with my search.

Don't want to mess up your scope so if the rings are really, really tight then I wouldn't force it. You should only have to apply maybe 10 pounds of pressure on the ring to get it to pop over the tube.

One other thought and I apologize if this is so obvious as to sound stupid. But the rings do come apart. When you take the two screws out that fasten the upper ring to the base half the upper ring slides sideways out of that slot in the lower half on the other side.

You just need to pop the upper half over the scope. Then you join it back to the lower half by sliding it's hook back into that groove opposite the two screw holes. It won't pop back into that groove from over the top, you have to move one half forward and one half back and then slide it in from the front or back.

Only reason I thought of this is your comment about them having that much memory. If you try to pry the ring up over the scope without separating the upper and lower half then, yes - that's going to ruin the rings.

Again, don't mean to make such a "duh" comment but just trying to cover all possible situations.

I know the kind you are talking about Jim but these ones I have are a little dirrerent. They don't have the upper ring portion that hooks the ring base on one side and has the screws on the other side. They are aluminum and I messed around with trying to pop them on over the side of the old weaver 1" scope tube and they egg shape, they simply bend. I'm pretty certain these rings are ment to slide on really simple 1" scopes with no bell shaped ends.

I visited a friend of mine at a local hardware store this morning and we got talking about this. He said he has some inventory in the back of the store that they purchased from an old area sporting store that went out of business 10 years ago or so. He went in back and came out with a weaver swing away or "tip off" style set of rings & 1 piece base. Those rings had the hook & screw style ring caps.

The stuff was new old stock. I'm thinking about giving them a try, although tip offs wouldn't be my first choice.

10 bucks for the rings & base.

Can't beat the price but I'm not sure if I want them.

I experimented on the old weaver scope so I didn't scratch the leupold which is the scope I will be mounting.

I didn't get a chance to look closer at the tip away rings on Dads 88 , but it looks like there is no a 1 pc base , just the rings .
Out of fear of tipping away too often and loosening them up , I've only tried the tip away a few times . The rear sight flips up and I get the same poi at 100 yards , scope latches back down very secure and no deviation on the target. I guess that they were designed not only to flip the scope away if the lenses got covered in rain or snow , but also for when the older scopes went bad.
And if it don't look just right on that '56 model I don't care because that is the way it has been set up for a long time and that's close enough for me

That's cool Phil.

That may be the way I go, my buddy has a NIB setup like that for mine. Hinge is a bit different but otherwise it looks the same.

Having owned the same 88 since 64,I can say that the Weaver V-7 was a popular scope back then. There was a special run that was a cheaper verison with plastic turret knob covers vs the better one with steel covers.I have one of each There was also a Redfield tip off mount called a "Quick Switch", however, the base itself was too thick to effectively see the irons ,so I machined a groove in them to facilitate seeing them.These were a two piece mount.The ring base and mount were integral. The gun came back to zero very well after flipping the scope off to the side and flipping back. ( I still have those mounts.)

At the time, Bushnell offered a 3x9 " Banner " scope for $19 that had no self centering reticle and one had to at least shim it to get the reticle sort of aligned height wise. Mine always in the upper right quadrant.I had one on the 88 prior to the V-7. Leupolds were not very common then and were usually seen more on high end guns as were Bheulers.

At the time, the gun cost $136 and the Weaver scope was $46

Dave- I wouldn't worry about the Weaver pivot mounts. They are rock solid. I've used them for years on a Rem. 742, a Marlin 336, and a couple of Savage 99's.

I've never had one fail to return to zero, and have never inadvertently bumped one out of position while carrying in the woods.

In all fairness, I can only remember a couple of occasions when I had to use the pivot feature (fogged lenses), but didn't see anything to shoot either time, so there's really not much utility for it with a quality scope.

What they are great for, however, is mounting a scope low to the gun. I haven't seen any other mounting system that can get a scope lower.

Oh yeah they get that scope low, that's for sure.

I'll maybe do that today. If I do I'll post pics.

These have got the pointed allen head set screws for the pivot.

I doubt I'd ever use the pivot so I'd probably just snug those screws pretty good.

Leupold Detacho Mounts, 2-pieces bases and rings, would be a nice match to the old Leupold 3-9x.

Jeff