Given the modern bases and rings and scopes available today, how does one scope a pre-war model 70, given that the rear bridge has not been drilled and tapped? Is the only answer to find some B&L bases from that period? And given the nature of the pre-war safety, what rings and scope could be used from the modern era? Or must one conjure up and old Weaver from way back when?

You will hopefully hear from some real pros, but I think the short answer is "Stith."

The prewar 70's I've had with scopes used Stith mounts and Lyman Alaskan scopes. The prewar safety was swapped for a Tilden, no modification to the rifle necessary for the mount or the safety.

I'll go against the grain here and suggest you go ahead and have the rear bridge drilled and tapped with the one hole it takes to mount a one piece Redfield style base. Much easier to find rings for it later.
However, another alternative is to find a Weaver/Warne style solid base and have it drilled and countersunk to match your screw holes and mount it that way. Then use good Warne rings.

Bob

haven't acquired the rifle yet... looking at pre-64 and pre-war and wondering the challenges of scoping the latter without drilling and tapping additional holes in the receiver, which i'd like not to do... unless it is just a beater.

wow, few bites on this hook. i guess the solutions are slim

I happen to have a one piece Redfield base for the Model 70. Not 100% sure it would fit the prewar action but you could try screwing it down with the front screws only and just not use the rear screw and see if it is solid enough for use. It would be worth a try as they are usually very solid bases. PM me if you're interested in giving it a try- if you buy the rifle, that is...

Bob

Gunwizard's advice is right on. Use a Stith QED "install it yourself" streamline mount & add a Tilden or Buehler safety lever. If the rifle is pristine & unaltered, Do NOT under any circumstance D&T the rear receiver bridge.

Bob, that's not going to work too well. There's a reason for the third screw.

Depends on what you're going to use the rifle for. If it isn't a museum piece, drill and tap a single hole in the rear bridge for a one-piece mount and be done with it. Screwing around with ancient Stith mounts and equally ancient (and expensive) Lyman Alaskan scopes only makes sense if the rifle is pristine, a Super Grade, or in some scarce chambering. You're not going to drastically devalue a run-of-the-mill pre-war M70 by drilling a single hole in the rear bridge.

If you absolutely have to go the Stith route, look around for a Norman-Ford Texan. Same scope as the Lyman at half the price. The Stith QED was also available for 1" tubes as well as 7/8", so an old Weaver K2.5 or K3 would work. Stith also made what they called their "Master" mount, which looks like a cross between the QED and a B&L. It's intended for scopes with enlarged objectives (not straight tubes like the QED), so it should work with modern scopes. No extra bridge holes needed. The mount is not aesthetically pleasing.

Vintage Alaskans and the like are cool scopes, but if you're going to shoot it a lot, or hunt with it, more modern optics are probably a better idea. JMHO, of course.

Agreed, just trying to throw something out there to try. Still, even with only 2 screws installed it would still be better than most of the old Stith mounts and most of the mounts designed for mounting without drilling the bridge. I've bought a couple pre 64's with the Stith and other mounts on them and they were a POS compared to newer style mounts. My first suggestion above was to just drill the rear bridge and I still stick with that being the most practical alternative.....

Bob

IMO, an extra hole automatically relegates the gun to 'shooter' status and devalues it by at least 50%....

Jack probably understands the collector market pretty darn well. I think the concept of a single 6-48 hole devaluing a rifle by 50% is a bit nutty, but the rare air of the high end collector market may seem a bit illogical to many. The market is what it is.

I need someone to point me toward some Pre '64's that feed like melted butter, drive tacks, and have been D&T for side mounts that I can buy for low LOW $!

Well I will throw my 2 cents in too. A shooter grade pre war in a standard caliber is a shooter grade pre war in a standard caliber. If I could buy 2 with holes in the rear bridge to use new mounts and a current scope at the price of 1 shooter grade that I had to use open sights with, I would do that as many times as I could find them!

Going to have a custom made out of a Pre War or a Pre 64, the rear bridge is going to be drilled, I haven't seen any customs that didn't have provisions (bridge drilled) for a scope!

Would I pay the premium price for many exceptional condition Pre War guns with the rear bridge drilled? No

Am I going to drill and tap my Pre War shooter grade 7x57 Carbine? NO!

The only way I would agree with that statement is if it was a pristine rifle in a rare chambering or configuration. If it was one of the more numerous rifles like a standard 30-06, 270, or 243 it will make some difference, but 50% is an overstatement. I've seen way too many Pre 64's bought, sold, and displayed to buy into that. Let's say you find a Pre 64 Pre war 30-06 in say 80% condition. For a prewar that would be considered pristine as anything better than that would be suspiciously like a re-habbed rifle. I would put the value of a prewar in that condition in this area to be around $700 or so, possibly a bit more. D&T'ing a hole in the rear bridge for a scope mount isn't suddenly going to make this a $350 rifle at any place I've seen them for sale, in my experience. Probably more like a $550 price tag and possibly a bit more depending on who you are dealing with.

The OP has to decide what he wants and accurate information would probably be helpful in that decision. If it turns out to be a big stumbling block, buy a Win Classic and build it like you want. If I wanted to build a custom on a Pre 64, I would just look for a beater and build away. There seems to be plenty of them around these days. I passed one up at a gun show 3 weeks ago for $500.

Bob