Rifles with low power, long eye relief scopes are nice for hunting and other short range shooting. I like em, they open up the field of view. Before you can hit a target, you have to locate it. Wide fields of view are nice for this.
Anyhow, I've seen a few M44 scouts at the range and decided to build one or two. Also, I really wanted to put scopes on the pair of K31 Swiss rifles but the top eject port kind of gets in the way.
So I got one of the M44 mount deals, which came with some extra stuff for ~$30 or so. I forget.
And I got one that fits the Swiss in the same manner, which I will now describe.
The M44 replacement base is a Picatinny rail with some leveling screws fore and aft of the single mount point. Punching out the leaf pin in the M44'r rear sight allows you to remove the elevation device and spring underneath. The replacement base sits where the spring was, and is held in place by two small screws which pass through the leaf pin holes and thread into the aluminum base. I had to machine off a bit of the replacement mount to get it to fit. That's not unusual, due to the differences in individual M44s. Once the holes line up, carefully set the screws.
These screws are small. Good thing we're mounting a really tiny piece of optics.
Now there are 3 set screws in the new base. The first one from the front end is pointed and sets on the front of the M44's site base, just a few mm's from the mount point.
Here's the problem: you have to set these screws perfectly, or else you torque the mount. This is not possible in my opinion. They have to be set so that they are all in contact WITHOUT actually putting any pressure on the mount/rifle. Since there is a central mount point, anything you do to these screws is going to bend the ends of the Picatinny rail upwards. See if you can get any kind of rings aligned on this thing. If thats not at all important, and it might not be, then forget about it. Throw a cheap handgun scope on there and go shooting.
Same goes for the K31 mounts. These are meant to solve the problem without the need for drilling & tapping the receiver or otherwise permanently modifying the rifle.
