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Husqvarna Scope Mount Chart-Apeture Sights Updated January 15, 2011

108K views 69 replies 29 participants last post by  Robinpeck 
#1 · (Edited)
I have reviewed most of the latest listings from the major scope mount manufacturers and the Husqvarna listings are steadily disappearing. Many of the mounts shown in the charts are long obsolete and no longer manufactured. However, old stock and used bases show up for sale all the time on the internet and the mount stock numbers for the obsolete bases should be useful in those instances. For Weaver type mounts, I am very fond of the Weaver Grand Slam and Warne bases. For new one or two piece type dovetail mounts I also like the Conetrol and S&K bases. They are expensive, but they fit. Currently, Numrich/Gun Parts has the Tradewinds 808 scope rings/mounts that were made specifically for the 1640 series of Husqvarna rifles. Pictures of the Tradewinds Esquire mounts are here:
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?t=135541
I have not included Griffin & Howe or EAW mounts because the mounts cost into the hundreds of dollars and there are plenty of mounts that work just as well.




Just mounted a set of Weaver Grand Slam mounts (S46/S55) on my HVA 3000/1640 and they fit like a glove. I would expect regular Weaver mounts with the same number would fit just as well.

Ironsighter Mounts

I missed these mounts when I put the chart together. I'm not crazy about them BUT, they are solid and they solve some issues with the older HVA models, e.g., M46, 146, 640. These mounts are high enough the bolt lift and travel are unhindered, the flag safety can be used easily, and the iron sights can be used without removing the mounts. They are also still available, see:
http://www.ironsighter.com
On mine the front one is numbered, 733 and the rear mount is 734.


Obsolete Scope Mounts:

This section will cover mounts that are long out of production.
First up is the Stith Master Mount


APETURE SIGHTS -

We’ve had some good posts on the Swedish jaktdiopter, but they are very rare and difficult to obtain. Many of the HVA/FN98 and HVA 1640 receivers are factory d/t for American made diopter mounting hole spacing and there are several very good American made diopters available. The Lyman No.57-FN and No.57-HVA are currently made and widely available. Other current American production sights are the Williams 5D-JEMS and Foolproof 98 aperture sights. These are good sights and will serve the average hunter quite well. If you are looking for something a little more “time period” appropriate and what I consider to be some of the best diopters made anywhere at anytime, the Lyman and Redfield models in the photo are definitely worth considering.

Production of the grand old Lyman No. 48-M ended in 1947 after some 36 years and three variations. They were used on some of the Swedish target rifles of the 1920-30s and if you can find one, would still do duty on the later HVA hunting rifles. They don’t seem to show up much on the auction sites and they will usually bring a goodly sum when they do. The No.48 in the photo came home from Sweden a few years ago and you can see the electropenciled meter markings put there by a previous Swedish owner.

Redfield manufactured three aperture sights that are of particular interest: No.70, No.80, and No.102, all with “M” suffix. Production on all these models ended in 1964.

My personal favorite is the Redfield No. 70-M. They could be had with either hunter or target knobs and a variety of eyepieces. The No.70 is a very high quality all steel sight that has very good windage/elevation adjustments. I have several and I’ve noticed on my small sample that the target knob sights tend to be a little looser than those with the hunter knobs. This is logical because with the target knobs, it is a lot more tempting to play with windage and elevation than on the hunter knob causing more wear in the long term. The hunter knobs adjust easily, but you have to use a coin or similar to turn the knob. An American quarter (25 cent piece) fits perfectly.

The No.80 is similar to the No.70 but has a thinner mounting block, an elevation stop screw, and a quick release button to remove the staff. They are all steel and may fit the HVA rifles with little or no modification to the stock. I test mounted one on a HVA/FN98 and at least in that instance the stock didn’t have to be cut.

The No.102 is a bare-bones basic hunting sight and windage/elevation adjustments are made by sliding the respective mechanisms. It will not adjust quickly and is made for setting a given zero and staying there. Although simple, it is all steel and virtually indestructible. A good back up sight to carry if your scope gets whacked.

Finally, the little thing-uma-bob at the bottom of the photo is a very cleverly made Buehler “Little Blue Peep”. It was made to fit Buehler and Redfield scope mount bases and was adjustable for windage and elevation. I haven’t tried this sight yet on any of my rifles, but a little range test should be very interesting. The rear blade has both an aperture and a notch, so theoretically you could use one or the other and have two known zero ranges. Although the sight radius is basically limited by the distance between the scope mounts, in an emergency and at short ranges it should work just fine.

The Redfield sights seem to show up on ebay quite regularly. I have seen winning bids ranging from $30.00 to $75.00. When all is considered, even at the high end of the price range, these sights are a bargain.

Recknagel in Germany has a line of hunting diopters that look very interesting. New England Custom http://www.newenglandcustomgun.com I believe is the USA distributor for Recknagel products so contact them if you are interested.
 
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#2 ·
kriggevaer - thanks for posting the sigths and bases. YOu are right- the prices you mentioned off E-Bay ARE excellent. consider that the aluminum Foolproof Williams retails here for over $100.00. Those real steel Redfields are cheap.
: I have an A J Parker, Birmingham Model T.Z. K/68 that I might sell - any offers?
 
#3 ·
Another scope base for the 1600, and Lyman 48 caution.

I found another scope base for my Sears 51-L (HVA 1600 action). The box is labeled "Redfield Jr. HC #511136 , Higgins 51-L, HUSQVARNA HVA, Crown". It's a one piece using standard Rdfld, Lpld rings.

The Lyman 48s were the finest target peeps made by Lyman. On the first two versions the sliding elevation arm and it's base were stamped with identical inspectors marks on the inside face of the arm and inside the groove in the base. The sight parts were individually matched at final assembly to reduced mechanical backlash (play) to a minum. The final version is not matched as tooling technology advances made this unnecessary. The older sights were made to take adjustments out to 1000yrds, these are usually seen on '03 and '03Mk1 Springfields.

Warning, the Lyman 48M is for the M or K98 with the clip charger guides on the front of the rear receiver ring. These are not a good fit on Swed or FN commercial actions without these guides. Always get the 48FN model, designed for the flush top rear receiver ring FN/HVA commercial models. Both Hunter and Target knobs are available. The base of these sights can be permanently mounted on the receiver, but, if a scope is mounted the peep sliding arm is too high to fit beneath the scope and must be removed. A dummy slide insert is a must to prevent dirt or rust from fouling the elevation and locking features of the exposed peep base. A dummy slide filler must be used. Hard to find, but easy to make from aluminum stock, then painted to avoid oxidation. To use peep, slide scope out of base, remove dummp filler, insert Elevation Arm down to Stop Screw debth and you're ready to go.

The work that went into this chart must have been a tremendous effort. My sincerest thanks for this help K. Bill
 
#7 ·
Scope base screw spacing on HVAs.

Sometime after WWII the firearms industry adopted standardized screw shank/thread and spacing on newly manufactured arms. Prior to this there existed a variety of spacings for both scopes and receiver sights.

I think that the aftermarket sight makers realized that should one of the big firearms manufactures standardise using a competitors specifications that they would be entirely eliminated from the sight options for those arms. Or prehaps this is exactly what happened and all companies were forced to standardise.

I remember in the '50s that it was really important to get a peep or scope base which matched your gun's pre-drilled screw holes. To this day I keep an M98 Mauser Buehler one piece scope base which didn't match the screw hole in the rear receiver. I attempted to elongate the rearhole a few hundreths and ruined the base.

I learned an important lesson. NEVER experiment with good stuff if you haven't had prior experience. My father said that was also good advice regarding dating. Bill
 
#9 ·
The lowest scope mounts I've used are Griffin&Howe's 2 lever, side mounted, quick-detatchable units. Possibly still available from G&H after their reduction into smaller distinct marketing units. The going price was $250 for a standard base and mount, and $200 for mounting this on your rifle.

These mounts are used with the old Weaver K series, steel tube, straight pipe, scopes once available in 1x through 20x (or more for long range target work) with various reticules and Variable Power models.

The G&H mount allows for positioning the scope at any height above a bare receiver top (as the base is mounted on the side of the receiver) allowing the scope to sit lower than top mounted bases could. The old Weaver K scopes are immensely strong and can be mounted with the objective bell hanging back far enough to really get the scope low.

My first G&H mount was an attempt to see how low I could mount a scope, and we got it so low it was tricky getting cartridges into the magazine (this is the trade-off with a low mounted scope).

Echo made an economical side mount, Paul Jaeger made an excellent, but expensive, side mount and several German side mounts exist. But all of these are now very difficult to find.

As scope reliability improved following WWII, manufacturers economised on iron sights, and today few rifles even have them. I'd reccomend you get a good set, high enough to see over the tops of your scope bases, should you damage your scope like one of my grandsons did. Without iron sights, his deer hunt became a spear-hunt.

For top mounted scope set ups, I reccomend 2 piece bases (leaves the loading port more open without the cross bar of a one piece base). Buehler low rings will keep the scope very low, and, an older Weaver K model straight pipe scope won't have the bulging front bell housing which requires higher bases or rings.

Trade offs in mounting scopes high or low. The scope's Line-Of-Sight is close to the bullet's path as it rises up and intersects the Line-Of-Sight near the muzzle, and again, as gravity pulls the bullet back down across the Line-Of-Sight further out.

The higher a scope is mounted, the further out the second intersection occures, thus permitting longer "dead on aim", but the higher the rise of the bullet between these points.

Early military rifles had "battle sights" set for about 300 meters. This permitted a hit on a 15 inch vertical line from the muzzle all the way out to 300 meters, the height of a man's chest from his belt buckel to his upper chest. Good idea except most shots in battle occured much closer against kneeling or prone targets and it proved to be more difficult to hit a vital zone. Sights were next set in 100 meter increments, but now soldiers (and hunters) had to be trained to accurately estimate distance to targets due to the much shorter points of coincidence which made it easier to "over" or "under" shoot the target zone.

The current practice is to sight-in about 1 1/2in. high at 100 yrds, then, shoot further out to find the point where the bullet strikes about 1 1/2inces low. The shooter can then shoot "dead on" out to the greater distance and never have the bullet strike above or below a 3inch point. The higher a scope is mounted, the greater this distance is, the lower this distance is the shorter this distance is. Also, the higher a scope is mounted, the more likely it is to be knocked out of alighment. The high figure 8 type "see thru" scope mounts are very easy to bump out of alignment. Bill
 
#15 · (Edited)
i have G & H on my early 308 hva action

model 3000. and they look work great. but the bolt arm is very close to the scope. had to polish off a little metal:(
my 1951 , 1100, 1000 all 306s have peep sights redfield or lyman and the snow large hoods match the aperture ring so good that they almost dont need the front sight post.<><dk
 
#17 ·
Hello Silver and Welcome to the forum. That is a tough one. I have found no listings for American made scope bases for the 622, but based on some good advice provided by forum member mauser22, a fine fellow who really knows Husqvarna .22 rifles, it may be possible to find bases that will fit the receiver diameter/contour. It would take some experimenting and if you can match Weaver type bases to your rifle then you are in business. Or by using base blanks from Brownells you would probably be able to make the bases yourself to match the receiver diameter.
 
#18 ·
This is from the factory HVA catalogs and based on my observations.

None of the 622's were grooved.

The first 1622's were not grooved.

Somewhere about the middle of the 1622's they began to groove them and moved the HVA logo to rear of receiver.

All the 1722's are grooved.

Standard 3/8's tip offs work just fine on all those that are grooved.

I had a 622 and have observed one other that a Swedish gunsmith did a good job of making a 3/8 dovetail piece (base) and merely tapping receiver top and screwing it on. Works just fine. His were also narrow enough they did not go out over the loading and ejction port. These were made as one piece.

Brownells makes such a "rail" if you will in two stock lengths and for two diameters of receiver.

Part #080-029-844AB is .840" diameter back (radius) base stock
Part #080-030-104AB is for 1.000 base stock

The receiver on my 1722 measures .820 + or - a few thousands (did not take it out of the wood)

So the .840" stock could be used quite easily by coating receiver with release agent, dyeing acraglass black, then "moulding" it if you will, to the contoured side with the bases cut to desired length (I would prefer two piece but could be one piece with just some contouring over the loading and ejection port). I have done this with other makes of .22 with non-grooved receiver.

Hope that helps.

Aside from the drilling and tapping making the bases from the Brownells stock should be a simple deal.
 
#21 ·
Leupold 2-Piece Quick-Release Scope Base

I'm still contemplating new mounts for my 1640 and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with Leupold 2-Piece Quick-Release Scope Bases made for Antonio Zoli AZ1900 rifles. I know that the Husqvarna 1600 and 1900 rifles accept the same bases but just need to confirm that the scope mounts for the Zoli 1900 are the same as for the Husqvarna.


I think I'll either use these or Weaver bases and Leupold QRW rings.

Cheers,

--Derek
 
#22 ·
Derek, I'm looking for scope mounts for my new 1600H and found you post on the Leupold 1900 bases. I believe the 1900 and 1600 had the actions. Did you ever get confirmation that the Leupold Zoli 1900 bases fit on a HVA1600? Thx, Dan
 
#25 ·
I just bought a Redfield 70M sight for my 640 in 8x57. I understand the smith will have to make stock cuts to install the base, but will this also be needed for the elevation slide? I hope he will be able to mount it low enough to use the existing front (0). If not, are different height front sight blades and hoods available out there? I'm very excited to get it installed. I had one put on a retired M41 sniper and it worked great. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
 
#26 ·
Galen,
Found another vintage scope mount made for the FN 98 (wich of course, also fits Mark X, FN/Browning Mausers, and PH 1200). It's the one piece base Tasco World Class # WC1916. The one I get here is a all steel construction, dating from 1985. The base I have here is together with medium ringset (steel) # WC1873. needs to be adjusted front and rear but overall good quality.

 
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