Post
by timmy » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:07 am
Mack The Knife: I would question just how the clamping would affect your blued finish. I would be concerned about scratching or marring it in some way. ATI makes a lot of accessories and stocks for surplus weapons and they are pretty commonly seen here. For instance, I have seen a person with that full stock setup, where the scope mounts to the stock rather than the action. He also had the bolt-on bolt handle. The whole business was incredibly ugly and the bolt-on bolt handle concept does not seem to be a very robust solution (tho this would not affect you).
I have an ATI stock for a Mosin Nagant rifle. I'm not particularly thrilled with it. The whole concept of bedding an action seems to be lost on these people.
In general, I must say that I don't view their products very highly, based on these observations.
B-Square makes generally better solutions, but for M98s, all they have is a "scout mount" for a scope that uses a military rear sight, which of course is quite different from what you have.
I think that one of the problems you are facing is that your bolt handle is turned down for an open sight application. If you check out the later FN or Browning bolt action M98s intended for scope use, you will see that the bolt handle, in the area where it attaches to the bolt body, is considerably slimmer. This allows the scope to be mounted at a "conventional" height. Your bolt handle will require a scope to be mounted considerably higher, and even with those lace-on leather cheek pieces on top of the Boyds stock raised comb, I would guess that your cheekbone would be very much above the stock comb with such a high scope.