German Claw Mounts for Scopes

csmcclain

csmcclain

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Bought a german rifle that came with a bases for a German claw mount system. I'm looking to put a removable red dot on it for hunting, so I would like to find a claw mount set for a picatinny rail, but so far I have no leads. I did find one setup with only one contact point in the claw mounts, but I'm not sure how secure that would be.

Is anyone familiar with anything like this, or is this just wishful thinking?

Thanks for any help here.
 
I would not put a picatinny rail on top of claw mounts in any case. Not only will it look ugly as hell, you’ll need another mount in between to mount your red dot to the picatinny, rising the red dot even further over the bore axis.

I cannot remember the brand, but there are low mounts for red dots that fix directly into the rear claw mount, with a lever locking it into place. Much better looking, much lower height over bore, and you keep your loading bay without obstruction to ease loading.
 
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VertigoBE said:
I would not put a picatinny rail on top of claw mounts in any case. Not only will it look ugly as hell, you’ll need another mount in between to mount your red dot to the picatinny, rising the red dot even further over the bore axis.

I cannot remember the brand, but there are low mounts for red dots that fix directly into the rear claw mount, with a lever locking it into place. Much better looking, much lower height over bore, and you keep your loading bay without obstruction to ease loading.
Click to expand...
Is this what you are talking about?

Henneberger HMS Trijicon RMR Mount for Suhl Claw Mount​

 
The mounts on the rear claw mount, use just the rear mounts’ locking system.

But I’m quite sure I’ve also seen in person a forward mount version with a lever. I’ll ask my gun smith to show me this again, I might want one for my .416 Rigby.
 
VertigoBE said:
It is indeed something like this. But be warned, you cannot install this yourself. You’ll buy the mount for 120€ then will need to spend 200€ or so with a good gun smith to have the claws cut for your particular rifle’s mounts.
Click to expand...
Interesting—this is EXACTLY the kind of information I needed! Thanks for clarifying.
 
csmcclain said:
Bought a german rifle that came with a bases for a German claw mount system. I'm looking to put a removable red dot on it for hunting, so I would like to find a claw mount set for a picatinny rail, but so far I have no leads. I did find one setup with only one contact point in the claw mounts, but I'm not sure how secure that would be.

Is anyone familiar with anything like this, or is this just wishful thinking?

Thanks for any help here.
Click to expand...
Perhaps try EAW mounts
 
csmcclain said:
Bought a german rifle that came with a bases for a German claw mount system. I'm looking to put a removable red dot on it for hunting, so I would like to find a claw mount set for a picatinny rail, but so far I have no leads. I did find one setup with only one contact point in the claw mounts, but I'm not sure how secure that would be.

Is anyone familiar with anything like this, or is this just wishful thinking?

Thanks for any help here.
Click to expand...
As our friend VertigoB said, it would look ugly like hell.
Piccatiny goes on a modern gun, claw mounts on a classic gun. It is taste.

But, if there is a reason to do... it can be done.
Buy one standard steel piccatiny, and ask a gunsmith to fit the claws. It will be functional. I know people who have done it
The people I know, who have done it are on the budget and have with lower understanding of gun design, history, and gun culture.
They wanted to hunt pigs for meat at night.
So, they bought Zastava Mauser clone. Somebody told them German claw mounrs are the best, so they fitted piccatiny on claw mounts. Aftet that, on piccatiny they swap day scope, or night vision.
 
So here in Germany it doesn't really matter how nice the rifle is, most guys won't buy them.

The cost of fitting a new set of claw mounts to an existing claw bases are in the $1000-1800 range.

There is not a one size fits all replacement, as they were manufactured by each individual gunsmith.

There are companies that make new ones. But they only fit their system.
 
Muskox said:
So here in Germany it doesn't really matter how nice the rifle is, most guys won't buy them.

The cost of fitting a new set of claw mounts to an existing claw bases are in the $1000-1800 range.

There is not a one size fits all replacement, as they were manufactured by each individual gunsmith.

There are companies that make new ones. But they only fit their system.
Click to expand...

1000-1800$ seems like quite a lot to me. For my Dumoulin I had for a new swaro scope new rings with claw mounts for 600€ if I’m not mistaken. That’s the rings, with the less common front bell ring and rear swaro rail attachment and the work included.
 
There number of American gunsmiths that are proficient in working on claw mounts can be counted on one hand.

I think the big Frankonia rifle shop in Wurzburg could probably make it work for under 1000 Euros, but just barely.

There might be some local trade guys in the 600 Euro range, but I wouldn't know anyone like that within 200 km of where I live in Germany.
 
VertigoBE said:
1000-1800$ seems like quite a lot to me. For my Dumoulin I had for a new swaro scope new rings with claw mounts for 600€ if I’m not mistaken. That’s the rings, with the less common front bell ring and rear swaro rail attachment and the work included.
Click to expand...
600 was the price I paid for the swing mounts installation.
 
I paid 450 euros for mounting a red dot on clawmounts for this double.
It is in the end basic fit and file work. Don't get me wrong, it's still a craft.
1000011990.jpg
 
Muskox said:
There number of American gunsmiths that are proficient in working on claw mounts can be counted on one hand.
Click to expand...
Given the fact that I live in America, this is not the best news…
 
Call JJ Perodeau https://jjperodeau.com/ and discuss options with him. He has not done a red dot for me, but has built rings to fit a number of rifles and drillings over the years. Were that my rifle, I would get the finest straight tube illuminated scope I could afford with a 1X lowest setting. Something like a Swaro Z6i and the like. At one power it acts just like a red dot only typically better due to optics quality.

Straight tube scopes are far easier (and cheaper) for which to build rings. Depending on the distance between the bases, a rail mount scope is also rather simple to convert to claw. But this is not something to attempt yourself or to turn over to a typical American shade tree gunsmith.
 
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