Thread: large dovetail cut in action

recently i had the chance to purchase a 1914 (marked as such i think) 98 8x57 Mauser. Acceptable condition, quite cheap and the barrel was way better than could be expected.
Stock was a cut down ex military with the sling hole in the side and while perfectly serviceable, pretty naff.
Barrel been shortened but done well with the foresight refitted.
The odd thing though is there was quite a large dovetail cut in the rear receiver ring. Maybe up to 19mm. Only the rear, not the front
Whilst i would like this for a bush gun and leave open sights on it it wasn't really viable for one of my ongoing projects. Needed drilling and tapping for scope bases, bolt handle straightened etc etc. bit too much faffing about, cost etc
if available, as funds allow i would get it for the aforesaid bush gun.
BUT who can tell me what sort of sight may've been fitted to the rear?
Been doing some looking on dr google and some of the military sniper rifles (eg waffen SS ) did cut dovetails for claw mounts but also cut them in the front ring as well.
A lot of sporters done in Europe were also dovetailed too with some of them, the square bridge types, having some extra metal on there to help with this if done.
I also see some of the swedish target mausers have a rear aperture fitted, but these are fitted on top.
Thoughts everyone?

Im thinking aperture..... the further back the better.... maybe you could gerry rig one up if can find something suitable to fit dovetail.

@Tentman

@mickey Duck that was my thoughts. If there was one that fitted straight in that would be mint. @nor-west strange you say that. During my research his name popped up on overseas forums. had some rifles with the the dovetail machined in the front receiver ring.

I believe someone on here... made one up for his .22lr

Pictures of all the markings on the Rifle please.

@nor-west yourself - you've got all the flash Mauser books. I don't recall any rear bridge dovetails so the thoughts about a Swede style sight would be my pick. Cheers

Originally Posted by norsk

Pictures of all the markings on the Rifle please.

Yeah not really possible at the moment.
I don't have it and a bit of a pain to do that.
I'll only be looking at it again if I get around to buying it

Originally Posted by csmiffy

Yeah not really possible at the moment.
I don't have it and a bit of a pain to do that.
I'll only be looking at it again if I get around to buying it

Sorry,I thought you had bought it.

It might be a small ring action,be worth picking up if it was.

Originally Posted by norsk

Sorry,I thought you had bought it.

It might be a small ring action,be worth picking up if it was.

No wuckas. The rifle is cheap enough to do a nice open sighted bush gun but that can wait.
Got a relatively good 308 barrel I wanted the action for but the 8x57 barrel is to good to take off plus drilling tapping etc.
Good point about small ring action