Bad Ace Tactical No-Drill Mounts

For many years, sporterization projects were a much more popular gunsmith project than they are now and for good reasons. One primary reason, numerous military-issue rifles were available as surplus for very low costs. "How to Buy a Good Used Gun" by Edward Matunas (Popular Mechanics, November 1963) notes that, at the time, Russian surplus rifles could be had for $12.95, Italian surplus rifles for $15, and a surplus Enfield Mk IV with scope could be had for $49.95.

Classified ads from the era listed standard issue Enfield No.1 and No.4 rifles for $12.95 or less and the U. S. M1917 Enfield for less than $30. Mauser 98k rifles cost Germany $28 each. The U. S. M1 Garand rifle cost $83 each and dropped down to $31 each by 1945 due to cost-reduction engineering efforts. This was much less expensive than buying anew rifle off the shelf. For comparison, a Winchester Model 70 or Remington 700 had a starting retail prices of over $100 at the time.

While that certainly seems like a great deal now after years of inflation, the ability to buy about 3-5 surplus rifles chambered in a huntingsuitable cartridge for the same money appealed to many, especially the cash strapped. However, unlike more modern firearms, both sporting rifles and military issue arms, none of these surplus arms had any provision for mounting optics as none available back then were suitable for hard field use as a general issue item.

Rifles built for sporting use were typically drilled and tapped for bases and rings from the factory, which was still a bit more work than the plethora of ready-mount rails available today, but there weren’t any easy option for surplus arms. Given that surplus arms were so available and cheap, they made an ideal basis for gunsmithing projects, especially as a first project. After all, it makes more sense to try your hand at a metal or woodworking firearm project on a $10 rifle instead of one costing $100+.

This coupled with a lack of customization options added up to make sporterization projects a great idea. Of course, this meant that some of those projects would range from very good, to less than stellar, down to outright awful. Given the amount of options we enjoy today and the fact that those surplus arms are now historical classics demanding ever-rising prices and decreasing availability, such sporterization projects are not nearly as practical.

More recent commenters have labeled sporterization as "abhorrent"—especially when poorly done—but that’s a myopic outlook that ignores the previous situation.

Heavy and permanent modification of a classic service arm no longer is as practical as it once was. Still, some people that own such arms may want to modernize their classics. What’s needed is a workable optic mounting option for a sporterization project that doesn’t require drilling. Bad Ace Tactical (BadAceTactical.com) is a Canadian-based firearms accessories business offering NDT (No-Drill-Tap) scope mounts for classic rifles.

Their scope mounting solutions provide a low-profile design that does not require permanent modifications to legendary firearms that carry historical and sentimental value. The company specializes in scope mounts for historical and classic rifles, such as M1A, M1 Garand, Mauser K98k, Mosin Nagant, SKS, Lee Enfield No.4, Swiss K31, Swedish M38 and M96, and more. Installation is simple and only requires a few simple steps.

Bad Ace scope mounts provide a Picatinny rail that can be added to any compatible rifle using the rifle’s rear sight base as the anchor point. The base features a precision-milled steel base nut that replaces the original rear sight with a Picatinny rail. The entire installation process requires no holes to be drilled or tapped and rifles can be restored to the original iron sight setup in about a half hour.

The company CNC mills all parts, rails, and base nuts from whole blocks of steel or aircraft-grade aluminum alloy for maximum rigidity. Tests have confirmed that when installed properly the mounts are solid and don’t lose zero. The Bad Ace low-profile design allows optics to mount on the receiver as low as possible. They also allows the user to disassemble and clean the rifle without removing the optic or mount.

The company also offers a short version of the scope mounts at lower prices compatible with long eye relief scopes. The company recently extended the product line to be compatible with 15 more types of classic rifles. Choosing A Mount At the time of this writing, Bad Ace lists 23 items in their catalog. The main reason is that each of the seven main rifle options they support have multiple sub-options depending on type. Many classic service rifles had various redesigns.

As previously mentioned, the M1 underwent a redesign for cost saving purposes. Wartime production efforts would have multiple companies and factories producing items and they might institute design differences as well. For that reason, Bad Ace makes variations of their mounts to accommodate such differences. Let’s look at some examples. Some Mosin Nagant M91/30 rifles have a hexagonal receiver.

If so, regular eye relief optics would use a Bad Ace Gen 4 Mosin Nagant NDT Scope Mount M9130 Hex Receiver and long eye relief scopes would use a Gen 2 Mosin Nagant NDT Scout Mount. However, with around receiver Bad Ace makes a different mount as well as a regular and long eye relief scope option for the Finnish Mosin Nagant M39 which has "ears" at the rear to protect the leaf sight.

The Mauser Karabiner 98k has a flat sight leaf on a tangent base on German, Russian Captured, and Israeli-converted Mauser K98k rifles along with shorter handguards that start in front of the rear sight.