That zebrawood is certainly a contrast. Below is a photo of my 45/70 on a Martini action. I made the stock in the early 90s. The fiddle back red gum is a subtle contrast and matched the Pachmayr colour to book end the stock. Granted the fiddle back grain is not very strong.
Nice figure in that wood. So you've got a semi-pic rail on it. Must be three screw pattern. What brand? Fairly low profile for one of those. I had a similar one on my Mauser but not quite as low. It was okay with 1" Weaver K3 but when I switched to a new 30mm scope with better eye relief, I was having to get off the gun to hunt for field of view when mounted. Besides slower acquisition, the higher setup doubtless also increased felt recoil. I had earlier bought a discontinued Weaver one-piece base ($10!) that is very low but only two slots and turns out made of aluminum. I opted instead for the higher steel base with multiple slots. Then decided to give the Weaver base a go when I switched to the thicker scope. Acquisition is perfect with low Warne QD rings. I think it will be sturdy enough to handle the recoil. If I had a machine shop, I'd add another slot to move the rear ring back a bit. The slots are shallow (they need to be on a thin low profile rail) and rounded to accept round bracing screws on Weaver permanent rings. I had to bevel the edges of the Warne ring square cross braces to make them fit in the rounded slots. Now when that scope is dropped on the rail, it only goes in ONE spot and it fits TIGHT. One of the problems with QD rings and pic rails is they can move on the rail before being tightened down. Not a problem if the base is EXACTLY parallel to the bore, but the odds of that are slim, especially on military rifles. If not parallel, then one end of the rail will be out of alignment with the bore. Then when the scope is placed on the rail it must be situated at EXACTLY the same spot in the slots every time or zero will change. The previous steel base had a fair amount of slop in the slots and I am fairly certain the base was not perfectly aligned with the bore. I tried positioning the rings on the old Weaver scope so the forward one was tight against forward side of its slot in base and rear ring tight against rear side of its slot but getting the scope to clamp down properly was sometimes tricky. It was not "quick". With this base the 30mm scope drops automatically onto ONE spot in the base every time and the braces in rings are literally wedged into the slots when tightened down. Return to zero is guaranteed. There is no alternative.
Same rail I had on mine last year. I note that you also had to remove metal from yours to allow for the stripper clip hump. Apparently, CCOP is no longer making these rails for military 98 Mauser actions. Here's what my rail looked like after trimming metal for stripper clip port.CCOP USA Mauser 98 FN Herstal 1 Piece Picatinny Rail Steel Mount Base PB-MAU003 | eBay
CCOP USA Picatinny Steel Scope Mount Base for Mauser FN PB-MAU003. Mauser 98 FN Herstal. Strong enough to take the recoil of any caliber.www.ebay.com
I see those Mauser sniper safeties come up for sale on the net from time to time. I can't imagine they worked very well in combat. I'm guessing snipers never had the safeties engaged anyway. Anyone with enough skill to be a sniper didn't need one.
I had to thin the bolt handle to clear the 30mm scope I mounted on my 404J. Only had to polish off a bit. That is an option to consider before cutting into the action rail. Or simply reshaping the bolt? Don't want to change the bolt lockup position or head space may be different.
That would certainly help to control the heat migration. And what type of welding do you use? Oxy, arc, TIG, MIG or other
TIG all the way with an SS filler rod as it was a shiny bolt already so I figured it had a high nickel content, still works good after 20yrs.
Stainless filler would likely make a high tensile alloy in the weld area. Should be very strong welded joint.
