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I rarely cherish the idea of shooting at a 6” bull at 100 yards when the temps are hovering below 15F.  Mostly because the cold air causes my contacts to dry out thereby rendering my sight picture about as clear as Vaseline smeared on a camera lens.  Plus, at this temperature, even after firing 5 rounds, the heat mirage coming off the barrel makes for even worse sight pictures.  Enter the S&K no gun smith scout scope mount for the Type 99 rifle.  It always surprises me at the precision and craftsmanship that S&K puts into their mount designs.  Each is a work of art and engineering and shows very careful planning and thought.

The mount itself is made of machined aluminum to very exact specifications, just like all the other mounts we have reviewed from S&K.  The difference with this mount is that is available only for use with their S&K 1” steel scope rings.  These rings are precision made from solid steel stock and finished a in very smooth non glare burrless finish.  The rings are designed to lock into 3/8” holes in the mounts and are held in place by hex screws that allow for windage adjustment as well. 

To install the mount, you will, of course, have to remove the rear sight of the Type 99 rifle.  Here are the step by step instructions with images.  You will only need a few screwdrivers and hex wrenches to complete the work.

Start out by making sure the rifle is unloaded!

Remove the cleaning rod by unthreading it. 

Remove the two screws holding the nose cap/bayonet lug.

Make sure that you do not lose the locking lug (on the under side of rifle) for the cleaning rod when you remove the screws and nose cap.  Mine just dropped out and I luckily heard it hit the floor.

Remove the nose cap.  You may have to tap it gently with a wooden dowel to knock it loose.

Remove the screw holding the mid band/swivel and slide the band forward.  Again, you may have to tap it with a wood dowel to knock it loose.  Both the band and the nose cap will remain on the barrel, unable to get over the front sight.  This is fine.

Now that the nose cap and band are removed, you are ready to remove the top wood.  DO NOT try to lift it up.  There is a metal band under the wood that slides under the front of the rear sight.  You must slide the wood forward a bit to clear the band, then you can lift and remove the wood.  (right photo shows wood pulled forward to reveal the band, left photo shows under side of wood where the metal band is visible.) (NOTE, in these photos, the rear sight has already been removed)

Using a punch, drift out the pin that holds the rear sight.

Remove the rear sight.

Remove the small screw that holds the sight spring.

Remove the sight spring.  You may have to tap this with a wood dowel to knock it loose.

Once you have removed the pieces of the rear sight, you should clean out the old crud that invariably lives under the sight parts.

The mount comes with a special post that has a beveled edge to it.  This will slide into the slot on the rear sight where the flat spring was.  One end of the post is smaller than the other so that the post will be held tightly in the sight.  Make sure you slide the post in with the smaller side first.  Push the post into the slot of the rear sight as far as it will go. 

Place the mount so that the two rear holes line up with the holes where you pushed the pin out of.  In my case, I had to gently file a tiny bit of metal to make the mount fit between the holes. 

As you fit the rear of the mount, take note that the post you slide onto the sight will fit into the hole toward the front of the mount. (on the right, with screw installed)

Align the two holes of the mount with the pin holes.   Make sure the post that you slid into the rear sight is properly aligned as well.  Using a hex wrench, insert and tighten lightly the two 4-40x 3/8 screws into the screw holes.  If you are considering this mount as a more permanent set up, you may consider using some Locktite on the threads of the various screws.

Insert the 10-32 x 5/8 flat head screw into the mount and tighten it to the post underneath.

Insert and tighten the 10-32 x ˝ set screw in the top of the mount.  This screw puts tension on the mount that keeps the mount stable. 

The two steel rings are precision fitted upper and lower halves.  Mark the rings so that you can make sure that they go back together the same way they came from the factory. 

Project Components and Where to Buy the Parts

ARISAKA 7.7 (S&K Style)

I figured that my lower powered reloads would go way low at 100 yards, so I put a .04” brass shim in the rear lower half of the mount to help with the elevation issue of the scope.

Here you can see the two posts of the rings and where they insert into the mount.  Insert the lower halves with the posts and tighten the 4 hex set screws to secure the lower rings THEN loosen them ˝ turn.  Place the scope into position making sure that the eye relief is correct for you and the crosshairs are true.  Tighten the ring tops (matched sets) carefully and evenly so that the “gap” between halves is even. 

The finished product mounted on the rifle.  Very solid.  The set screws holding the rings to the mount can be used for some windage adjustments as well. 

I used my NC Star 2-7x 32 LER scope (the only one I own)

Once you have the scope mount installed, you can reinstall the wood top piece.  You can pretty much follow in reverse the directions that I give above.  Take note, though, that the nut to hold the cleaning rod in has a particular way of going into the stock, as the rear nose cap screw has to go through it.

The nut for the cleaning rod goes into the under side of the stock in such a way that the rear most nose cap screw passes through it.  The beveled threaded hole points to the muzzle end and is where the cleaning rod screws into.

The mount is solid in design and adds little weight (about 3 oz without the scope) to the rifle.  The design, of course, requires the use of a long eye relief scope.  Typically, these scopes are in the lower magnification range, hence you will not be splitting the hairs on a fly’s face.  Being that the mount is located near the middle of the rifle (which itself is a good length) there is little to no difference in balance either when hefting the rifle.

The actual range testing is presented in the Part 2 of the Reloading and Shooting the Type 99 which is posted in tandem with this article.