A dovetail rail or dovetail mount can refer to several types of sliding

rail system Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

found on

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

s primarily for mounting

telescopic sight A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a referencing pattern – known as a '' reticle'' – mounted in a focally appropriate ...

s. Colloquially, the term ''dovetail rail'' usually refer to any straight mounting bracket with an inverted

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a convex quadrilateral in Eu ...

(

dovetail A dovetail joint or simply dovetail is a joinery technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery (carpentry), including furniture, cabinets, log buildings, and traditional timber framing. Noted for its resistance to being pulled apart (t ...

) cross-section (though the

hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...

al-profiled

Weaver rail A Weaver rail mount is a system to connect telescopic sights (often via a scope mount) and other accessories to firearms and certain crossbows. It uses a pair of parallel rails and several slots perpendicular to these rails. The later Picati ...

and

Picatinny rail The Picatinny rail ( or ), or Pic rail for short, also known as a MIL-STD-1913 rail, 1913 rail or STANAG 2324 rail (cancelled), is a military standard rail interface system that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It was ...

are also derivative dovetail designs) running parallel to the bore for mounting a scope or diopter sight to a rifle. These are sometimes also called "tip-off" mounts, and allow the user to easily take on or off the sight. ''Dovetail mount'' can also refer to a dovetail track running perpendicular to the bore (see "Other uses" below).

Dovetail rails for rifles

Dovetails come in several different types and sizes depending on manufacturer, but the most common are the 11 mm and inch (9.5 mm). Some other less known, but currently commercially available dovetail mounts, are 12, 13, 13.5, 14, 14.5, 16, 16.5, 17 and 19 mm, as well as Aimpoint's Acro rail (approx. 16.5 mm). While the well standardized

picatinny rail The Picatinny rail ( or ), or Pic rail for short, also known as a MIL-STD-1913 rail, 1913 rail or STANAG 2324 rail (cancelled), is a military standard rail interface system that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It was ...

mount (and its less standardized predecessor the

) is most known in the U.S., many European gun manufacturers offer proprietary scope base receiver mounting systems for their guns, for example Sako has tapered dovetails, Tikka use a 17 mm dovetail, and there are other solutions such as the

Blaser Blaser Jagdwaffen GmbH (pronounced: Blah-zer) is a German firearms manufacturer of high-end shotguns and rifles both for the hunting and tactical market. It was founded in 1957 by Horst Blaser, developing the drilling Blaser Diplomat. In Sep ...

Saddle Mount or Recknagel Swing Mount. Dovetail mounts are today mostly found on light

recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force r ...

ing air guns, but can also be found on some modern rifles for hunting and sport shooting using

smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powderSmokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to gunpowder ("black powder"). The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared t ...

, although other options such as the picatinny rail are becoming more popular. Some examples of rifles with different types of rails: *9.5 mm: Crosman Pumpmaster 760, CZ 452 and Remington Model 552. *11 mm: Accuracy International Arctic Warfare, CZ 452, 455 and

511 __NOTOC__ Year 511 ( DXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Felix and Secundinus (or, less frequently, year 1264 ''A ...

, Remington Model 597, Sako Quad, Sig Sauer 200 STR, Tikka T1x,

Walther LGR The Walther LGR air rifle was developed by the Germany, German arms manufacturer Walther arms, Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen as a high end match rifle for 10 metre air rifle competition shooting. The LGR was the first match air rifle that employed ...

, Weihrauch HW 35 *13 mm: Chiappa Firearms Double Badger *17 mm:

Sako TRG The Sako TRG is a bolt-action sniper rifle line designed and manufactured by Finnish firearms manufacturer SAKO of Riihimäki. The TRG-21 and TRG-22 are designed to fire standard .308 Winchester (7.62×51mm NATO) sized cartridges, while the TRG- ...

Tikka T3 The Tikka T3 is a series of bolt-action rifles manufactured by Sako under their Tikka brand in Riihimäki, Finland since 2003. The series is available in a wide variety of different sight, calibre and stock configurations as well as several ba ...

*19 mm:

CZ 550 CZ, C-Z, C/Z, or Cz may refer to: * Czech Republic, ISO 3166 country code CZ * .cz, internet country code top-level domain for the Czech Republic Businesses and organisations * C/Z Records, an American record label * Česká zbrojovka firearms (Č ...

* Variable width (taper): Sako 75, Sako 85 Dovetails are also integrated into some rifles most noticeably the

L85A2 The SA80 (Small Arms for the 1980s) is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO service weapons used by the British Army. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 Se ...

and A1 variants of the SA80 bullpup rifle for mounting the

iron sights Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers (usually made of metallic material) used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons (such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow or even compound bow), or less commonly ...

and the SUSAT sighting system. But in recent times it has been changed to

in place of it, as Dovetails were not fit for the purpose of making space for ACOG sighting system, according to the MOD

Side mounted scope rail

While most dovetail rails are placed on top of the receiver, there are also examples of side-mounted rails. Some

service rifle A service rifle (or standard-issue rifle) is a rifle a military issues to regular infantry. In modern militaries, this is typically a versatile and rugged battle rifle, assault rifle, or carbine suitable for use in nearly all environments. M ...

s used by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...

nations armed forces have a distinct type of side-mounted scope, informally known as a ."The AK Side Rail - How It Works". Russian optics.
Retrieved 22 May 2017. The mount is found on the left side of the rifle receiver, with

machined Machining is a process in which a material (often metal) is cut to a desired final shape and size by a controlled material-removal process. The processes that have this common theme are collectively called subtractive manufacturing, which utilizes ...

cutouts for reduced weight and ease of installation; an example is the

PSO-1 Russian PSO-1M2 current military issue 4×24 telescopic sight View through a PSO-1 telescopic sight mounted on an SVD rifle The PSO-1 (''Прицел Снайперский Оптический, Pritsel Snaipersky Optichesky'', "Optical Sniper ...

optical sight. Similar rails can also be found on rifles such as the Dragunov sniper rifle (SVD), the

PSL rifle The PSL ( ro, Puşcă Semiautomată 7,62 mm cu Lunetă, model 1974, "scoped semi-automatic rifle") is a Romanian military designated marksman rifle. It is also called PSL-54C, Romak III, FPK and SSG-97 (''Scharfschützengewehr'' 1997). Though sim ...

, the PKM as well as some AK series assault rifles from 1954 onwards. Since 1992 the side rail mount has become standard on all AK rifles. The SVD and the AK rifles use slightly different dovetail mounts. The Warsaw rails are roughly 14 mm wide. File:51AirborneRegiment49 (cropped).jpg, A

M2-1 scope mounted on a VSS Vintorez File:DCB Shooting Romanian PSL scope and magazine details.jpg, Side-mounted dovetail scope mount on a Romanian PSL rifle File:PKP Pecheneg machine gun - RaceofHeroes-part2-20 (cropped).jpg, Side mounting rail for scope sight on a PKP Pecheneg machine gun

Other uses

''Dovetail mount'' can also refer to a dovetail track running perpendicular to the bore,Common 1911 Sight Dovetails
/ref> often used for smaller front sights posts and rear sights blades found on handguns and some rifles. This mounting method is meant as a semi-permanent friction fit mounting solution where a slot is milled, for instance in the slide of a pistol, and a sight with a corresponding dovetail is punched or drifted into that slot.Definition of Dovetail Notch
/ref> Rear sights are offered in many dovetail cut profiles which are non-compatible, and some well known (and incompatible) cut profiles are those from sight manufacturers such as Novak, BoMar, LPA/TRT, Kimber or the 1911 mil standard ("GI"). Additionally many pistol manufacturers have their own proprietary dovetail cut profiles.

References

{{Firearm accessories mounting standards Mechanical standards Firearm components

Dovetail rails for rifles

Side mounted scope rail

Other uses

See also

References