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 pre ...

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 po ...

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 polygon, convex quadri ...

( dovetail) 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 Picatinn ...

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 o ...

are also derivative dovetail designs) running parallel to the bore for mounting a scope or

diopter sight The diopter is an aperture sight component used to assist the aiming of devices, mainly firearms, airguns, and crossbows. It is found in particular as a rear sight element on rifles. To obtain a usable sighting line the diopter has to have a com ...

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 Aimpoint AB is a Swedish optics company based in Malmö, Sweden that manufactures red dot sights. Aimpoint is a contractor for the United States military and supplies the Aimpoint CompM2. Aimpoint products are used by various armed forces ...

'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 o ...

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 Sako or SAKO may refer to: People with the surname * Bakary Sako (born 1988), French-born Malian footballer * Hygerta Sako, Albanian beauty pageant contestant * Louis Raphaël I Sako (born 1948), Iraqi cleric, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church * ...

has tapered dovetails, Tikka use a 17 mm dovetail, and there are other solutions such as the Blaser 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 The Crosman Pumpmaster 760, or Crosman 760 Pumpmaster, is an American-made multi-pump pneumatic air gun that is manufactured for target shooting, plinking, and small pest control. The Crosman 760 Pumpmaster is a BB gun with more than 16 million c ...

CZ 452 The CZ 452 also known as BRNO Model Two ''.22'' Rifle is a series of magazine-fed bolt-action rimfire repeating rifles manufactured by the Czech firearms manufacturer Česká Zbrojovka Uherský Brod (abbreviated "CZ-UB", English: ''Czech Weapons ...

and

Remington Model 552 The Remington Model 552 ''Speedmaster'' is a blow-back operated, self-loading, semi-automatic rifle that can fire .22 Short, .22 Long and .22 long rifle cartridges. Ammunition is fed from a tubular magazine under the barrel. History and Feature ...

. *11 mm:

Accuracy International Arctic Warfare The Accuracy International Arctic Warfare rifle is a bolt-action sniper rifle designed and manufactured by the British company Accuracy International. It has proved popular as a civilian, police, and military rifle since its introduction in th ...

, 455 and 511,

Remington Model 597 The Remington Model 597 is an American semi-automatic rifle that was manufactured by Remington Arms at the company's Mayfield, Kentucky and Huntsville, Alabama plant. The .22 Long Rifle version has a removable 10-round magazine, while the magazin ...

Sako Quad Sako Quad is a bolt-action rifle made by the Finnish firearms manufacturer Sako. Quad is delivered in many configurations, and has a quick change barrel system which lets the user swap barrels using a 5 mm hex key. The bolt lift is 50 degree ...

Sig Sauer 200 STR The SIG Sauer 200 STR (Scandinavian Target Rifle), also known as the SIG Sauer 200 STR Match, is a bolt-action rifle mostly used as a target/competition rifle for national competitions by Norwegian, Swedish and Danish sport shooters. It is a var ...

Tikka T1x Tikka may refer to: * Tikka (food), a type of South Asian food * Tikka (forehead mark), a mark made on the forehead by Hindu Indians * Tikka, a brand of hunting rifles manufactured formerly by Finnish firearms manufacturer Tikkakoski ** Tikka, t ...

, Walther LGR,

Weihrauch HW 35 The Weihrauch HW 35 is a break barrel, spring-powered, air rifle first produced in 1951 by Weihrauch & Weihrauch located in Mellrichstadt, Bavaria. Available in 4,5 mm and 5,5 mm calibers, with standard and carbine (K) length barrels, ...

*13 mm:

Chiappa Firearms Chiappa Firearms, Armi Sport di Chiappa, is an Italian firearms manufacturing company based in Brescia. It was founded in 1958 by Ezechiele Chiappa as Armi Sport. Total unit production is around 60,000 per year. Its U.S. headquarters are in D ...

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 ...

*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 The Sako 75 is a bolt-action rifle produced by the Finnish manufacturer SAKO, Sako from 1996 until it was replaced by its successor, the Sako 85 in 2006, and finally discontinued in 2007. History The Sako 75 was named after the 75 year anniversa ...

Sako 85 Sako 85 is a bolt-action rifle produced by the Finnish manufacturer Sako since 2006, and the name signifies that Sako celebrated 85 years that year. The model 85 is marketed as one of Sako's premium models for hunting, and is delivered in many ...

Dovetails are also integrated into some

rifles A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with bo ...

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 ...

and A1 variants of the

SA80 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 ...

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 {{Other uses, Susat (disambiguation){{!Susat The Sight Unit Small Arms, Trilux, or SUSAT, is a 4× telescopic sight, with tritium-powered illumination utilised at dusk or dawn. The full name of the current model is the SUSAT L9A1. The sight i ...

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 Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...

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. Mos ...

s used by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

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 republic ...

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 optical sight. Similar rails can also be found on rifles such as the

Dragunov sniper rifle The SVD (russian: Сна́йперская Винто́вка систе́мы Драгуно́ва образца́ 1963 года, lit=Sniper Rifle, System of Dragunov, Model of the Year 1963, translit=Snáyperskaya Vintóvka sistém'y Dragunóv ...

(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 PSO-1M2-1 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 The PKP Pecheneg (Pulemyot Kalashnikova Pekhotny "Pecheneg", russian: Печенег) is a Russian 7.62×54mmR general-purpose machine gun.Popenker, Max RPKP Pecheneg machine gun It is a further development and modification of the PK 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