has an 11 mm dovetail on the receiver for mounting a
diopter rear sight or a scope sight, either directly or via a
Picatinny rail adapter. 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. While the well standardized
Picatinny rail mount (and its less standardized predecessor the
Weaver rail) 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 Saddle Mount or Recknagel Swing Mount. Dovetail mounts are today mostly found on light
recoiling air guns, but can also be found on some modern rifles for hunting and sport shooting using
smokeless powder, although other options such as the Picatinny rail, which has a built-in recoil lug, 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,
Remington Model 597,
Sako Quad,
SIG Sauer 200 STR,
Tikka T1x,
Walther LGR,
Weihrauch HW 35 • 13 mm:
Chiappa Firearms Double Badger • 17 mm:
Sako TRG,
Tikka T3 • 19 mm:
CZ 550 • Variable width (taper):
Sako 75,
Sako 85 Dovetails are also integrated into some
rifles most noticeably the
L85A2 and A1 variants of the
SA80 bullpup rifle for mounting the
iron sights and the
SUSAT sighting system. But in recent times it has been changed to
Picatinny rail in place of it, as Dovetails were not fit for the purpose of making space for
ACOG sighting system, according to the
MOD Dovetail rails with recoil lugs Acro C2 reflex sight laying on its side. Right: Acro rail on a
Picatinny riser. Some dovetail rails have integrated recoil lugs. One example is the
Aimpoint Acro rail which is a 45 degree rail with a width of approximately 16.5 mm.
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 rifles used by
Soviet and
Warsaw Pact nations armed forces have a distinct type of side-mounted scope, informally known as a ''''''. The mount is found on the left side of the rifle receiver, with
machined 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 (SVD), the
PSL rifle, 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. 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 == Dovetail rails for semi-permanent sights ==