Just because I like to tinker... I have an old leuopold vari-x 3 4.5-20x benchrest scope that I was curious to try on my benchrest rifle. I have been trying with getting a long piece of rail, then trying to clamp it to the scope blocks.

Has anyone done something similar? I would need to be able to pull off the rail during a match for open sights

If you lay a straight edge across the top of your scope blocks are they in the same plane? Likely they are different heights so it makes it more difficult to tie them together with a common rail. 
BKL Technologies makes some excellent rings and base products. While they are technically made for rimfire dovetails they will clamp securely to Unertl type bases. May not work with heavy recoil.

Yea, The picatinny rails date to 1913, about 25 years prior to the Weaver.

pmcfall wrote on Oct 6^th, 2026 at 7:38pm:

Yep, they're ugly,  but for a test, they're cheap, and they work. The scope currently sints on a Remington 700 with a quick release cantilever mount. I was building that rifle to get into PRS shooting a few years ago, but then discovered BPCR, and Schutzen about 2 years later.

Just had the thought that it would be an interesting experiment. The rifle is John Louis's old 28-35 Falling Block Works, and he shot it with a Nightforce scope, so I don't think he'd mind too much with the experiment.