Magazines & Sights 12365 RNG Rimfire 1" Standard 1" Diameter Matte Black, Multi, One Size

Hi, there. In a fit of old age and nostalgia, I bought the rifle I had wanted since I was a kid. A Browning SA 22 (Semi Automatic 22). This gem of engineering by John M. Browning is a sweet shooting varmint eliminator. Also good at punching holes in paper. I have always loved this rifle from the time I was 8, in 1955. Anyone with basic math skills knows how old I am…. My subject today is how to mount a scope on to this rifle. Or more precisely how to mount a scope onto the Miroku built version. Browning (and Fabrique Nationale Herstal) stopped making the gun in Belgium in 1973. Miroku, a splendid Japanese firearm manufacturer, took up making the gun in 1974 under contract to Browning. They made some improvements to the design….small but significant improvements. One of their improvements was to move the scope mounting location from a dovetail milled into the top of the receiver to tapping a couple of holes on either side of the the stock flip-up sight on the barrel. The rifle is a take down design, meaning one can easily separate the barrel from the receiver for transport or cleaning .The advantage of this improvement is to solidify the relationship between the barrel and the scope. Maintaining “zero” in gun lingo. The tapped holes are for a scope mount base (Browning part number 12333). This base is cantilevered to extend over the receiver. This allows the mounting a wide variety of scopes onto the rifle with proper eye relief. The use of this base means one must tap out from left to right the aforementioned flip-up iron sight. Left is the left side when holding the rifle to one’s shoulder as if firing the gun. Using a brass punch and a light hammer will get that job done. As with anything having to do with guns, just be careful. In this case, careful not to mar the sight or rifle with misdirected hits. But there is a catch. I just mounted a scope with this system thinking I could go out a find a set of scope rings off the shelf of my gun dealer. Alas none of the rings presented to me worked very well. I suppose one could accept a less than perfect solution. I mean several of the rings I tried to fit sort of worked. As long as not quite good enough and doesn’t really fit floats your boat. Sinks my boat everytime. I even took the rifle to a big box store specializing in guns whose name starts with C and ends in A. They went through their entire inventory of scope rings. They handed the gun back to me and told me honestly they didn’t have anything that worked well. Browning, however, has a solution. Browning part number 12365 is a set of 1” Rimfire rings that fit PERFECTLY on to the base. These rings fit into the milled recesses in the scope base. No fuss, no muss, no accepting partial solutions. They fit perfectly. They are made of a steel alloy by Talley, a quality manufacturer, under contract to Browning. These are split ring bases. I tried everything else, but these worked. And worked well. They are sold at Amazon but mischaracterized by Browning as Matte finish. They are a gloss finish matching the scope base. I wish my scope, a Leupold VX Freedom 2-7 X 33, matched but Leupold has gone to making many of their scopes in matte finished to match the current fad of making everything “tactical”. Still, it is the right scope for the rifle and for me.

Works as expected

This is a quality mount for a Browning SA22 and works great. I just wanted to inform anyone who wants to get one for their rifle, the two scope ring mounting slots in this mount are indeed dovetail compatible. The reason most dovetail scope rings don't work on this mount is because the 2 slots are narrower then most scope rings. If you have a file and are capable and willing to do a bit of work, a dovetail scope ring can be narrowed from front to back by filing a notch deep enough to allow the ring to fit into the slot in the mount. It only took me a half hour to get it done and the rings mount fine. I prefer standard scope rings to the ones that Browning makes for this mount.

These are just like the Browning cantilever mount. Appear to be painted black and not finished bluing. They work well and seem very solid so will do the job but coloring does not match the rifle blued finish.

when you order the browning base order the browning rings, perfect fit. hard tro find rings to fit right.

One could wander why a review of Rings and a plate would be required... The 2 sets go together so this review covers both the rings and the Browning plate (12333). Well I have a Browning SA-22 and if you want to attach a rifle scope to it, you have very little choice. You will need a special base plate which takes into account the "take down" capability of the SA-22 and the rings which go with it. The plate is the key ingredient, there are 2 possibilities, the one made by Browning for their carbine or an OEM (there is one made by Leupold which has mixed reviews), I chose the Browning one and therefore the Browning rings. The net of this is that, as expected, everything works perfectly together. I purchased the rings and the plate from Amazon because 1) they were available and 2) as always Amazon had a good price.

My fiancé said it fit perfectly!

The scope mounts do not have the Browning Logo as represented, they are lower quality, they do not fit my Browning BAR 22SA, and they are four time more expensive than the Weaver Mounts that I purchased at Walmart, that do fit.

fits perfectly

This product does not work for a Browning BL-22 Lever Action. I repeat it does not fit. It is too large at the base.