History: How this mount came to be

Bill Bassett is the owner and operator of Bassett Machine located in Dripping Springs, Texas. He has worked in, run or owned a machine shop since 1951 (except for 4 years while he served in the Marine Corps). Today he is still running his own machine shop in Dripping Springs, producing prototypes and short-run production.

He has experience in local law enforcement and national shooting competitions. He was a member of the National Benchrest Shooters Association (NBRSA) and competed at the national level matches, winning in the Unlimited Class Competition in 1969 at the Annual Speer Match put on by Speer Bullet Co.

In the early 80’s, Bassett bought an M1A rifle. He put a Redfield 3x9 scope on the rifle (using the mount that came with the rifle) and took it out for a test. Almost immediately, he noticed deficiencies in the mount system because it would not hold zero or stay in place on the rifle for three consecutive shots.

Out of his passion for shooting accurately, he designed and built his own scope mount to cure the shortcomings he found in the one he bought with the rifle. And guess what? It worked. And it’s still working 28 years later.

It out-performed five top brand mounts for the M1A/M14 in an independent comparison test. The testing found:

the bolt he designed held the mount securely;
the material he chose held up to the beating of the recoil; and
the design gave sufficient clearance for empty case ejection.

This testers also found:

all five top brand mounts failed to return to zero after being removed and reinstalled;
four showed significant wear to the positioning bars after firing several magazines of ammo; and
two mounts of softer material simply could not withstand the recoils.

For more details on the study results, see test results.

Since the initial introduction to the market, Bassett slightly modified the Standard scope mount twice to make it easier to use and more user-friendly. These minor changes make this the most functional M1A/M14/M21 scope mount on the market. It provides clearance for windage and elevation knobs, and has a more useful mounting bolt.

While the bolt fits the combination tool, Bassett designed the Torque Tool™ for mounting and remounting the mount-and-scope unit to further assist in repeating the same torque in each install. Army AMU personnel, Camp Perry Hi-power Masters and law enforcement personnel found that if reinstalled to the original mounting torque, it will return to battery within a half-minute of angle at 100 yards. Just one more advancement toward the cause of accuracy.

The Torque Tool™ was also designed to fit into the large end of the combination tool for storing in the buttstock. A Torque Tool™ is included with each scope mount order, and is also available for purchase individually.

In August 2008, Bassett introduced the Bassett Picatinny Rail Scope Mount. It uses the same attachment method as the original standard mount and has the same easy remove and replace repeatability. It allows for more military application, accepting ACOGs, and is compatible with Mil-Standard 1913 and STANAG accessories.