Many target rifles like the Winchester 52E have mounting slots on the bottom of the forend for attaching accessories like palm rests, adjustable sling mounts, etc. The railed slots are referred to by various names: Freeland, Anschutz, or even “Winchester.”

My 1968 manufacture 52E has such a slot, and I’ve long wanted to be able to use the rifle with the various bipods or tripods I use with other rifles. After much searching I found that B&T Industries (makers of the Atlas bipods) offers an adapter that consists of a short Picatinny rail section and two nuts that are designed to fit inside the Freeland or Anschutz slots. The widths of the two slots are different and the nuts can be turned to fit either.

BT28 rail kit, and the nuts by themselves:
https://accu-shot.com/shop/acc...ies/bt28-afar-kit-2/

https://accu-shot.com/shop/accessories/bt28-n-2/

Using that kit was the first way I found to use the Winchester with my preferred bipods and tripods. But although I had used Picatinny rail mounts for years, more recently I had switched most setups to the Arca-Swiss system that I find more convenient to use. Adapters are available to change from the Pic to Arca (and vice-versa), and that’s what I first used with the BT28. What I didn’t like about that conversion was that it added a large lump of metal to the bottom of the stock, and unlike the Arca system, it wasn’t possible to easily slide the rifle forward or back for different situations and supports.

I wanted a rail that would attach to the rifle forend directly like the BT28 and be usable with Arca mounts and no adapters. After significant searching, though, I was unable to find anything like I wanted.

After pondering the situation, it finally dawned on me that it might be possible to screw an appropriate Arca rail directly to the BT28 nuts using a different style of screw, and it was. I had an extra Salmon River Solutions Arca rail with slots and holes that the mounting screws could be put through into the nuts inside the Freeland type forend rail.

And voilà:





A nice, sleek Arca rail that also offers the advantage of mounting an Atlas bipod with Picatinny attachment and with no adapters at the front of the rail. The screws are 10-32 button heads, and I used a couple of thin washers with them because the shortest screws my local store had, 3/8", were a little long to use by themselves.

All this may not seem like much of a problem solution to some people, but for someone like me it was a major accomplishment, and I thought it might be of interest to others.

Good information. Thanks for posting this.