I guess I'm more than sensitive to stock design because of my experience as an International Skeet shooter. As you no doubt are aware, International Skeet rules require the stock of the gun to be touching the shooter's hipbone when he calls for the target, and the gun may not be cheeked until the target is visible outside the trap house. This calls for some pretty exact gun fitting.

When I ordered my first double rifle from Krieghoff, I used the dimensions from my rather straight stocked Perazzi skeet gun, which, as it turned out, were ideal. When I bring the rifle to my shoulder, I am looking down the sights at the target, without a conscious effort on my part to align them. That applies as well for scope sights as for irons.

If you regard the scope as an auxiliary sight for longer ranges, which is I'm sure the Germans regarded and to some extent still regard optical sights, then gun fit and scope height are unimportant, but for me one of the biggest thrills of the hunt is responding to the unexpected opportunity with an instinctive shot.

The Mauser in question is a perfectly designed iron sighted snap shooting gun. If I planned hunting with it with the scope safely ensconced in its leather case until the opportunity for a long shot arose, then nothing could be finer, and I could accomodate myself to the stock design at leisure. That's not the way I like to hunt, however. To each his own.