Hi, When I am in WY, I am near Pinedale. Right now I'm in Key West sitting in the warm trade wind breeze. Just had my driveway plowed in WY, took a front end loader to remove the snow.

Agree w/your post but I'm not going to take off the bases, just figure a way to work around them. Worst case I could dig into my box of G&H and Jaeger mounts and put one of them on. As the base is behind the wood, a full restoration would only mean fitting a slim dutchman to fill the gap left by the base removal.