Vintage Rifle Scopes

alwslate said:

Realize that any older Leupold scope like a fixed 4x or Vari-X 2-7x can be sent back to Leupold and refurbished at no cost.

Click to expand...

scott024 said:

I have an old Bausch & Lomb Balvar scope where the elevation & windage are made using the mount. It's mounted on an old Flaig's custom Mauser.

Probably more correct for the 50's or 60's, but it's rock solid. It has a slight yellow tint, but the glass is clear.

Click to expand...

BB57 said:

Yes sir, back in the day the K-4 and other 4x scopes were considered ideal for hunting east of the Mississippi and the K-6 and other 6x scopes were considered ideal for hunting west of the Mississippi.

If you do some research on Weaver’s range finding reticle you’ll find it was designed to allow accurate range estimation and hunting to ethical hunting ranges out to 500 yards.

Given the long standing and still valid half second rule, and the realities of bullet expansion and terminal performance below 1600 fps, very few cartridges today can make consistent, clean, ethical kills beyond about 500 yards and those that do only exceed it by 150-200 yards. And those hunters still need to be aware of the limits involved with game startling due to muzzle flash or birds spooking due to the gun shot and the related 1/2 second rule.

I’m old school and even for long range shooting 1x per 100 yards is ample magnification.

Unfortunately way too many shooters mistake magnification for resolution and think more magnification will give them a clearer view of the target. That’s not the case. Resolution depends on objective diameter and lens quality. Period. Full stop.

In fact if you over magnify the image the exit pupil of the scope becomes too small to fully illuminate the fovea on your retina and the resulting image starts looking dim and grainy.

Exit pupil is determined by the objective diameter and magnification. So a 4-14x56 scope will offer an exit pupil of 4mm which is well matched to the size of your pupil on a heavy overcast day or around dawn and dusk. Most adults only have an exit pupil around 5-6mm so earlier or later in the day they could still use 9x with a 56 mm objective and have a 6mm exit pupil.

In contrast the tacticool wannabe with a 4-32x50mm scope will only be able to use 12x on a heavy over cast day before the image gets dim and grainy and at or just after dusk the limit will be 8x.

Worse, if they chose a first focal plane reticle they will be working with a reticle that is only 37% to 25% of its regular size at 12x and 8x. That will be a tiny, hard to see reticle and the hawk marks will be near useless for hold offs.

In short, more isn’t better.

The old K-4 and K-6 scopes with 38 mm objectives still gave 6.3mm exit pupils for the K6 and 9.5mm for the K-4. Despite the small objective and less effective anti reflective coating at the time they were still very good in low light conditions.

Click to expand...

clang444 said:

There used to be a company in Texas called Weaver Scope Repair or something similar that reconditioned old Weaver Scopes for a reasonable cost. I had an old Weaver Marksman 1"x 4x done by them maybe 20 years ago. I still have it and it still works great. They did replace the crosshairs with a duplex reticle.

I think Weaver Scope Repair went out of business years ago.

Click to expand...

TXBryan said:

Iron Sight in Tulsa, OK still repairs vintage Weaver scopes and a few other brands from specific eras as well. I have a Weaver 2.5X fixed with a post reticle there now and am anxiously awaiting its return.

It takes about a year, and they pretty much tell you that up front, but they've done a nice job on several older scopes for me. I've previously sent two steel tube Weavers and a mid 70's vintage Redfield Widefield fixed 4X to them for repair and used them all since and they've functioned as new.

You pick what you want them to do from a menu and send in your scope with a check and then practice patience as they warn they won't respond to your need for updates. You get it back when you get it back. Nevertheless I use them without hesitation as they do quality work.

Bryan

Click to expand...

Drm50 said:

How much is repair at a good price? A Weaver Marksman was their low end model that came out to compete with Tasco, Bushnell and Simmons. As I remember Marksman 4x was $29.95. How much can you pay to have cheap scope repaired and be ahead. I know guys that inquired with a scope repair company that does Weavers and base price was close to $100 at the time. Take that repair charge in today’s money and you can probably find a good deal on a used Leupold. There is also option of older Redfield and Burris which usually are less than Leupold.

Click to expand...

rockquarry said:

The cheap Weavers, Tascos, Simmons, Bushnells and others in that category are certainly not worth buying in the first place or repairing in the second place. Junk scopes that best be thrown away and replaced with something of good quality like a "vintage" scope or one produced later. The really cheap scopes have no dollar value in the resale market.

Click to expand...