Period optics on classic rifles

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5th from right;

Freeby Burris 6-18... my bud owned a gunstore. So cool,bought a slew of guns from him. When we started having all the youngins... four wonderful sons(all hunt/shoot with kids of their own). He'd give me leftover camo clothes for the boys,when they'd place these huge orders every year. Loved that ole bugger.

So I'm in there when he takes some rifle in on trade.... ridiculously BAD deal for the guy trading it in. But he got what the new gun he wanted and leaves happy. I scold Earl telling him.... "you goin to,you know where haha.

He took the Burris off and gave it to me to shut me up.... we laughed about that for years. Nice scope but,it's about 2 feet long..duh.
 
jmr40 said:
I've got to admit that on certain rifles an older scope is the only thing that looks right. But there are negatives. Those older scopes aren't nearly as good as a modern mid-grade scope and over time the rubber seals can't be depended on to seal out moisture.

Would be fun to use at the range or even for casual backyard type hunting. But I wouldn't trust one for an expensive out of state hunt where an equipment failure could cost me a shot. Lots of the older classic rifles would still be reliable enough to trust with modern glass.
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This is my view as well. I like to see the old period stuff on a rifle from back in the day, and I sometimes keep one on a rifle that I only shoot for the novelty or nostalgia of it, but if I'm going to be putting many rounds through it or looking through it much, I want something that really suits my eye and is pleasant and relaxing for my eye to sight through. I understand that there are a few of the old scopes that are comparable with some of the newer stuff, but often they are not as nice to sight through. In that case, the novelty wears off pretty fast.

I've bought a few older scopes over the years thinking -- based upon what I've read on the internet, or what I THOUGHT I remembered from back in the day when I might have owned one -- that they might be good, AND have the old-school nostalgic appeal. But in every case so far, such as old Weaver variables, or the "Japan Tasco" scopes, I've found them lacking. That said, I think the old fixed, lower-power scopes may closer in optical quality than the variables and higher power stuff, and easier to be satisfied with.
 
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Win 75 with 8x Liechert
 
Sudanese AR10 (~1958) . Semiauto kit gun built on a Specialty Arms lower made in the early 1980s. Carry handle upper is a unique forging milled to accept a scope. Delft scope is internally identical to the original but is a later version made for the Dutch FAL (~1962).
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HHollow said:
Sudanese AR10 (~1958) . Semiauto kit gun built on a Specialty Arms lower made in the early 1980s. Carry handle upper is a unique forging milled to accept a scope. Delft scope is internally identical to the original but is a later version made for the Dutch FAL (~1962).
View attachment 1121345
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OK, now that's something I've never seen before.
 
gotboostvr said:
OK, now that's something I've never seen before.
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The Sudanese AR10 is not seen much in the US and the scope ready versions are 4-5% of the total. The correctly marked AR10 Deft scopes are practically non existent since they all seem to have been left someplace in a Sudanese armory. So folks use the Dutch FAL scopes, which are the same except for some external details.
 
HHollow said:
The Sudanese AR10 is not seen much in the US and the scope ready versions are 4-5% of the total. The correctly marked AR10 Deft scopes are practically non existent since they all seem to have been left someplace in a Sudanese armory. So folks use the Dutch FAL scopes, which are the same except for some external details.
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Ian did a video featuring the AI-produced AR-10 collection of a Canadian movie armorer (armourer?) that included one of these Sudanese rifles. It's minus the optic, but he does show the mods made to the top of the carry handle to accept a scope.

 
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Dave DeLaurant said:
While I've made my peace with stainless steel and polymer I also admire classic hunting rifles, particularly those from the early to mid-20th century. I prefer to see them wearing scopes and mounts from roughly from the same period:
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I'm an old school shooter myself, Dave...much prefer blue steel and walnut to anything else...not to question another shooter's choice...but beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.

Here are a cpl of mine. The upper is a Marlin Texan in .30-30 dressed out in a Leupold copy of the much appreciated Lyman Alaskan (back in the day). This one's a 2.5x and is plenty for a .30-30 in my neck of the woods. The rifle's a good one, 3-shots from a cold bbl. into 3/4" but that's shooting with the fore end and bbl. bands removed. I'd done that to see just what affect those appendages have on accuracy...not good I found. Gentle stoning of the band's inside surfaces and relieving the fore end helped to make it a 2" shooter as seen here.

Below it is my .300 Savage M-99 with a Weaver K-3x...the gun's from 1957 and the scope from the early 60's. The gun was drilled and tapped for a scope, well done in this regard, when I bought it with good wood and blueing. It too is another good shooter...with Sierra 150 gr Spitzers it'll do an honest 1" at 100 for the first 4-shots. To get that, I use a neoprene washer under the fore end screw, then gently tighten. This trick came from the guys over at the Savage forum at 24-hour campfire.

Best regards, Rod

BTW, Offhand, I've got a Sako Mannlicher 461 in .222 Magnum as well, that's scoped with a Leupold 4x Alaskan...a very nice combination for walking our fence rows here on our KY farm for woodchucks (5 this year that like to burrow under the horse barn). No pic however. My first deer/woodchuck rifle was a Remington 722 in .243...a very effective combination on both...I had a Weaver K-6 in Weaver mounts at the time...both bought off the last page of the American Rifleman; the ads there. Took it to USAFA with me in '64 where it did great work on mule deer and ground squirrels.

IMG-E7338.jpg ​
 
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I have a small collection of El Paso Weavers; a V4, V6, and a K3. My LGS has a box on the counter that he puts pull-offs in, price tagged. I gently dig through it every time I'm in there. There's a K4 in it now, but the tube is a bit rusty.
 
I found an auction for 6 of what looked like rimfire Weavers from the 60's on ebay advertised as "Vintage Weaver scopes, BNIB". I won them for pretty cheap , $50 or something like that.

Waiting for them to arrive, I was rubbing my hands together thinking about the great deal I had just made and how I'd be able to mount a few on some older .22's I have, and flip a few...maybe even make some money out of the deal..

Until they arrived and I looked through the first one. They are all Weaver D6 military spotting scopes with no crosshairs. No wonder nobody was bidding, everybody else knew what they were, lol

I remember seeing the original J.C. Higgins scope that came on either mine or my fathers M50, I'll bet its still there in the closet of their old abandoned house, rusting away.
 
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Back in the 1950's Marlin made a cute little rifle they called the 322 Varmint. The hand-checkered walnut stock and oddly shaped barrel were made by Marlin but its action was the dainty SAKO L-46 from Finland. Offered only in .222 Rem, which was soaring in popularity at the time, the 322 was made on a somewhat limited bases for only for about three years, which is why they are seldom seen. Fast forward about 55 years and the first one I'd ever seen I bought at a gun show. The seller seemed eager to get rid of it because the barrel was toast, which suited me because I was interested only in the action anyway, which could be used for other, newer calibers from the .222 Family Tree. One such intriguing possibility was Ackley's .17/221 wildcat. which is simply the .221 Fireball Remington necked down to .17 caliber. I'd had some experience with it with a snazzy looking rifle made by Vern O'Brien, who had adopted Ackley's wildcat and now called it the .17 Mach IV, in recognition of its 4000 FPS velocity. O'Brien was a sharp Las Vegas promoter, who ran magagine ads showing an Alaskian bear he killed with his Mach IV. The .17/221cum.17 Mach IV was tempting, and would fit the SAKO's clip magazine nicely, but it was still a wildcat and I already had other .17 Wildcats and didn't want to bother with another. Happily, about that time Remington happened to announce their "new" .17 Fireball, which is simply a clone of the Ackley and O'Brien wildcats, meaning factory ammo and brass would be available. Which ended my quandry as what to do with the Marlin/SAKO rifle: all I had to do was it have rebarreled and I'd have a new rifle in a fun caliber. Only hitch to that plan was the pecular shape of the Marlin barrel, which, if possible, I wanted to duplicate so as to avoid rebedding Marlin's otherwise nice walnut stock. So I sent the action with the old barrel to Douglas Barrels, requesting that they duplicate the oddball barrel profile and chamber it for Remington's new .17 cartridge. Attached pic shows results better than I can describe: it drops into the stock's original barrel channel perfectly.
Keeping with the vintage era of the Marlin 322, I fitted a vintage 10X Lyman All American scope and the project was complete. DSC_1134 (2).JPG DSC_1139 (2).JPG IMG-2969-2.jpg
 
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Crummy pic.

Tang safety M77 ultralight '06 was gotten in a trade a few years ago. Didn't/don't care for short barrels so got it, thinking a barrel change,although keeping with that same chambering. I dinked around with for awhile and then decided to give it to #4 son. Him and #1 are hardcore hike in trad bow hunters. Growing up almost in sight of the A.T. they are like mountain goats once they hit the woods.

Put it this way.... #2,and 3 sons made it to pro soccer,after stellar 4 year starters in college(they hunt too). The two mnt goats above,will leave them for dead once they hit the woods..... just sayin,there's "gym muscles" and then,well you get the idea.

So,I passed the UL M77 to the youngest... he absolutely loves this rifle. Once the decision was made to make it his deep woods rifle,found a like N.I.B., 5star 1-4X20 Redfield. This is just before giving it to him.

Screenshot_20221218-035410_Gallery.jpg
 
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