Vietnam War sniper rifle 30-06 or .308

[Vern Humphrey]

I want to know more about the sliding mounts...I remember reading in the books about Hathcock and others "pulling the scope back through the mounts", and I thought that was unusual.

Scopes can be damaged by recoil. Some scopes of that era and earlier, such as the Unertal, had a mount that allowed the scope to slide in the mount. When you fired the rifle, the rifle recoiled, and the scope basically remained still, with the rifle moving backward under it.

After each shot, you had to reach up and pull the scope back into aiming position.

 

[rcmodel]

I want to know more about the sliding mounts...

Well heres a pretty good picture of one on a .22 target rifle.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=104687871

Those scopes, either Lyman or Unertl, did not have internal adjustments like all scopes today. They were also pretty delicate and didn't handle recoil at all well.

So, the rear mount contained the adjustments.
The forward mount on the barrel was just the pivot point and was semi-solid.

Except, when the gun recoiled, the scope could slide foreword in the mounts and was not subjected to the recoil of the gun it was attached to.

The one on the .22 in the picture has a return spring just to the rear of the front mount, but many of them did not, or had them removed on larger caliber guns because of the heavy recoil & spring return really slapping the scope around on the 30-06.

Ones without the return spring had to be manually pulled back into battery with the mounts after every shot.

rcmodel

 

[rcmodel]

Do you mean the 5th Infantry Division, or the 5th Infanty (regiment)?

5th. Infantry Division, (A-5 patch).
They were in Germany at the time I think, but the AMU shop & shooting teams were still at Ft. Riley KS the whole time, and fully operational.

I was TDY for two years from the 69th. Infantry Brigade KNG while active duty & stationed at Ft. Carson, shooting & gunsmithing for 5th. Infantry Division AMU at Ft. Riley.

My various company commanders at Ft. Carson probably didn't even know who, or where I was for a year and a half!

rcmodel