Most Memorable Scopes
- Thread starter fredhorace77
- Start date
snert
Silver $$ Contributor
About ten years ago I looked into the dark recesses of a local gunshop and saw a HB rifle. I wandered over and took it off its rack. had to go out to teh show room for light. it was a commercial 40X RF, serial 0063. NRA 95% It has a unertle ultra 16 x on it with POSa mounts. $950. I did not have the cash, so called a local retired Rem rep. I bought it Friday with a promise of money from him on Monday. So i owned it three days. Wow. But frankly, it did not shoot 875 dollars better than my $75 513T, so I was not upset to see it go. He likely made a mint. Sadly, he was not teh kind of guy who would late sell guns I found for him at bargains back to me without a premium. guess that is why he has money and I don't. But I have friends.
LarryDScott
Site $$ Sponsor
New 15 pwr Ultra Varmint Unertl for 155.00 and a New 40XB in 25-06 for $236.00 from
Gun City in Nashville TN in the early 70s. LDS
Gun City in Nashville TN in the early 70s. LDS
dmoran
Donovan Moran
A neighboring farmer had one of these on a 222-Rem. It was the first high magnification scope I ever looked down and remember being flabbergasted by the power.
He handed me 10-rounds, pointed way out in his pastor (gophers), and said: "for the far ones".
Great memories with that Unertl !.!.!
Donovan
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Fred Bohl
Gold $$ Contributor
The one I should have kept was a B&L BALvar 24 that sat on a Remington 722 in 222 REM that I used back in my early bench rest days. In 1961 the scope with mounts sold for $239.50 and had a beautiful tapered cross hair reticle. I purchased the scope new and the customized 722 for $200. The attach picture has one that looked similar. Note the interesting external mounts they had zeroing adjustments that were good enough to allow removal and replacement without having to re-zero.
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Hmmmmmmmmmmm...
In the late 1980's I was struggling to hit Rockchucks past 450-500 yards with my Leupold 6.5-20x40mm. The first issue of PS magazine I ever read had an ad for Premier Reticle in Winchester, VA. Dick Thomas was boosting Leupolds and converting to FFP. I sent him my Leupold, and about two months later it came back. He had bumped it to 18-42X and converted to FFP. I had him do a custom reticle with dots 3 and 6 moa above the crosshair junction, and 3,6,9, and 12 moa below it. He also put windage lines 5 moa left and right.
The idea was to use the dot spacing to measure Rockchucks standing as a poor man's Rangefinder. Adult 'chucks are about a foot (read 12 moa) tall. That summer I was reaching Rockchucks close to 750yds. Two years later PS sent me to the SHOT Show. I came home with a pair Leica Geovids on long term loan. I shot several, first shot hits, a bit past 1000 yards that summer.
I still have that scope, and it still does the job.
In the late 1980's I was struggling to hit Rockchucks past 450-500 yards with my Leupold 6.5-20x40mm. The first issue of PS magazine I ever read had an ad for Premier Reticle in Winchester, VA. Dick Thomas was boosting Leupolds and converting to FFP. I sent him my Leupold, and about two months later it came back. He had bumped it to 18-42X and converted to FFP. I had him do a custom reticle with dots 3 and 6 moa above the crosshair junction, and 3,6,9, and 12 moa below it. He also put windage lines 5 moa left and right.
The idea was to use the dot spacing to measure Rockchucks standing as a poor man's Rangefinder. Adult 'chucks are about a foot (read 12 moa) tall. That summer I was reaching Rockchucks close to 750yds. Two years later PS sent me to the SHOT Show. I came home with a pair Leica Geovids on long term loan. I shot several, first shot hits, a bit past 1000 yards that summer.
I still have that scope, and it still does the job.
Got one of those on a Savage Target Actioned handgun 225 Win with a TK Lee reticle in it. Love it!!
I think my favorite though has to be a Unertl 15X UV, and 20X 2", I had on a monster 29" bull-barreled Eddystone 25-06, that shot 75 Hornady HP's great. Shot many chucks in Western MD and also PD's in northern CO years ago. In my young cocky days I'd put that gun in a gun rack on the way out I-70 from Baltimore and the truckers would hit their airhorns as they passed by.
JEFFPPC
Gold $$ Contributor
In the
I have an old 3-9 Tasco I got in a gun trade about 25 or 30 yrs. ago. I still have it. It tracks perfect, has never fogged,has been on and of numerous rifles and been a loaner scope. Maybe I got the only good one they ever made.
I have owned them all at one point or another...Leica and Zeiss were the best light gatherers for hunting. The ones that were a big galactic disappointment stuck more in my mind than the fantastic ones.
Once upon a time I had to have a Leatherwood ART II for my M1A. What a joke that piece of garbage was. Junk with a capital "J", first time I zoomed it up the whole reticle turned sideways and it took me over a year to get another one from Jim Leatherwood. he worked about like his scope.
Then there was the Unertl 10x USMC sniper...also known as the MST-100. It was heavy because it was all steel. It was blued so it would rust or at least try to every time it got a little moisture on it. It was a real pain to zero, there were no clicks, you just moved an Allen screw and locked it down when you hit the target. It was not sealed, so even if you filled it with nitrogen it just leaked out the threads. I guess it wasn't what I would call terrible because I more than got my money back from it, but for $3000.00 {in 2002} it too was a joke.
I guess two standouts that really worked good would be a Schmidt and Bender Klassic fixed 10X I use on one of my big game rifles and for varmint/target fun I have always used a Leupold Mark 4 10X.
Once upon a time I had to have a Leatherwood ART II for my M1A. What a joke that piece of garbage was. Junk with a capital "J", first time I zoomed it up the whole reticle turned sideways and it took me over a year to get another one from Jim Leatherwood. he worked about like his scope.
Then there was the Unertl 10x USMC sniper...also known as the MST-100. It was heavy because it was all steel. It was blued so it would rust or at least try to every time it got a little moisture on it. It was a real pain to zero, there were no clicks, you just moved an Allen screw and locked it down when you hit the target. It was not sealed, so even if you filled it with nitrogen it just leaked out the threads. I guess it wasn't what I would call terrible because I more than got my money back from it, but for $3000.00 {in 2002} it too was a joke.
I guess two standouts that really worked good would be a Schmidt and Bender Klassic fixed 10X I use on one of my big game rifles and for varmint/target fun I have always used a Leupold Mark 4 10X.
It's an interesting question, because of all the scopes I've ever looked through, there have only really been 3 or 4 where I've thought 'wow'.
The first, was the first time I ever looked through a Bushnell Elite 6500 4.5-30x50. The optical clarity, and 'pop' were in a different league compared to what I had experienced previously. If I had another look through one today, I might not be just as blown away, because I've looked through a lot of high-end glass since then – but at the time, that scope was a real game changer.
The second, was a Lightstream 4.5-14x44 FFP. I can remember looking at foliage, and feeling as though I was holding the leaf in my hand.
The third, was the first time I looked through a Swarovski. I remember the experience being so immersive, that I forgot I was looking through a scope and it felt as though I was 'right there'. I don't know how Swarovski do it, because all the other manufacturers seem to fall foul of colour casting, colour temperature shifts, chromatic aberrations etc. – but I guess that's why Swaro have a Royal Warrant?
The fourth, was a relatively modestly priced Nikko Stirling Diamond LR 4-16x50. I was blown away by just how good this scope was for the money. It really brought home to me just how close the 'value' products are to the 'premium' products nowadays – thanks presumably to the ever advancing manufacturing processes. This scope did force me to reassess in the cold light of day, my 'alpha glass' apochromatically corrected scopes such as the IOR Valdada Recon and Vortex Razor HD which cost 10x as much as the little Nikko Stirling. Sure when you're really pushing the glass to its limits the IOR and the Vortex leave the Nikko in the dust, but the Nikko really does bring the law of diminishing returns to mind. All being said, I thought 'wow' when I looked through the Nikko Stirling – the IOR & Vortex, not so much.
It's an interesting question, because of all the scopes I've ever looked through, there have only really been 3 or 4 where I've thought 'wow'.
The first, was the first time I ever looked through a Bushnell Elite 6500 4.5-30x50. The optical clarity, and 'pop' were in a different league compared to what I had experienced previously. If I had another look through one today, I might not be just as blown away, because I've looked through a lot of high-end glass since then – but at the time, that scope was a real game changer.
The second, was a Lightstream 4.5-14x44 FFP. I can remember looking at foliage, and feeling as though I was holding the leaf in my hand.
The third, was the first time I looked through a Swarovski. I remember the experience being so immersive, that I forgot I was looking through a scope and it felt as though I was 'right there'. I don't know how Swarovski do it, because all the other manufacturers seem to fall foul of colour casting, colour temperature shifts, chromatic aberrations etc. – but I guess that's why Swaro have a Royal Warrant?
The fourth, was a relatively modestly priced Nikko Stirling Diamond LR 4-16x50. I was blown away by just how good this scope was for the money. It really brought home to me just how close the 'value' products are to the 'premium' products nowadays – thanks presumably to the ever advancing manufacturing processes. This scope did force me to reassess in the cold light of day, my 'alpha glass' apochromatically corrected scopes such as the IOR Valdada Recon and Vortex Razor HD which cost 10x as much as the little Nikko Stirling. Sure when you're really pushing the glass to its limits the IOR and the Vortex leave the Nikko in the dust, but the Nikko really does bring the law of diminishing returns to mind. All being said, I thought 'wow' when I looked through the Nikko Stirling – the IOR & Vortex, not so much.
My B&L Balvar 2.5-8x36/1974. At the time it was "the" hunting scope to have. I miss it because of the quality and excellent glass.
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muleystalker
Silver $$ Contributor
Thats the scope that stood out to me.My dad gave it to me when I started deer hunting in 1976, he got new3-9 red field for his 7mag and I got the B&L Balvar 8 2.5-8x42 for my Husquivarna Crown3000 30-06. Man that was a nice scope, I had it mounted in a Micro adjust Buehler base and rings. In fact my dad tried to give me the RedField and take the Balvar 8 back and I said no go. To this day Its still mounted on my mod 70 300wm and has killed many deer and elk. Over the years I was lucky enough to pick up several more that had gone back to B&L to be refurbished, they came back like NIB, finish and all. One is sitting on my mod 70 338wm and the other in the safe.
Ha, I was 14, my Dad got mine for me too.
I was more of a varmint hunter, Dad too, so I traded it for some other higher mag scope, whatever it was I don't even remember it, so it must not have been very remarkable.
I think the scopes that impressed me the most were the the Weaver V-4.5, Tasco 6-18 Target scope(external adjustments) and the Balvar 8. I had been hunting and doing control work for years(1970's) with a Rem 600 with a K-4, I couldn't believe how great it was to have all that FOV it was my goto scope for many years until I got my first Leupold 1-4x20.
The Tasco went on my HB 1903 target rifle that I used to use for shooting tiny groups with cast bullets, a friend just got on the National Guard rifle team and talked me out of it.
I'm way late on the BL-8 scene but am impressed with how clear they are, so much so that I've been setting up one to shoot in a Egg Shoot. I have it on a very accurate 22-250 in a Leupold windage adjustable mount and shim it for elevation, so far it has been rock solid and I can sometimes shoot 1" groups at 200 yards off shooting sticks sitting most run to 1 1/2-2" but that should be enough to kill and egg at 150 yards. I bought two of the BL-8's for $60.
The Tasco went on my HB 1903 target rifle that I used to use for shooting tiny groups with cast bullets, a friend just got on the National Guard rifle team and talked me out of it.
I'm way late on the BL-8 scene but am impressed with how clear they are, so much so that I've been setting up one to shoot in a Egg Shoot. I have it on a very accurate 22-250 in a Leupold windage adjustable mount and shim it for elevation, so far it has been rock solid and I can sometimes shoot 1" groups at 200 yards off shooting sticks sitting most run to 1 1/2-2" but that should be enough to kill and egg at 150 yards. I bought two of the BL-8's for $60.
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