Not military but modern

[PHO127]

Do any of you guys know anything about older rifle scopes, say 50s era? Yesterday I bought a pre 64 Model 70 in .338 Mag. The serial number indicates 1958 manufacture which is the year Winchester introduced the .338mag. There is an 2.5 X 8 Bauch and Lomb Balvar 8 scope mounted on the rifle. The scope has no adjustment knobs on it but is adjusted by windage and elevation knobs on the Bauch & Lomb mount.

[Doc.2/47]

Yep.That one was considered a high quality scope.
Some earlier scopes(not that particular brand-just scopes in general) had problems with their seals-especially with adjustable power scopes-and once a seal went they fogged badly.Others had a very limited sighting-in adjustment range and/or had crosshairs that actually moved in the field of view.Had an old weaver once that when it was sighted in the crosshairs crossed in the upper right quarter of the field of view.Very distracting.A set-up like the one you have got around these problems by allowing the scope to be tightly sealed without having adjustment screws going through the seal and the mounts could be adjusted widely.

[colmurph]

About the best scope from that era was the Unertl. These are going for upwards of $700.00 a pop now. The company is even offering to buy back some of the originals to refurbish. I've got a 10x Unert waiting for a rifle and I gave my son a Ruger #1 rifle in .22-250 with a Marine Corps 20x Unertl Sniper Scope mounted on it. I bought the rifle and scope for $600.00 knowing that the scope alone, was worth far more than the price asked for both.l