Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics favorite old scopes

ive got a bushnell chiefscopeVI 3-9 i still use,how about any others.

I have a Leupold Mountaineer 4x that I still use. It works better than some of the new scopes that I have purchased in the last five years.

I also have a "Browning" 3-9 power that came mounted on my first centerfire rifle that I purchased from a neighbor when I was 10 years old. It is still mounted on the same rifle and the combination still works perfectly.

Chet

How old? I still have my first GOOD scope I ever bought. It's a friction-stop (no clicks) Leupold Vari X III 2.5-8X I bought in the summer of 1987. It's been on probably 30 rifles or more along the way. It still points the bullets where I want them to land.

Tom

i got my my old bushnell on my 06,i like the eye relief and is just dependable.

I still use my kahles 4x on my muzzle loader. The scope was made in 1969.

Bausch & Loomb Balvar 8B 2.5 x 8. One of the first models to have internal adjustments. Originally mounted on a pre-64 Winchester M70 Alaskan, .338 Win Mag. and still in service on a Ruger M77 7x57.

1970 Model Weaver K4 that sits on the first deer rifle I ever owned, a Marlin 336 30-30.

Early 70's Weaver V4.5 II W. It's about like looking through a tinted windshield, but it never loses zero.

bushnell 3-9x40 made in about 68 mounted on my '68 mossberg 800 308. i would change it out but it is a nostalgia thing and it still looks pretty good.

Still have and use a bunch of Weaver K4's and K6's from the 1960's. When I made my first trip to Montana from Iowa to hunt for mule deer an 03 Springfield with a K4 was the ticket. Killed my first bear with a Marlin 45-70 with a Bushnell Scopechief Command post 2.5.....Russ

Lyman

i have a old bushnell sportview that was on my very first deer rifle for 20 years. that 3x9x40 and that bdl 270 killed more game then you could haul in 40ft trailer. i got robbed in 1997 and i had pulled that scope off of the bdl,they got the gun but not the scope. i mounted old reliable on a cva hunterbolt and killed 20 deer or more. its still clear as a bell with lotsa battle scars.

4x Lyman All American Perma Center.

4x28 M8 Leupold.

Another vote for Lyman; 6x, 10x w/turrets, 20x.

Replaced my red field wide field with anew leupold, can't get used to it. Great scope but I miss the wide field

Always interesting to find out what other hunters consider old. I'm older than most of the scopes mentioned so far...

The oldest scope I own right now is a Lyman 10x made 100 years ago, with adjustable mounts. I've also owned and hunted with the original Weaver 330, which was dimmer than iron sights. But my favorite "old" scope is a Noske 2-1/2x with an elevation dial that has markings out to 800 yards--and the only reticle is a coarse post. The scope weighs 5-1/2 ounces, the eye relief is around 5", and it has helped me take deer out to over 200 yards on a an older .300 Savage 99.

The Weaver 330's I have had, you needed to look over the top of them to see what you were shooting at! Unertl externals were much better but the first good hunting scope I had was a K4

That would be one of the non-adjusting reticle B&L 2.5-8X Balvar's on an FN or Walther Mauser depending upon the mood.

This 1920 Savage came to me with a sidemount on it, and the Lyman 54's are very rare, so I mounted an early Weaver 4x on it. It shot a decent 6 shot group with factory ammo, after two sighters:



I have a 99EG that is factory D&T so I think I will look for a good Unertl to mount on it.

Seem to remember Jack O'connor mentioning the Noske but would have to check my library ; if memory serves me ( always a question) he spoke highly of it.

Have an old 4X Redfield that I bought off a gun show table that I will likely put on a 99F (300 Savage) but I'm still playing with a tang 'peep' sight it for now