Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Unertl scope question

Ten or so years ago I bought a custom rife at an auction, it is chambered for 300 whby and has a unertl scope. The rifle weighs 53 lbs.
I hauled it home and its been in the safe till this weekend, the rifle came with several hundred loaded rounds, so I sat up a bench and started shooting, I need some help with how adjustments are made, as the turrets have markings like micrometers yet the clicks stops as you turn the knobs do not seem to be synchronized, there are 5-8 clicks when a the turret is moved 5 thousands. Is this normal?

What a great shooting rifle, there is 14 thousands of adjustment for a zero impact from 1- 6 hundred yards, with 3-4 inch groups the norm at 600 yards.
I'm open to any suggestions, or help.

Just tacking on another question: is it You-nertl or Ooo-nertl?

jimy, my neighbor had several of these scopes when I was a beginning shooter.. I shot them several times in small bore matches but never moved the adj.. You have a real piece of history there.. I am certain someone will chime in with your answer..

5s, I always heard it You-nertl.. Or Ya-nertl!! Not sure which is correct.. Know they were made in Pittsburg, Pa.
My first good scope was a 4x Unertl Hawk..

The clarity is incredible, and the fine wire crosshairs make it possible to see a 1 inch target dot at 600 yards, the notes on the side of the rife from the previous owner have the scope settings out to 1500 yards, I ran out of field at 600 so I need to find a longer field.

Nice, not sure I understand your issue with the clicks. As the setup is variable, rear mount to front mount distance, clicks will vary on one rifle vs another and how much offset u will get.

Are u shooting it like that and manually resetting the scope or have u not tightened up the stop ring/spring for the pic?

Clarity is awesome, I agree. I have Swarovski, schmidt and benders, nightforces, etc. my unertls are as good if not better.

Here are a few( some balvars, mitchells and a fecker mixed in)

Shooting it as it sits, could you explain the stop ring and its function.
Thanks for the input.

And you have some beautiful rifles there.

The scope moves/ recoils in the mounts. Some target guys prefer to reset after each shot and not lock ring and spring down. In this case you shoot, then pull the scope back to rear of rifle until it stops, shoot again and repeat.

In your pic, the scope needs to be pulled back. This will affect your clicks and movement when adjusting on target

The ring and spring reset the scope for you. In a heavy recoil rifle this is hard on scope ( equal and opposite reaction yada yada)

The scope should be reset, pull it rearward until it stops. Slide spring and stop ring fwd until they contact front mount. Compress spring a bit and lock the stop ring in place to maintain slight compression on spring.

Now rifle will recoil back, scope, not so much. Rifle stops against your shoulder, scope hasn't moved much but relative to rifle they separated a bit. This generates pressure on spring. Once spring pressure is sufficient , spring pressure then overcomes scope inertia pushing it fwd and reseating it into shoot position.

Thank you, I will take a look at it and lock it down.

I did have two flyers that hit 5-6 inches high with no explanation, this might explain it.

You/nertle would be the proper pronunciation. John Unertle was
himself a shooter especially in the benchrest classes.
They were very popular among PA.long range hunters and in fact some are still in use there for that purpose. Of coarse there
were also no other scope choices but target type scopes that could be used for dialing at the time.
In order for the clicks to be 1/4 min. the bases need be spaced
correctly, that being 7.25"o/c. As for the recoil spring, some
favored removing it completly on the heavier recoiling guns.
That required remembering to pull it back after each shot.
Others, myself included favored a light tension on the spring.
I never had any issues using them on heavy recoiling guns used in that manner. The main issue with using them for hunting is
the very limited field of view. The BAUSCH&LOMB 6x24 Balvar when
equipted with an after market rear adjustment like the Kuharsky
micrometer was/is actually a better setup for use in long range
hunting. Mind had over 500 1/4 min clicks of elevation remaining
after being zeroed for 100 yds.
The main advantage the modern scopes have is that they are more
dummy proof.

Great thread.. I saw quite a few of these when I was just starting shooting seriously.. Knew several of the very long range shooters of the time.. Haven't seen the 6-24 Balvar in many years..
By the time I finished college, and had some $to buy good stuff, the more modern scopes were replacing the target type in many situations.. For 'chucks, the 10X Lyman were on the scene.. So I never invested the $ and time to use one of these scopes... Lots of history here..