Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics vintage scope

Need a scope recommendation for a classic MS 6.5x54 that still goes hunting on occasion.....scope needs to be good quality glass fixed 3 or 4 power ,used, with a little "patina" to it.

hoping to stay under $300, what should i be looking for?

The early perma center Lymans seem to have better glass than the Weavers of the same vintage. They don't look out of place on about any vintage rifle.

interesting.....what about Kollmorgen? always like something a bit different

what Euro brands would be appropriate and affordable?

The classic scope for a MS rifle is a Kahles. I’d go with a Super Helia. Made in the 50’s-80’s. Steel or aluminum, 26mm tube. I’d suggest a 4x, 6x, or a 2-7.

Here you go. A moderately priced German scope would be the icing on the cake, IMO.

https://thea.com/Rifle-Scopes-Reticle-1-Germany/

I would watch this one. I like the Pecars and have had many on combo guns. A 4X vintage Hensoldt would be an excellent choice, also, but every seller now claims theirs is a "sniper" scope and jacks the price.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264527820850


https://www.ebay.com/itm/113889835909


I've owned several of these. They're heavy, but they are tough as hammers with good optics.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/113889845847

thanks for the input guys!

Early Weaver K-3 or K-4 with the brass lens retainers starting to show through, class and patina with function. 50 bucks tops. Proportioned more suitable for the 1903 model.

Most, maybe all, Kollmorgens have 26mm diameter tubes and it is hard to find good 26mm rings and when you do, they are expensive.

Have you considered a B.Nickel Supra? Nice bright German glass with, usually, a heavy reticle, These are 26mm scopes, but brighter than any Kollmorgen scope that I've looked through.

The tube size is gonna be critical as rifle has a "1 in Griffin Howe side mount base

If I needed a 1" vintage scope, I'd rank Lyman above Redfield or Weaver.

currently wearing a vintage weaver dot reticle....very hard to see

Vintage 1” tubes scopes I’d rank as follows. Leupold M7 or early M8 followed closely by the Lyman All American “Perma Center” with a post-crosswire reticle. Both are constantly centered reticles.

some Lyman are marked All-American others are marked All-American Permacenters.....whats difference?

I went through this exercise a few years back and landed on a Weaver K4 with a post reticle.

The “Perma center” marked scopes have constantly centered reticles, the older All American scopes don’t. You want a Perma center marked scope!

If those G&H mounts have any windage adjustments in them an old Balvar 8 is still a pretty impressive scope for it's age. I mounted one up in Leupold Std. bases and rings for a target match, chicken eggs at 150 yards off of shooting sticks. I made it to the final round in masters(I won it a few years ago). I wanted to see how a 50 yr old scope would hold up against todays best, the scope didn't let me down, I saw the crosshairs drift off the egg just as I let the last shot go.

I took it out coyote hunting after the match.

Ditto on the Lyman Permacenter. Mine went out the door yesterday on a redundant Mauser, but it functioned perfectly, and was clear as, well glass.

Vintage scopes are very nice to look at, not so nice to hunt with when an opportunity to take a trophy is blown because of fogging in the rain or snow.
I use Leupold M8’s. Ymmv.

the glass itself in the old weaver i have now is adequate but the dot disappears depending on background. while im looking for "better" reticle might as well get clearest glass i can while maintaining the vintage experience. and i really like the look of a 20mm objective on the little MS