Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Older B&L Balvar withinternal adjustment?

My favorite scope is an old 2.5-8 Balvar. One of the things I like about it besides the clear sharp view and tapered recticle, is the fact that it is basically bullet proof without internal adjustments. That said, it made me wonder what B&L's first good internal adjustable scope was. Did they make a Balvar (probably different name), like mine but with internal adjustments at some time? If so, how were they? Based on my good experience with the old B&L scope I bought a 3-9 B&L 3100 scope about 17 years ago and it has been a fine scope.

The downside of this lack of internal adjustments is having to use an adjustable mount which is a pain to sight in.

Thanks,
John

If I recall correctly, their name was on some internally adjusted scopes, but they were made by Bushnell, not B&L.
Actually, I have an old 4X B&L with the tapered crosshair. Just like my older Balvar scopes. I really don't know, or even care, if it was made by B&L or Bushnell. It has been, and still, is one very tough, sharp scope.
Heck, I didn't even know that recoil broke down scopes until I read Barsness's great book. That's because all I ever used were those tough old B&L's and mostly fixed magnification Leupolds. E

B&L made some internally-adjusted Balvar scopes. I had one in 2.5-10x40. Great scope.

The internally adjusted B&L Bal- series of scopes were the BalfourB (4x), BalsixB (6x), and Balvar8B (2.5-8x). I have a BalsixB with a fine CH reticle and a Balvar8B with a TCH reticle. There might be other internally adjusted Bal-series scopes, but I don't recall seeing a BalturB (2.5x), BaleightB (8x), or Balvar5B (2.5-5x).

B&L made a series of non-adjustable bases and rings, the Trophy series, that had both the B&L and later Kuharsky Brothers, Erie, PA, names on them.

About 20 years ago I went through a B&L Balvar phase and acquired a bunch of B&L externally adjusted scopes and mounts. I'd agree that the B&L adjustable mounts are a PITA to get zeroed, lots of up/down, right/left, but once zeroed and locked in, you really can move a single scope from rifle to rifle to rifle to rifle to rifle and never have to re-zero.

JEff

I haven't moved this scope from rifle to rifle, but I can tell you that after I worked up a 160 gr Partition load for the rifle and sighted it in over fifteen years ago, it has never shifted. I sight it in every year and every time I arrive at a hunting site, and it always locked in perfectly.

Glacier_John: I just sold a mint condition Bausch & Lomb Balvar scope at the Bozeman, Gunshow for $60.00.
It was a straight 4 power with the tapered crosshairs.
Decades ago these were some of my favorite scopes along with the Balvar variables - I loved the ultrafine intersection of their tapered crosshairs.
I used them for both Varmint and Big Game Hunting having had them mounted on both pre-64 Winchester Model 70 Varmint Rifles and pre-64 Winchester Model 70 standard Rifles.
Since selling this last Balvar it is the first time in about 45 years I have NOT owned a Bausch & Lomb Balvar scope.
The youngest VarmintSon was the last to harvest game with that Balvar - I had it mounted (shimmed!) on a Marlin bolt action 22 Magnum and he brought to bag a nice Boar Badger with that set-up.
MANY of the old Balvars though had a nasty habit of the internal finish of the tube flaking off after 20 years of useage - that would not be so bad but somehow the flaking affixed itself to the internal lenses!
Looked like black snowflakes on the image.
I was happy to have gotten $60.00 for that Balvar, alas, technology has long since passed them by.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

When B&L was still in Los Angeles, before they moved to Overland Park (Kansas City), KS, after the Rodney King riots in 1992, you could sent your B&L Bal-series scopes in for a full cleaning, recharge, repair service for $20 per scope. I have been told, but don't personally know, that Gil Parsons bought all of the remaining Bal-series parts from Bushnell and can repair the older B&L scopes, but not for $20.

I don't really care for the tapered CH reticle, as I find it too hard to find the intersection of the TCH in low light situations. Although I no longer use them, I think that the old B&L Bal-series scopes are still capable of doing 90% of what most folks would require from a scope. Other than the 1st/last few minutes of legal hunting light, I don't see them as being an insurmountable hurdle.

EDIT: Herter's even offered a 2.5-8x40 externally adjusted scope. I have 1 that has a really busy reticle, a CH with a dot within a circle, sort of like the Leupold Turkey-plex reticle.

JEff

I've found that they worked very well on a couple of rifles. We never had any problems with them not going back to zero when moved either.
Their adjustable mounts did have a problem with suffering damage when thew scope was impacted. We had one mount put out of commisson from an impact. I knew one other hunter who spent alot of time in rough country that had the same problems with his. That's why, in the end, both he and I went to the old Buelher Micro Dial mounts. E

Hi E, my rifle has an adjustable Buehler mount.

The windage is a PITA, it adjust via slotted screws on either side, one with little index marks, you have to let one screw out and tighten the other in to adjust windage, it's a bit of trial and error to get where you want. The elevation are two larger knurled nuts, one for adjustment, the other for locking. The elevation seems to adjut easier and more predictably. But like I said, once sighted in, it seems to be set forever.

John, I have a 2.5-8 with the cross hair, internal adjustments. Has been bullet proof since day one, still ticking.