Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Vintage Bausch & Lomb spotter questions

Picked up an old Bausch & Lomb spotting scope in a consignment shop today. Wonder how old it is? Looks brand new; came in the original box with the owners manual and registration card. Even the original box is in excellent condition. Made by B.& L., Rochester 2, NY. So it's pre-zip code which would be pre 1964 or 1965 IIRC. It's a Balscope Zoom 60 (15-60x)with straight eyepiece. Only one problem.... The ocular (eyepiece) lens is loose inside the eyepiece housing. I can turn the scope up vertically with eyepiece up and get the ocular lens to lie flat in its proper position and use the scope but as soon as the scope is moved around much the lens flops around in there. Other than that it works good; real clear, bright optics. Owners manual says eyepiece can only be removed by the factory (they'd convert it to an angled eyepiece if you wanted). Any good places that do work on stuff like this nowadays? I'm thinking once that eyepiece is off it would be a very simple repair.

I can't help you with any info on places that work on them. I have the same spotter that I got about 1968. They were the best in there day. Not very good compared to todays spotters but I will always keep mine just because it was my first spotting scope. I like to show it to people once in awhile.

Two places I've heard about that might be able to help you out are Parsons Scope Service and the other is Iron Sight in Florida.

Iron Sight is out of Tulsa,OK- not Florida.

http://ironsightinc.com/index.php?route=information/contact

I took my Balscope 60 completely apart after it fell into the Stewart River. It was Spring and water was muddy. Fortunately it fell into shallow water, and Grant found it and fished it out.

Used two knives in the slots of the lens locking rings to turn them. Took it completely apart. Cleaned all the lenses with dish soap and hot water, dried everything out in the sun while we had lunch, put it all back together, then were on our way again.

Actually had to assemble it twice, because I had put two lenses in wrong. Eventually figured it out.

That was at least forty years ago, and am still using it today. Pretty sure you can do it at home if you give it a try.

Ted

Thanks for the tips, guys. I may contact Parsons about it. I forgot they were still in business; I recalled that the guy who founded it passed away a few years ago but forgot that his son has taken over. I probably shouldn't attempt a do-it-yourself fix because of the warnings in the owners manual about removing the eyepiece. The scope is actually quite nice except for the eyepiece issue; the body looks brand new and the optics are very nice when the ocular lens is in its proper position. I grew up in the Rochester NY area and recall when B&L was turning out some first rate optics. Having the original box and owners manual in mint shape is also a plus.