Need a classic looking scope

[forindooruseonly]

I've bought an older hunting rifle and need a scope. Nothing tactical or long range, just an old fashioned hunting scope for a couple hundred yards at most.Does anyone make a hunting scope that is glossy black anymore? Everything I am seeing is matte or satin. I went to opticsplanet and just searched by finish, not a single gloss black scope.

I have a few nice hunting rifles with old glossy black scopes and they just look right. I can't imagine putting a matte black scope on a nice old Sako or Weatherby with their deep blue finish. So I guess ebay?

 

[Pochanaquarhip]

I may have something I would sell you

 

[JEVapa]

I've bought an older hunting rifle and need a scope. Nothing tactical or long range, just an old fashioned hunting scope for a couple hundred yards at most.Does anyone make a hunting scope that is glossy black anymore? Everything I am seeing is matte or satin. I went to opticsplanet and just searched by finish, not a single gloss black scope.

I have a few nice hunting rifles with old glossy black scopes and they just look right. I can't imagine putting a matte black scope on a nice old Sako or Weatherby with their deep blue finish. So I guess ebay?

Go call Ironsight in Tulsa. He refurbs Redfields and Weavers and almost always has some for sale. Get a Redfield 3-9x...Widefield will really make it old school.

You can find them on ebay too. But, nobody really makes an old school cool scope nowadays.

Redfield Rifle Scope Repair Oklahoma | Ironsight, Inc.

Discover our expertise in servicing vintage Redfield scopes including old Redfield scope adjustment. For inquiries, call us at (918) 445-2001.

ironsightinc.com

 

[Ndenway]

Check out weaver, guess they're still made, hell maybe they're bushnell nowadays.

Redfield, whom hasn't owned a 3x9 redfield

 

[CS Boomis]

There’s a nice Weaver 3-9 wide view with adjustable objective and what looks like a nice blued finish. O8H3 over in tardland has it listed. The ask is 80 bucks. I’ve done business with him a couple of times and he’s always been a straight up guy.

 

[forindooruseonly]

Go call Ironsight in Tulsa. He refurbs Redfields and Weavers and almost always has some for sale. Get a Redfield 3-9x...Widefield will really make it old school.

You can find them on ebay too. But, nobody really makes an old school cool scope nowadays.

Redfield Rifle Scope Repair Oklahoma | Ironsight, Inc.

Discover our expertise in servicing vintage Redfield scopes including old Redfield scope adjustment. For inquiries, call us at (918) 445-2001.

ironsightinc.com

Ah Ironsight, I've used them to repair my old Armalite scope. I didn't realize that they sold vintage scopes as well. They were very good to deal with in my limited experience.

The problem is that vintage optics are, well, vintage. The new cheap scopes are better optically, after 40 years of technological advancement. I have old Redfields and Leupolds and my cheap ass sightron on my .22 is brighter and as sharp. Don't get me wrong, I love my old scopes and they are fine for what I do with them, but I wish someone would come out with a classic looking scope using newer optics...

Thanks for the lead CS, I might go over to tardland and jump on that. ETA: Sold last night, damn it..

 

[JEVapa]

Ah Ironsight, I've used them to repair my old Armalite scope. I didn't realize that they sold vintage scopes as well. They were very good to deal with in my limited experience.

The problem is that vintage optics are, well, vintage. The new cheap scopes are better optically, after 40 years of technological advancement. I have old Redfields and Leupolds and my cheap ass sightron on my .22 is brighter and as sharp. Don't get me wrong, I love my old scopes and they are fine for what I do with them, but I wish someone would come out with a classic looking scope using newer optics...

Thanks for the lead CS, I might go over to tardland and jump on that. ETA: Sold last night, damn it..

Ironsight used to have the for sale stuf listed. When they update their site a few years ago, they took that down. I called and asked and they said they had some scope they'd sell because someone doesn't want to pay or whatever. That was a couple years ago..like 2022. So it won't hurt to ask.

WRT "vintage" scope being inferior, au contraire, mon frere, the glass is high quality and better than most chicom garbage. I personally would take a 70's Redfield or Leupold over any chicom or Flip scope any day. That said, sightrons are good scopes and if Japanese, are really good scopes. if they're Philippine, not so much.

If you want a classic looking scope and don't want an inferior vintage scope for your inferior vintage deer rifles, then look for a 90s or early 2000s (up to about 2010-2015 ish) Leupold. They made gloss finished scopes up until recently...about when they opened an optics manufacturing plant in China and started getting rid of their legacy scopes like the older vari-x and Mark 4s. They are all over Ebay too. That's probably the closest you'll get to a good looking classic gloss finished scope with modern glass and etched reticles.
After that, you start going down the junk scope road. Look for Japanese scopes, a lot of those will have a gloss finish from around the same timeframe. Try Meopta too...their matte finish is more satin than matte. They look good.

 

[JEVapa]

When you go looking for OG looking Leupys, look at the SN. The year of manufacture is determined by the letter prefix or suffix. That's all that letter means is what year it was made. The SN list is on their website. Ask the seller what the Letter is and if it's a prefix or suffix.

Here's a list:
PREFIX
E = 1974
F = 1975
G = 1976
H = 1977
J = 1978
K = 1979
L = 1980
M = 1981
N = 1982
P = 1983
R = 1984
S = 1985
T = 1986
U = 1987
V = 1988
W = 1989
Starting about here is where I'd go looking for modernish OG looking scopes.
X = 1990
Y = 1991
Z = 1992



SUFFIX
A = 1993
B = 1994
C = 1995
D = 1996
E = 1997
F = 1998
G = 1999
H = 2000
J = 2001
K = 2002
L = 2003
M = 2004
N = 2005
P = 2006
R = 2007
T = 2008
U = 2009
V = 2010
W = 2011
X = 2012
Y = 2013
AA = 2014
I'd probably stop somewhere around here, maybe earlier
AB = 2015
AC = 2016
AD = 2017
AE = 2018
AF = 2019
AG = 2020
AH = 2021
AJ = 2022
AK = 2023
AL = 2024
AM = 2025

 

[forindooruseonly]

Thanks, JEVapa, very good information about dates of the Leupold scopes. I"ll know what to look for when shopping around.

Good to know. I figured they are like camera lenses, where the best lens from the 80s can't compare to the cheaper plasticy lens of today, optically speaking. Just the coatings and precision manufacturing has gotten so much better that it doesn't take all that much to reproduce the optical precision of yesteryear. However, build quality in lens has most definitely gone downhill and in that cost cutting some optical things are affected i.e. the number of leafs in a shutter or elements in the lens. So there are a number of very desirable older lenses, but that has to do with character and rendition rather than sharpness.

 

[JEVapa]

The main thing you see improvement on is the coatings. The coatings are everything. WRT to the optical quality of the older lenses, they are top notch. They're just made a little different. The older scopes have fewer lenses in them than modern scopes, but the quality isn't necessarily lower than modern scopes, just different. I'll say that most modern cheaper optics have more aberrations and distortion in them than quality older optics. They might look good, but when you do a resolution test, they're not as good.
Now, higher end optics made with modern equipment and CAD and coatings, blow everything out of the water. That said, I don't look for or consider cheaper optics at all. They aren't even on a list somewhere.