Bill Gabbard
Exactly what is vintage? Well, it depends on the item being discussed. Some AI sources consider anything 20 years old to be vintage, while antiques are over 100 yrs old. Mossy Oak Bottomland has been around for over 35 years and is still the favorite of some of the best turkey hunters I know. Since I remember when it first came out it is hard for me to consider it a vintage pattern, but going back to the AI definition it refers to items over 20 years old typically holding enduring appeal or high quality. I guess that fits after all. Talking to Tyler Price, one of my hunting and shooting buddies who is in his twenties about this article, he suggested three or four rifles from my collection, but what got me was he suggested some that I use on a regular basis! I hadn’t thought about them as vintage, but I guess that I am closer to antique than vintage! A trend that is gaining popularity is tracking down period correct scopes to mount on vintage rifles. Equipping them as they would have been years ago. This trend has gained popularity to the point that there are businesses out there that are refurbishing old scopes to match the rifles!
Vintage Gun Scopes, based in Corvallis, Montana repairs vintage scopes as well as refurbishing them with new modern glass to provide the vintage look with modern performance. They also carry a wide selection of refurbished scopes as well as period correct mounting options ready for your vintage rifle. Hi-Lux, based in Torrance, California makes reproduction scopes for early rifles as well as scopes to use on vintage military rifles that are used in CMP competitions. Montana Vintage Arms builds reproductions of the historic Winchester Model B scopes, as well as their “A” Scope, along with mounting solutions for various rifles. Kelly Optics produces high end external adjustment scopes.
Yard sales and flea markets can turn up some nice finds if you look hard enough. Vintage Weaver and Redfield scopes have often been replaced by new optics and can be found at a very reasonable price. Often these older scopes function fine but just don’t have the optical clarity or the light gathering abilities of modern optics.
I must admit that a couple of my favorite period correct scopes came on vintage rifles that they are still on. Several years ago, I managed to buy a Remington 722 chambered in 222 Remington Magnum. The little Remington came equipped with a Weaver K6 scope mounted using Weaver Tip-Off rings. This rig that prints groups well under ¼ inch at 100 yds, is a pleasure to shoot and looks like it jumped right off the pages of a 1959 Remington sales brochure.
My cousin Henley McIntosh finally turned loose of a Remington 722 chambered in 222 Remington that I had been trying to con him out of for years. It followed me home, I guess I will let it stay for a while, but the scope wasn’t period correct. My old buddy Hank Patton just happened to have a Weaver K4 collecting dust that I thought would look perfect on the 722. This 722 was built in 1953, and the K4 was built from 1947, through 1984. A perfect match and a perfect stablemate for the other Remington 722!
A few years ago, I traded my friend Rick Roberts out of a Sako Forester chambered in 243. The Sako, built in 1971, was the perfect home for a Leupold Vari-X II 2x7, that was manufactured from 1964 through 1986. The Forester easily shoots quarter-inch groups and even though the old Leupold lacks all the bells and whistles of some today’s offerings, this fifty-five-year-old, period perfect rig will outperform a lot of modern setups, and it looks great while doing it!
My friends say that I always find “Oddball” rifles or calibers to play with. Well, this time the caliber, 308 Winchester, is an old favorite that is still extremely popular today. The rifle on the other hand is unusual! My friend Ron Adamson bought this rifle with the scope attached around 1972 from a fellow that had just returned from Viet Nam. Most younger folks look at the Revelation R220A from Western Auto and say that they have never heard of a Revelation rifle - some of them have never heard of Western Auto. The scope on this one just adds to the authenticity of the vintage rifle when they look at the scope and see Revelation 4X32 made in Japan. Western Auto was once as well-known as any chain store is today with stores in small towns all scattered across the country. They sold shotguns, rifles and handguns made by various manufacturers, which were branded “Revelation “. The Revelation 220A was built by Mossberg and is mechanically identical to their Model 800A. The same rifle was sold by Montgomery Wards as Western Field. While sources list different production dates the R220A was probably produced between 1968 and 1974. This matches with the time line that Ron gave as to when he bought the rifle. A little internet research shows that the Revelation 4X32 scope is a rebranded Tasco, with manufacturing dates closely matching those of the rifle. Further research reveals that this scope was built by Seiko Ryoko, a contract manufacturer that built the higher end Tasco and Bushnell scopes. The Revelation hasn’t been here long enough to show just how well it will shoot, but early load development is already under an inch and headed in the right direction.
We all love the accuracy and the weather resistance of the new stainless, or coated barrels with actions matched to synthetic stocks. There is a different feeling and look to a nice vintage rifle with a quality walnut stock and a high luster blued barrel and action. It is even better when you can hold a vintage firearm in your hands that has a period correct scope attached, and reflect just for a few minutes, wondering what adventures that old rifles has been on and how many times have those old crosshairs settled on the shoulder of someone’s best buck, first varmint, or perhaps taken part in someone’s last hunt! As my friend Ron said when looking at one of my older rifles, “Every gun you own has a story, doesn’t it”. I wish some of these vintage rifles with period correct scopes could tell me their story!
