Old Unertls

earthquake · Jan 17, 2020

Hi, I inherited this rifle and scope and want to get it out shooting again. Seems though that the controls are stuck. Particularly the focus ring on the front. I don't want to break it and have no idea how to make adjustments on these things.

Also, since I'm not familiar, the eye relief seems tiny, about 1/2"(?) or so, and therefore I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on a .30-06 with a small diameter metal pipe that close to my eyeball! Is that a normal eye relief for these old scopes?

I would like to know where or who can check this optic out for me before I damage it, or myself. Thanks!

RTH1800 · Jan 17, 2020

I can likely fix it for you if needed.
Eye relief should be far longer than you mention. No problem to sort it out. PM if you want me to help.
RTH

Lowlight · Jan 17, 2020

There was a guy that worked for Unertil who used to do them from a garage in Pennsylvania. and maybe a guy in CA

He used to advertise in the back of some magazines but i would not know how to find him now

Dr Google might have a line on him,

earthquake · Jan 17, 2020

lowlight said:
There was a guy that worked for Unertil who used to do them from a garage in Pennsylvania. and maybe a guy in CA

He used to advertise in the back of some magazines but i would not know how to find him now

Dr Google might have a line on him,

Thanks. I wonder if it's the same guy I've been trying to get look at this for years. This guy recently moved to Ohio but has been pushing me back again and again. I keep inquiring every six months or so and it's the same story...gimme a few more months to get settled. It's been 2+ years now. I was patient because he was an hour away.

Nodakplowboy · Jan 17, 2020

This guy might help;
Unertls
These guys repair
Parsons
I'd call first, they could give you some insight before it were to get sent in.

I ran a 12X 1.5 Unertl on a pre-64 M70 22-250 many years ago. Sure got a lot of comments at the range and the P.dog patch. I had a lot more eye relief than that.

Ledzep · Jan 17, 2020

The parallax on the front of the scope is a jam-nut system. The front bell spins (threaded), and there's a knurled jam nut behind it. You have to move one, then the other and it locks it in place. Best bet to get them moving is to try to "loosen" the front bell.

Mechanically these scopes are incredibly simple-- to the point that if you're careful you can completely disassemble them yourself. No hidden springs or gas purge going on. There are 3 lens assemblies (objective, occular, and one in the middle), and the cross hairs are literal crossed wires in front of the occular bell (be careful, easy to snap them). That's it.

Can't help you with eye relief of the optical system, but you can adjust where the optic sits when you shoulder the rifle by the set screws on the clamps in front of the forward mount, and on the return spring. Undo the spring first to take tension off of the system, then adjust where the scope needs to sit with the front clamp ring.

Ledzep · Jan 17, 2020

Stevo86 · Jan 17, 2020

Ironsite in Tulsa has repaired a Lyman target spot and 2 Unertls for me. I was happy with how they turned out

sirhrmechanic · Jan 17, 2020

Nothing to add here except... wow!

Beautiful piece. And, as you see above, there are specialists.

Congrats!

Sirhr

Ps... maybe the first Time I have seen LL in Vintage! He sure cleans up good!

pmclaine · Jan 23, 2020

If the parallax or other movable parts are stuck you can increase your purchase/tourque by wrapping the two parts in rubber bands.

I was taught this by a former Unertl employee that I believe now owns the name and is working on scopes.

Aaron Davis is who you want to talk to concerning these scopes....

[email protected]

I believe he also has a store on Ebay for selling parts.

Random Guy · Jan 23, 2020

Once repaired, I think you'll need to adjust the eye relief via the front mount and move it up ~ 1.0 to 1.5" inches.
Here's a Winchester Model 70 with likely an 8 or 10X Unertl in Vietnam. This is proper eye relief, and note that
that rear ocular lock ring is more forward in this rifle, but I have mine mounted just above the bolt handle.
(I think your scope is currently mounted a little too far to the rear, but that is easy to fix with the front mount)

pmclaine · Jan 23, 2020

There are pictures of Marines using these in WWII combat that either through not pulling the scope back into battery or by deliberate intent had inches and inches of eye relief.

@cplnorton knows much about USMC Unertls and he suspects that the Marines may have preferred the "scope shadow" almost working it like a red dot in the typical close combat of island fighting. Parallax becomes less of an issue if you are ensuring the scope shadow is always even before squeezing the trigger.

sandwarrior · Jan 25, 2020

Don’t forget the other ‘old’ Unertls.

This is a 4X Hawk. Never used militarily AFAIK:

It’s sitting on top of an old Mauser. I bought a M81 stock that I’m inletting for it, so it will look like a faux M82/C3.

Chucky · Feb 10, 2020

earthquake said:
Thanks. I wonder if it's the same guy I've been trying to get look at this for years. This guy recently moved to Ohio but has been pushing me back again and again. I keep inquiring every six months or so and it's the same story...gimme a few more months to get settled. It's been 2+ years now. I was patient because he was an hour away.

I emailed that guy also and 3 months later he told me to reach back out to him in 3 more months. I decided to go with someone else to work on my old Unertl. It was Aaron Davis in Ohio who I am guessing is the same guy you reached out to.

Harleystoo · Feb 11, 2020

Your Unertl is a civilian model, and has a recoil spring for re-positioning the scope after each shot. This can easily be adjusted. The USMC model did not have the return spring (because it made a spring sound) and the eye relief had to be returned manually after each shot.

Parson's has worked on a number of my scopes with good results. He has since passed away and his son (who worked on the pictured Lyman) has taken over the business. Since so few people work on these, wait times for repairs can be years.

The pictured M70 is "US Property" marked with a "USMC" marked Lyman.

davere · Feb 11, 2020

I had a Lyman Targetspot at Parsons for literally years. I sent it right before the original owner passed, and it sort of got lost in the shuffle. I checked on it every once in a while, and finally, after calling several times, one of the sons apologized profusely for the delay, did the repair, and sent it on to me within a week. It works perfectly after being cleaned up.

Mine's a 20x Targetspot, and looks a lot like @Harleystoo 's scope.

earthquake · Feb 15, 2020

Chucky said:
I emailed that guy also and 3 months later he told me to reach back out to him in 3 more months. I decided to go with someone else to work on my old Unertl. It was Aaron Davis in Ohio who I am guessing is the same guy you reached out to.

Yep, that's the guy!

earthquake · Feb 15, 2020

Removed all three lock screws and the objective still won't budge.

Adjusted everything I could and I can get proper eye relief if there's a good amount of shadow. When I move my eye forward until all the shadow is gone, like we do with modern scopes, it's really dang close to my eye. I know the scope will move forward under recoil, but dang if it doesn't make me a bit uncomfortable! ?

earthquake · Feb 15, 2020

Well I take my above statement back...after removing the scope from the rifle, so I could get a better grip, I got it loose! Once I heard there was no gasses inside, and they disassemble pretty simple, I decided to go for it. The parallax rings are pretty gumed up, but with some cleaner a soft bristled brush and elbow grease, I think she'll clean up nice. Thanks for all the help, fellas!

wilshire1412 · Feb 15, 2020

earthquake said:
Well I take my above statement back...after removing the scope from the rifle, so I could get a better grip, I got it loose! Once I heard there was no gasses inside, and they disassemble pretty simple, I decided to go for it. The parallax rings are pretty gumed up, but with some cleaner a soft bristled brush and elbow grease, I think she'll clean up nice. Thanks for all the help, fellas! View attachment 7250208

View attachment 7250210

They are fairly simple, just watch out for moisture build up in the tube if you are in a humid area.
My suggestion is to avoid contact with the reticle housing at all costs.
It is difficult to replace a broken reticle wire in these, it takes very fine tungsten wire and a delicate touch.

earthquake · Feb 15, 2020

The inside of the objective lens seems pretty cloudy. I used a lens pen on the outside as best I could. It looks good enough peering through it across the yard. The parallax is still somewhat "tight" turning it, but 50-year old grease is pretty gooey. Hopefully the penetrating oil I used will eventually free it up more. Going to hit the range with it next weekend. Grabbed a box of 150-gr fmj BT American Eagle ammo to try. No idea the last time it was shot, but grandad's been gone 20 years now.

wilshire1412 · Feb 16, 2020

I would recommend some Kano Labs Kroil to loosen the gummed up grease.
Also, the recoil mechanism can be deactivated easily.
Just loosen the set knob at the top of the ring assembly and set it back 1 or 2 inches and retighten.
The entire assembly should move with the lock ring.
You will need to re-position the tube after each shot to get the proper eye relief this way.
It might be a good idea to do this if you have not fired a centerfire rifle with one of these target scopes.

I have a vintage heavy barrel Winchester 70 .30/06 with an Unertl 8x 1 1/4 Target scope I have fired a few times.
With ammo heavier than GI M2 Ball it would be wise to get a feel for the recoil before setting the recoil mechanism for use.
Mine with 190 Gr match bullets and a healthy dose of RE22 has some stout recoil.
Without safety glasses on the first time I fired it I would have earned the nickname "One Eye Jack".
The recoil drove the scope tube hard into the lens of the glasses, this was shooting from the bench supported with a sandbag rest front and rear.
I deactivated the recoil mechanism to continue firing the rifle from then on.
If you are shooting from prone with a shooting sling and glove that will do a better job of recoil management as well.

Mauser34 · Feb 16, 2020

I have a target scope on an old heavy barrel .243 Sako. everything seems to be working well, I would like to clean and lube the scope. Any suggestions on what to use for cleaning and lubrication? And can someone explain to me the purpose and operation of the recoil spring?

earthquake · Feb 17, 2020

wilshire1412 said:
I would recommend some Kano Labs Kroil to loosen the gummed up grease.
Also, the recoil mechanism can be deactivated easily.
Just loosen the set knob at the top of the ring assembly and set it back 1 or 2 inches and retighten.
The entire assembly should move with the lock ring.
You will need to re-position the tube after each shot to get the proper eye relief this way.
It might be a good idea to do this if you have not fired a centerfire rifle with one of these target scopes.

I have a vintage heavy barrel Winchester 70 .30/06 with an Unertl 8x 1 1/4 Target scope I have fired a few times.
With ammo heavier than GI M2 Ball it would be wise to get a feel for the recoil before setting the recoil mechanism for use.
Mine with 190 Gr match bullets and a healthy dose of RE22 has some stout recoil.
Without safety glasses on the first time I fired it I would have earned the nickname "One Eye Jack".
The recoil drove the scope tube hard into the lens of the glasses, this was shooting from the bench supported with a sandbag rest front and rear.
I deactivated the recoil mechanism to continue firing the rifle from then on.
If you are shooting from prone with a shooting sling and glove that will do a better job of recoil management as well.

Thanks for the advice. I will be sure to move the spring out for the first shots. Plan on working from a bench on sandbags first.

earthquake · Feb 25, 2020

Well I got her shooting again! Took it to my local range with the AE 150-gr ammo I bought, bore sighted it at 100 and was hitting steel. Took it over to the 300-yd line (this range's max) and got on steel again!

I disabled the spring and just slid the scope back into battery after each shot. Seemed to work just fine. So much fun to shoot this beauty, after probably 40 years of sitting in granddad's gun cabinet. It was good to feel recoil again too! So used to shooting 20+ Lb. braked 6mm's. They were some hard MF's back in the day, using these in sustained combat. #respect

brian01tj · Feb 27, 2020

So I came across a guy local to me that had an Unertl 10x with fine crosshairs and the same frozen parallax adjustment. The actually call it a "Calibrated Head". I put the objective over my floor heater vent to help loosen it. I got it freed in about 30 minutes and cleaned up.

Best part is I got it for a steal at $300. Hell of a good deal

buffalowinter · Feb 27, 2020

pmclaine · Feb 28, 2020

buffalowinter said:
View attachment 7260233

That's why soldiers and Marines should be kept from getting bored.

Watch Out for Scammers!

Old Unertls

Area Man

Supporter

HMFIC of this Shit

Area Man

Going Forward

Bullet Engineer

Bullet Engineer

No one

Command Sgt. Major

Gunny Sergeant

Private

Gunny Sergeant

Sergeant

Gunny Sergeant

Sergeant of the Hide

Attachments

Double Oh Negative

Area Man

Area Man

Area Man

Sergeant

Area Man

Sergeant

Private

Area Man

Area Man

Private

Freer of the Oppressed

Gunny Sergeant

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