Built this one awhile ago. Rifle is a 1943 Mauser 98. I found the scope in a tiny mom & pop gun store. They had it listed for $400 but I talked them down to $250.
The scope was something really special!
From the research I've done, the scope was made in the late 20's and early 30's making it one of the first adjustable magnification scopes made. The variable points are 3-3/8, 4-1/2, and 5-3/4. Kind of weird being so precise.
The scope was made by a company called CP Goerz in Berlin. They were VERY famous in making cameras, lenses, binoculars, etc and started making rifle scopes in WWI. They even opened a factory in the US who stayed open until the 1970s.
Now between 1926 and 1929 the Carl Zeiss company bought the majority share of Goerz and a few other companies. They bought up the companies who produced as good or better lenses than they did. So for awhile all lenses/scopes/binoculars/etc were marked as the original company name and either said Zeiss after that or had the Zeiss logo.
Eventually Zeiss forced these companies to stop making lenses all together and thus making Zeiss the world leader in Lenses at the time and made these scopes themselves.
Now you notice it states clearly CP GOERZ and BERLIN and does not have the Zeiss name/logo anywhere. So this would have to put the scope sometime before the takeover by Zeiss or very shortly after the takeover and before Zeiss forced their name onto the optics. I have seen one one other of these Goerz scopes and one that was stamped Zeiss.
Sadly I sold this rifle during a time of financial hardship and I've regretted it ever since. No idea where it ended up though.
The scope was something really special!
From the research I've done, the scope was made in the late 20's and early 30's making it one of the first adjustable magnification scopes made. The variable points are 3-3/8, 4-1/2, and 5-3/4. Kind of weird being so precise.
The scope was made by a company called CP Goerz in Berlin. They were VERY famous in making cameras, lenses, binoculars, etc and started making rifle scopes in WWI. They even opened a factory in the US who stayed open until the 1970s.
Now between 1926 and 1929 the Carl Zeiss company bought the majority share of Goerz and a few other companies. They bought up the companies who produced as good or better lenses than they did. So for awhile all lenses/scopes/binoculars/etc were marked as the original company name and either said Zeiss after that or had the Zeiss logo.
Eventually Zeiss forced these companies to stop making lenses all together and thus making Zeiss the world leader in Lenses at the time and made these scopes themselves.
Now you notice it states clearly CP GOERZ and BERLIN and does not have the Zeiss name/logo anywhere. So this would have to put the scope sometime before the takeover by Zeiss or very shortly after the takeover and before Zeiss forced their name onto the optics. I have seen one one other of these Goerz scopes and one that was stamped Zeiss.
Sadly I sold this rifle during a time of financial hardship and I've regretted it ever since. No idea where it ended up though.
