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M40 scope base project by LRI

I'm not a repro/clone guy, but it's really neat to see this project progress!

My only comment from the peanut gallery is to not try and replicate past machining artifacts. Let this mount be a celebration of the old mount but with new machining technology and processes.

Okay, heading back to the 🥜 gallery where I belong for this project. Will be watching as it progresses!
 
Not to stray too far off topic. But what about repro simrad caps for said unertl mounts?


If you are talking about this, that is an easy solution. This is my personal M40 glass.

Edit: I'm on the phone with Ryan right now. After sending him some text pics of this thing, this is the M40A3 variant. The optic also has the "manhole cover" conversion. Assuming I understood him correctly, it puts this setup in the 2001-2006 timeframe.

So, the M40A1 version is something I'll have to educate myself on.

361943588_2408060976035210_2109178782503883180_n.jpg
 
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If you are talking about this, that is an easy solution. This is my personal M40 glass.

361943588_2408060976035210_2109178782503883180_n.jpg
Pretty much it! Without the inserts. @USMCSGT0331 can tell you more.

Though some had screw mounts on bottom. Badger makes something but doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen in pics.

The cali guy who shall not be named made something similar. If you want i’ll take some photos or send you the cali guys thing.

Heres a quick pic.
IMG_6778.jpeg
 
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Pretty much it! Without the inserts. @USMCSGT0331 can tell you more.

Though some had screw mounts on bottom. Badger makes something but doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen in pics.

The cali guy who shall not be named made something similar. If you want i’ll take some photos or send you the cali guys thing.

Heres a quick pic.
View attachment 8185533

Here’s a legit A1 simrad cap
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Not sure if it helps but I have a legit A3 simrad cap and a repro a1 from the guy we love to hate that lines up fine.

If either will help this out ill mail them out to you just let me know.
 
Not sure if it helps but I have a legit A3 simrad cap and a repro a1 from the guy we love to hate that lines up fine.

If either will help this out ill mail them out to you just let me know.
Does anyone have a legit A1 simrad that would be willing to send @LongRifles Inc. ? I know they’re damn near unobtainium. Wonder how that Ca Douche bags mount specs out against a legit one. I know his mounts off
 
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Before I send the A3 and waste Chad's time. As far as I'm aware this A3 is legit as it came with the cmp return unertl I have, a bit purpleish. If anyone says different let me know but here's what I got. I believe the A5 is legit as well... been a while since I bought that.

Hell if you want I'll send all 3 tomorrow.

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I'll post the photo of my Unertl scope with the Badger (M40A3 I believe) setup again:

This is the base that I have with a SIMRAD cap. The one that I understand to be elusive is the piece with a single blind tapped hole to fit the M40A1 base and rings.

If I'm understanding all of this correctly, it's the base shown in the 2nd photo. Assuming I have this right, that is the piece I need to get numbers from to make a knockoff.

C.

361943588_2408060976035210_2109178782503883180_n.jpg



1689716531388.png
 
I'll post the photo of my Unertl scope with the Badger (M40A3 I believe) setup again:

This is the base that I have with a SIMRAD cap. The one that I understand to be elusive is the piece with a single blind tapped hole to fit the M40A1 base and rings.

If I'm understanding all of this correctly, it's the base shown in the 2nd photo. Assuming I have this right, that is the piece I need to get numbers from to make a knockoff.

C.

361943588_2408060976035210_2109178782503883180_n.jpg



View attachment 8185640
The circled part is what I’m thinking of.
 
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I know my A1 is a reproduction but from what I thought I knew it had 3 holes to adjust more forward and back as needed. Only 1 hole set was used at a time. I'm not as up to speed as @USMCSGT0331 is, maybe he can confirm if it's worth sending.
 
I know my A1 is a reproduction but from what I thought I knew it had 3 holes to adjust more forward and back as needed. Only 1 hole set was used at a time. I'm not as up to speed as @USMCSGT0331 is, maybe he can confirm if it's worth sending.

@FUNCTIONAL, thank you very much for your willingness to help out with this project! It's great to see guys in the community doing what they can to help out! I have access to original A1 simrad caps through a few friends, so acquiring the real deal shouldn't be an issue.

For the moment, please hold off on sending the reproduction A1 cap out, we need to make sure all the parts we're compiling are the real deal. The guy in Cali really messed up the A1 caps, so that's not a piece we can use for dimensions.

I'll compare your A3/5 simrad caps to the ones I have on hand. There were a few different versions of all these simrad caps, so maybe we can get specs on each version (maybe produce 1 verson or all of them, still up in the air about what we need to make). If you have a different variation then what we already have on hand, it would be awesome if you could send that variation out to Chad. If we have the same ones that you have, then lets not risk your originals going through the mail. I think this is the easiest way to go about sorting the simrad caps.

I'll get another thread started a some point and we can all start discussing what other parts we'd like to see reproduced. If you have something unique in your collection like some kind of rare mount or scope base, that's definitely something to consider reproducing. I'll start that thread soon so we can make a list of parts
 
Does anyone have a legit A1 simrad that would be willing to send @LongRifles Inc. ? I know they’re damn near unobtainium. Wonder how that Ca Douche bags mount specs out against a legit one. I know his mounts off

A few close friends have some original A1 simrad caps. I'll reach out to them this week and see if they can get 1 or more sent out to Chad asap. So, this shouldn't be too difficult, I'll post updates when I talk to a few people.
 
A few close friends have some original A1 simrad caps. I'll reach out to them this week and see if they can get 1 or more sent out to Chad asap. So, this shouldn't be too difficult, I'll post updates when I talk to a few people.
Awesome man. The end product of this will be as close to the original as it can be. Really looking forward to this!

Hopefully this will be the final nail in that CA jackass’ coffin…
 
One last update, boxes checked:

  • Modeling
  • Material on the floor

We just took delivery of material for some belt-fed parts and for a P90 variant that I've been asked to sort out. These are "big deal" jobs, so this sniper rifle stuff will have to sit for a minute. The belt-fed parts are well-vetted and run themselves. The P90 thing is a cold start, feature-rich piece, and it's all 5x work, so it'll be a bit tedious.

I'll jump back onto this stuff as soon as I get "water-tight" 1st articles. With that, I have a trip to take next week. I'll be coming home with one hell of a product sample. It's a Unicorn, for sure. I can't really find the words to express my gratitude for this opportunity.

More to follow...
 
...don't bother trying to copy the original machining irregularities, manufacture them to modern machine capabilities.
Just speaking for the historical community… hoping you will put some indelible marks in a discreet location so these can never be resold as “original!”
I agree! I have a friend who copies WWI Helmets and liners. His early work shows up from time to time represented as originals. He had to start marking them as "Reproduction."
 
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CMP I think has killed the USO scope market for the time being.

People have been getting returns at USO prices.

My understanding is current USO no longer has the institutional knowledge of the USO that built the MSTs. They could relearn it though.
 
CMP I think has killed the USO scope market for the time being.

People have been getting returns at USO prices.

My understanding is current USO no longer has the institutional knowledge of the USO that built the MSTs. They could relearn it though.
I talked to the production manager about a year or 2 ago at a match here in NC. Said they were aware of the interest and if enough was gathered they would consider another run. At the time it wasn't on their radar though.
 
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CMP I think has killed the USO scope market for the time being.

People have been getting returns at USO prices.

My understanding is current USO no longer has the institutional knowledge of the USO that built the MSTs. They could relearn it though.
I haven’t seen many up for auction lately
 
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CMP I think has killed the USO scope market for the time being.

People have been getting returns at USO prices.

My understanding is current USO no longer has the institutional knowledge of the USO that built the MSTs. They could relearn it though.

Last I spoke with a friend at USO (within the past year), it was primarily cost and limited market to justify doing another run of them. I sure wish they would!

Awesome seeing the detail going into repro'ing these mounts and ring tops!
 
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That’s annoying to say the least. I don’t mind paying the piper on this stuff. It is what it is. I prefer to avoid auctions to not get hosed by foolishness. Give me a fair or expensive cost and I’ll decide if I’ll pay. Such is life I guess
 
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There was some dude who got damn near 100 of them. He'd bid up others that he didn't get, just for the sake of doing so, to keep the market high.

I know the guy with 80+ MST-100's, he's a friend and fellow collector. The guy has a massive collection of stuff, like warehouse sized and more than all us in this thread combined...... x100. He never bid any of them up for the sake of doing so or keeping the price high. He literally wanted the scopes and even offered the CMP a massive amount of money for the last 100+ scopes they had, but they turned him down. He actually wasn't even bidding on the scopes in the end, he just said he was done buying them.

There was another bidder on there that seemed to put an $1,800 bid (or something like that) on every single scope, but it wasn't this guy. My friend could care less about what happens to the value of them and he's not going to waste his time trying to influence the auctions. He bought what he wanted and that was that. There were other guys doing what you said, but please don't lump this guy in with those people.
 
Don't know if it's the same guy, but perhaps. This is a heard from a friend who heard from a friend scenario.

What could a dude do with 80+? My perspective is that I hope there are some out there for guys who build and use. I'd hate to see them bought and just sit on a shelf and not have anything done with them. That would be a shame.
 
Don't know if it's the same guy, but perhaps. This is a heard from a friend who heard from a friend scenario.

What could a dude do with 80+? My perspective is that I hope there are some out there for guys who build and use. I'd hate to see them bought and just sit on a shelf and not have anything done with them. That would be a shame.
I’m also curious why someone needs 100 Unertls. Be interesting to to see if he builds 100 M40a1 / A3’s. If not, having 100 Unertls collecting dust on a shelf somewhere will ba a shame. Collecting or hoarding ? One thing to build them into rifles as they should be and something completely different to have them just to say you have them. Hope he builds them into rifles and based of what @USMCSGT0331 mentioned it sounds like he very well has the means to do it. That sure would be something to see for sure. On the flip side for people with big money, the CMP auctions of those rare high demand items is a huge investment opportunity. Buy them all Up, let the market starve for awhile, and then start selling them at 2, 3, 4x what you paid. In a few years maybe we’ll see a bunch of Unertls coming up for sale from the same individual at massively inflated prices the due to the fact 1 Individual has now become the the sole source of CMP Unertls for anyone needing them to complete their builds. I hope not tho. Time will tell…
 
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Shit only 5k. Checkout this jackass


Now that CMP is out, I think those prices will be more common that not. I can remember years ago when the Unert market “dried” up and the prices were well in excess of what they were auctioning for when CMP started cutting them loose. From what I understand he’s done the same thing with USMC S&B’s and Premiers too.

Personally I see offering big money for all CMP’s unertl inventory as a pure investment strategy / opportunity. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong…
 
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I have no idea what his plans are for them, but he told me he bought them because he enjoys the history. Seeing his other purchases, I know he's telling the truth. He has them all spread out on display on 2 tables in his warehouse, he loves being able to see them, handle them and study the individual characteristics. He already has a handful of M40A1's built, but I know he's got a few other A1 parts he can build with if he chooses to do so. I have photos of all these Unertls on display, it's quite impressive and it covers ever single variation/change/reticle/paint/etc. that you can possibly think of.

This is a guy who owns a dozen+ original prototype MSR/PSR rifles, all in different configurations (including one with an aluminum receiver, instead of titanium). I don't know how many original AAC Honeybadger AR15's he has, a good amount (all semi-auto, all AAC marked receivers). I'm not going to mention anything else about his collection, I just wanted to give an idea of what kind of collector this guy is.

He's a good guy with a hell of a collection that blows away everything I've ever seen before. He loves the stuff and has no plans for any of it. He bought it all because he's like us, he enjoys the hell out of it. He has absolutely no plans on selling the Unertl scopes, I'm not even able to buy one. Maybe he'll keep them for decades, maybe he'll trickle a few out there in the future. My main point is that he didn't buy them to control the market and pricing, he bought them because he has the funds to do so and he enjoys them.

I'm only commenting here because I don't want anyone to accidentally confuse him with any other CMP bidders who have actually done what @USMCsean stated in his post. There are guys like that, but this guy isn't one of them. Reputation really matters and I don't want to see a friend get a bad rap because he acquires a ton of stuff for his collection. If he bids on something, it's because he wants it for his collection, nothing more.
 
I have no idea what his plans are for them, but he told me he bought them because he enjoys the history. Seeing his other purchases, I know he's telling the truth. He has them all spread out on display on 2 tables in his warehouse, he loves being able to see them, handle them and study the individual characteristics. He already has a handful of M40A1's built, but I know he's got a few other A1 parts he can build with if he chooses to do so. I have photos of all these Unertls on display, it's quite impressive and it covers ever single variation/change/reticle/paint/etc. that you can possibly think of.

This is a guy who owns a dozen+ original prototype MSR/PSR rifles, all in different configurations (including one with an aluminum receiver, instead of titanium). I don't know how many original AAC Honeybadger AR15's he has, a good amount (all semi-auto, all AAC marked receivers). I'm not going to mention anything else about his collection, I just wanted to give an idea of what kind of collector this guy is.

He's a good guy with a hell of a collection that blows away everything I've ever seen before. He loves the stuff and has no plans for any of it. He bought it all because he's like us, he enjoys the hell out of it. He has absolutely no plans on selling the Unertl scopes, I'm not even able to buy one. Maybe he'll keep them for decades, maybe he'll trickle a few out there in the future. My main point is that he didn't buy them to control the market and pricing, he bought them because he has the funds to do so and he enjoys them.

I'm only commenting here because I don't want anyone to accidentally confuse him with any other CMP bidders who have actually done what @USMCsean stated in his post. There are guys like that, but this guy isn't one of them. Reputation really matters and I don't want to see a friend get a bad rap because he acquires a ton of stuff for his collection. If he bids on something, it's because he wants it for his collection, nothing more.

I get it man. Still there’s guys out here than don’t have that kind of money and a single unertl is a huge investment for them and what they need to complete their build but they can’t get into one because some guy with money wants 100 of them to look at.

I’m sure he’s a good guy based on your experience with him but that still rubs me wrong. This is American though and 100% his right to do it.
 
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Speaking of massively inflated prices, $5K and it needs to be fixed...

I've talked to him numerous times over the years, he knows Dan Ross very well and has sold DD Ross parts for quite a while. Legit seller, but that scope is over priced, in my opinion. It should be about half that price, and even then there might not be buyers. No one really wanted the .50 cal converted scopes and those were the cheapest ones the CMP sold. Some went for a little over $1,000, just to give an example of how low they actually sold for. Just because the CMP is out of scopes, doesn't mean that there's a high demand for this particular variation.

Edited to add: I didn't see the previous sale he had with another .50 cal scope. $4k sales price for the scope with broken reticle is overpriced, but maybe the buyer has a connection to it or something. I'd be very surprised to see this scope sell for the amount listed right now, but I've been wrong before.

Shit only 5k. Checkout this jackass


That listing is ridiculous, I don't even know what else to say about it. Apparently 1,000k scopes were made, didn't know there were that many! Lol. He claims that others like it in wood boxes have sold for $20k+, that's absolutely ridiculous and as far as I can tell it's a complete lie. I'd love to see proof of that, if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong, but there needs to be actual proof to back up that statement. Maybe a scope sold that high 20+ years ago when only the military had the USMC version (only a handful of military MST-100's were in private collections and those prices were very high), but definitely not the case when the CMP scopes came out.

Also, the only time I've ever seen the wood Unertl scope boxes was when 2fag and his dozen different forum accounts were selling them about a decade ago. I've never seen them anywhere else and if they're real Unertl boxes, they would be for the civilian market. The USMC never got wood presentation boxes with their scopes, they came in cardboard boxes. I own one of those original scope boxes, here's proof:

Unertl-Box_Dsc04625_final.jpg

Unertl-Box_Dsc04625_final-address.jpg

Unertl-Box_Dsc04626_final.jpg


The scope in these photos doesn't match the box. However, the CMP did sell the scope that's serial numbered to this box and I missed it. If anyone reading this has the scope for this box, shoot me a message and maybe we can work a deal (I have a lot of rare parts to trade.....).

His scope is in great condition and it's a low serial number, maybe 5k to 6k for it, but I doubt there's many people who would ever pay more than that for it.
 
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I get it man. Still there’s guys out here than don’t have that kind of money and a single unertl is a huge investment for them and what they need to complete their build but they can’t get into one because some guy with money wants 100 of them to look at.

I’m sure he’s a good guy based on your experience with him but that still rubs me wrong. This is American though and 100% his right to do it.

I completely understand where you're coming from with this. Hell, I still need 3 or 4 Unertls for my rifles and I'll probably never be able to get the ones I need. I could have planned better, but I didn't and I missed out. It sucks, but that's on me. I know what it's like being on his end of things too. I have a bunch of original M40 parts and have been called a horder for it. But, I've been pushing a lot of stuff out of my collection and spreading original parts around. I'm no longer a hoarder, lol. I'm not keeping everything, and there's lots more stuff to get rid of in the future.

Once things get photographed and documented, the stuff usually gets offered to close friends. I've sold/traded at least 4 or 5 complete M40 sets (minus the receiver and bolt, has everything else though) just in the past year. It truly pays off to put in the time and make friends, none of this stuff was ever offered publicly. These are guys who have really helped me out over the years, so they get offered some good stuff. I assume that's something my buddy might do if he ever decides to sell any of the scopes. Things usually get offered to close friends first, but as I've said, he has no plans to get rid of any of them.
 
Speaking of massively inflated prices, $5K and it needs to be fixed...
I seen that over the weekend and put it on the watch list to see what happens. That guy had another one (had like green paint on it) on GB say about 6 months or so back. The reticle was broke and he had pictures posted to show the reticle was broke. He had it listed for $3995. Was for sale for like 3 months. He just kept relisting it and it did sell for the $3995 price tag. It was also a 50cal scope.

This was back around the same time I bought mine form Jrb572 here on the forums (which by the way the scope works very good with no issues).

Like I said... I was shocked that it sold for $4k with a broken reticle.
 
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I've talked to him numerous times over the years, he knows Dan Ross very well and has sold DD Ross parts for quite a while. Legit seller, but that scope is insanely over priced. It should be able half that price, and even then there might not be buyers. No one really wanted the .50 cal converted scopes and those were the cheapest ones the CMP sold. Some went for a little over $1,000, just to give an example of how low they actually sold for. Just because the CMP is out of scopes, doesn't mean that there's a high demand for this particular variation.



The seller he is ridiculous, I don't even know what else to say about it. Apparently 1,000k scopes were made, didn't know there were that many! Lol. He claims that others like it in wood boxes have sold for $20k+, that's absolutely ridiculous and as far as I can tell it's a complete lie. Maybe a scope got that high 20+ years ago when only the military had the USMC version, but definitely not the case when the CMP scopes came out. Also, the only time I've ever seen the wood Unertl scope boxes was when 2fag and his dozen different forum accounts were selling them about a decade ago. I've never seen them anywhere else and if they're real Unertl boxes, they would be for the civilian market. The USMC never got wood presentation boxes with their scopes, they came in cardboard boxes. I own one of those original scope boxes, here's proof:

View attachment 8189436
View attachment 8189437
View attachment 8189438

The scope in these photos doesn't match the box. However, the CMP did sell the scope that's serial numbered to this box and I missed it. If anyone reading this has the scope for this box, shoot me a message and maybe we can work a deal (I have a lot of rare parts to trade.....).

His scope is in great condition and it's a low serial number, maybe 5k to 6k for it, but I doubt there's many people who would ever pay more than that for it.
Actually looks like the seller @Joemore has an account here. @Joemore what the hell is up with $20,000 for a scope?