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Scope ID help please

MK20

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Minuteman
  • Apr 17, 2018
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    The land of many waters
    A good friend has these two scopes and wants to make a sniper-ish mauser K98 with one. He will use a suitably non collectable 98 for said conversion.

    Which one of these would be best?

    The adjustable obj added to one is a US made and marked aftermarket part.

    20230127_175444.jpg
    20230127_175449.jpg
    20230127_175502.jpg
     
    There are a couple of experts here on the old Hensoldt's.

    But I'd be looking at the one on the left for a German WW2 tribute build.

    The one on the right is rather fascinating. So were American entrepreneurs taking war surplus Hensoldt's and modifying them with new objectives? I am really interested by that one on the right. What exactly is it? Who converted it? Where used and by who? Target? Military adaptation? Conversion kit sold in the back of American Rifleman for bring-back scopes? More info!!!

    Cheers,

    Sirhr
     
    The adjustable objective is marked

    TARGETEER
    R.A. LITSCHERT
    WINCHESTER, INDIANA

    16750457584188767268844737224745.jpg



    It threads into the front of the scope and replaces the objective lens.
    1675045893071851394147562685589.jpg
    16750459187915508013326537581898.jpg



    The obj adjustment ring is marked from 0 to 20 in increments of 5.
     
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    There are a couple of experts here on the old Hensoldt's.

    But I'd be looking at the one on the left for a German WW2 tribute build.

    The one on the right is rather fascinating. So were American entrepreneurs taking war surplus Hensoldt's and modifying them with new objectives? I am really interested by that one on the right. What exactly is it? Who converted it? Where used and by who? Target? Military adaptation? Conversion kit sold in the back of American Rifleman for bring-back scopes? More info!!!

    Cheers,

    Sirhr
    Litschert produced the boosters for a lot of different scopes (starting in the 1940s, according to Nick Stroebels book.)

    It would seem that the 4x could be pre or post war, while the 8x might not have been available until the early 50s.
     
    Which one of these would be best?

    The adjustable obj added to one is a US made and marked aftermarket part.
    The scope on the left is suitable. (It's likely a post-war scope but close enough for a WWII replica). I recall that to use the old Litchert magnification boosters, one has to remove the original objective lens - or that was at least the case with the Weaver scope that I had with an 8x Litchert booster. So, unless the German scope on the right still has the original 4x objective lens, or one can be found, it is not really suitable for any type of "replica" K98 sniper. It's a neat looking scope and they were used by civilians back in the day. I recall in a book by Peter Senich or Brophy(?) that the US military did perhaps evaluate a prototype Litchert magnification booster at some point (WWII or maybe Korean War?), but never adopted them.


    The one on the right is rather fascinating. So were American entrepreneurs taking war surplus Hensoldt's and modifying them with new objectives? I am really interested by that one on the right. What exactly is it? Who converted it? Where used and by who? Target? Military adaptation? Conversion kit sold in the back of American Rifleman for bring-back scopes? More info!!!
    Mr. Litchert sold magnification boosters for various scopes in the 1950s and maybe 1960s. I once bought WWI Mauser that been sporterized back in the 1950s/60s as a heavy barrel varmint rifle in 22-250. It had an old 2.5x Weaver scope with the 8x magnification Litchert booster threaded into the end. It was called the "VARMINT MASTER". So basically you could turn a Weaver 330/440 series 2.5x or 4x scope into an 8x, 10x, etc, based on how large/long the new booster was. It required removing the original objective lens from the scope, as the focal length was much longer/stronger with the booster. I sold that scope several years ago, but kept some pics:
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