The Gunbroker auction appears to be a fake Unertl mount. The seller has even sold 1 or 2 others just like it for sale last year. It sold for $3,500, so someone paid a shitload of money for something that appears to be a fake! It's insane and absolutely unconscionable for the seller to accept this kind of money for that shitty mount. The seller needs to man up and cancel the sale of this mount. Unless he can prove that it's 100% USMC, then it's not worth more than a few hundred dollars. There's a lot more information pointing to it being a fake mount, as opposed to being a real USMC Unertl mount.
One feature that would really help prove the scope mount to be real or fake can't be seen in any of the auction photos. If the mount did have the correct engraved numbers, then I'm sure the seller would have photographed them as proff that the mount is really a Unertl mount. But, this didn't happen, probably because the scope mount at auction doesn't have any engraved numbers on the ring halves.
If you take the top caps off the scope rings, there should be numbers hand engraved on the flat portions that touch each other where the ring tops and bottoms come together. I hope this makes sense, I can't post any photos because all of my USMC Unertl mounts are with Chad Dixon at LRI. None of these engraved numbers have ever been seen to be matching or sequential. It appears that Unertl engraved each ring half with a number and just tossed them in a box, then randomly pulled out of the box when needed. This would help keep track of how many ring halves were made, and would also explain why none of the known original Unertl mounts have matching or sequential numbers engraved on the ring halves.
There's also a weld or whatever under one of the scope rings, you can see the dot of metal in the bottom. No Unertl mounts had that. Compare the bottom of my original new-in-box USMC Unertl mount (top pic) to the bottom of the mount that's in the Gunbroker auction (middle and bottom pics):
Also, the massive welds holding the ring to the base were only done by TMA. They were never by Unertl, and when the Marines needed to weld them (very few were welded) the welds were small pinpricks. Look at this photo of my USMC Unertl mounts. The top mount is unmodified, the bottom mount has USMC RTE 2112 welds on it.
Compare those tiny 2112 welds to the massive gross welds on the mount in the recent Gunbroker auction:
The seller also states that "
The finish looks to be parkerized and it looks to be new old stock." This isn't true at all, and I can prove it. Compare the photos of my original new-in-box USMC Unertl mount to the mount that's in the Gunbroker auction. On the new-in-box mount, you can clearly see the color change in the mount's finish. This is due to the heat applied to the mount when brazing (or whatever it's called) the rings to the mount. Every single Unertl mount that has it's original finish shows this color change in the finish because of the heat applied. This is a feature of every single Unertl mount that still retains its original finish, there's no exceptions to this rule because this is how the mounts were assembled and the rings attached. No color change in the finish means that it's not the original finish! Compare the photos below to each other, my mount is the one in the first photo and the 3rd photo. The Gunbroker auction mount is the 2nd and the last photo.
Edit to add: If you look closely, you can also see the milling marks on the bottom of both svope mounts. The milling marks goes perpendicular to the length of the mount on the new-in-box original USMC Unertl mount. On the Gunbroker mount, the milling goes parallel to the length of the mount. Hopefully the way I described it makes sense. Just look at the photos below and you'll be able to see it for yourself. These mounts were obviously made by different people, and only ine if them is an original USMC Unertl mount (and it's not the one in the Gunbroker auction).
Here's some high resolution photos of my new-in-box USMC Unertl scope mount, it's one of 2 or 3 known USMC Unertl mounts that are still known to be new-in-box condition. Keep these photo for your information, and use them for comparison to any scope mounts that pop up for sale. Information like these photos can prove to be extremely valuable/useful:
I hope this information helps you guys out. Please please please don't spend crazy amount of money on USMC M40 parts, especially if the part is questionable at best and a blatant fake at worst. Chad Dixon at
@LRI Is still working on reproduction Unertl mounts, he's taking his time with them so that they're 100% correct. Just wait for him to complete these scope mounts or use a vintage blued Redfield 700SA scope base with vintage blued Redfield 1" medium height 2 underscrew rings. The Redfield scope base and scope rings are correct for USMC M40A1 clone rifles from 1982 and prior years, so feel free to use those in your A1 clone build until
@LRI is done with their scope mounts. Please let me know if any of you guys have any questions about these scope mounts. Hopefully no one here won that auction. If the auction winner is reading this post, you should cancel the purchase and save your $3,500+.