Scopes

[EDP1]

Do any of you use scopes? I really like my sidelock but have trouble shooting with open sights and would like to see some pics with scopes.

 

[nkbj]

As time wears on my focus I'm thinking about it. I could go crazy on planning a rifle that "needs" a scope. Those Leatherwood six powers are just serious cool.

 

[Spikebuck]

Unless you're asking about those long-tube no-power scopes sometimes used by snipers in the civil war, I think the others are off-limits for discussion on a traditional forum... :v

 

[rodwha]

I do not own one with a scope yet, but do plan on it eventually.

Here's a pic:
http://www.google.com/search?q=mal...clekb.com%2Fproduct%2FWM-6343212.html;450;380

 

[Rifleman1776]

Someone is bound to argue that scopes did exist back in the day and, therefore, should be legal today. We are trying to preserve tradition and, therefore, IMHO, that argument does not hold water.
Some scopes did exist. But adding a scope to a Hawken, Lancaster or other period replica would simply be an abonimation.
When/if I get the point I can't shoot an ml without a scope , I'll put them away and use my scoped aught-6 exclusively.
BTW, lenses go way back in history. I believe Michalengo had a telescope for looking at stars.

 

[Ed Wingenroth]

Hi All !!!

"If you can't see it, don't shoot it". :shocked2:

It's your pleasure, enjoy it while you can !!!

Ed....

 

[reskite]

I believe that telescopes were used during the percussion muzzleloader era by the competitive benchrest shooters of the day. A few of these guns were employed by the military as sniper rifles, so a Malcolm type of optic with external adjustments would be appropriate (IMHO).

I plan to mount one on my Gibbs .451 long range rifle but haven't had time to put the mounts on.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I believe that telescopes were used during the percussion muzzleloader era by the competitive benchrest shooters of the day. A few of these guns were employed by the military as sniper rifles, so a Malcolm type of optic with external adjustments would be appropriate (IMHO).

I plan to mount one on my Gibbs .451 long range rifle but haven't had time to put the mounts on.

The NMLRA does recognize scopes existed back in the day and has matches that allow them. Slug gun matches are shot with scopes. Slug guns are long range rifles that use an elongated bullet (slug) instead of patched round balls.

 

[crockett]

Is the trouble the: 1. sights? 2. Your eyes? 3. seeing the target?
Scopes on a traditional mzldr seem a little out of it. Maybe try fiber optic sights, etc.

 

[greggholmes]

The first documented telescopic rifle sight was invented between 1835 and 1840. In a book titled The Improved American Rifle, written in 1844, John R. Chapman documented the first telescopic sights made by Morgan James of Utica, NY. Chapman, the author, being a civil engineer, gave James the concepts and some of the design, whereupon they produced the Chapman-James sight. In 1855, William Malcolm of Syracuse, NY began producing his own sight. Malcolm used an original design incorporating achromatic lenses like those used in telescopes, and improved the windage and elevation adjustments. They were between 3X and 20X or greater. Malcolm's and those made by Mr. L.M. Amidon of Vermont were the standard during the Civil War.[1][2]

Still other telescopic rifle sights of the same period were the Davidson telescopic sight and the Parker Hale telescopic sight.[3][4]

 

[sc45-70]

Not a side hammer but it's scoped and shoots great!



I also have a Sharps with a Leatherwood Malcolm.
I'd post a pic of it but the mods would just delete it.

SC45-70

 

[George]

The first documented telescopic rifle sight was invented between 1835 and 1840.

The English were working with them a bit earlier. From "Scloppetaria", by Capt. Henry Beaufroy, 1808, discussing the state of rifle technology in the British military at that time:

Others again have had a small telescope instead of an after-sight: the accuracy with which shooting may be conducted by this manner, is amazing; for although it required much trouble to arrange the apparatus for any particular distance, yet once done, the bullets would cut repeatedly one into the other, and not infrequently a second shot would so completely pass through a former, as scarcely to leave any additional indentation on the edge. Their liability to be out of order, however, has precluded their frequent introduction; the sight being adjusted by means of two cross wires in the tube of the telescope, similar to those used for transit instruments, the very jar of the piece firing will very soon alter their position, and consequently their accuracy can no longer be depended upon.

Spence