Help needed with 03A4 with Lyman Scope - Post Retical

[Bob Seijas]

Interesting scopes. 1601 is, as mentioned, a very late Wollensak probably delivered after the war as "work in progress" when the contracts were cancelled. Could use a pic of the nomenclature stamp, should be two-line with no FSN.

The other one is odd. Are you positive about the serial? 54oo would seem to be right at the beginning of post-war commercial production when leftover military parts were common, but it isn't typical. More pix!

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[Brightonknight]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the blog. I read your article that Jgaynor sent me, "M81 and M82 Telescope sights for the M1C Sniper." Your article says that the first batch of Lyman scopes came with 4900 to 5200 serial numbers on the tube. These were being etched M73B1 and the bases on the scopes had "Telescope-M-73." Then the scopes had the "Telescope-M-73" ground off, part numbers put on and the M81 designation rolled on the tubes. With scopes being in short supply, would not more than one batch of scopes be built and sent, especially with the M82 on the way. The scope I'm researching is at 5435, 235 units away from 5200. The article states that a few post war production in the SN#6000 range with "ALL Weather" on the bases, used some left over internal military parts. Could this scope be from the beginning of the M82 production and when the marking of the scopes changed from M81 to M82, during the time then current inventories of civilian parts were being exhausted?

This scope has the early caps with the military numbers on it and both of the bases have been ground on one side and the military part numbers added over. This is a post reticle scope and has the wear on the front of the tube and rear eyepiece from a scope cover. Bluing is consistant on all parts of the scope. Wouldn't Lyman exhausted all civilain tubes, ground bases and early caps in military scope production? With the serial number only 235 units away from the first batch and the article indicating batches were delivered during the intial gearing up of military production, what was the last of the civilian numbered tubes?

I'll put up some more pics of the Alaskan scope, which was on the 03A4 when I bought it in 1977. I bought the M82 marked scope a short time later because at the time I was told that it had been a Korean conflict part and it just looked wicked. It has superb clarity. I'll post better pictures.

Also your article and research was really good.

Thanks, James