Fixing up an SMLE with a Win A5 scope.

[Roger Payne]

Never heard of it Buntline - certainly not for service use. The main reason that there was such a bewildering variety of scopes & mounts fitted to the SMLE in WW1 was because of the panic in the Spring of 1915 to get marksman's rifles to the front line to take on the Germans, who had been using such weapons pretty much unopposed in late 1914 & at the beginning of 1915. This led to all sorts of scope & mount combinations being accepted into service - often in very small quantities. It was a real logistical nightmare. However, by late 1915/early 1916 production was being concentrated on three main scopes (PPCo., Aldis & Win A5) albeit still with several different mounting systems. From then onwards there was little tendency to take on any other scopes of whatever origin, until the SMLE snipers were replaced by the P'14 equipped with the Model 1918 scope in 1918.

As an aside, I'm not actually sure exactly when the Unertl firm started producing scopes. I had a feeling it wasn't till after WW1 anyway..........no doubt someone can tell us precisely.

[Simon]

I'm sure I've read somewhere (Stroebel maybe) that Mr Unertl served with the German Army in WWI.

[Roger Payne]

Now you come to mention it I think I've read that somewhere too. So presumably at the earliest Unertl scopes would have first appeared in the inter-war period?

[vintage hunter]

From what I can find out the Unertl Optics company was founded in 1934. I've also read John Unertl was a WWI German sniper and I've also read he wasn't. No one seems to really know for certain. It is also said he was employed by J.W. Fecker before going into the optics business on his own.

[Buntline]

I was thinking of during WW2 as I'm quite sure Unertle et al were all post WW1. Dewey has Win x8 (7/8" objective) that looks affordable but I'm assuming this is also post WW1.