British Army Sniper Spotting Scopes

[Peter Laidler]

The sniper div will have used all 3 but the only ones I used to see were the old Sct Reg, the big Swift and the little dk green Kowa (that were obtained from a supplier in Reading and a very affable Jock was the link man there). That said, the Kowa also had a 99 UK identifier - presumably because it was sourced in the UK.

In the early 2000's the Kowa was codified as the tele for the L96 and as such added to the CES in much the same way as the Sct Reg was codified/made part of the L42 CES. All that meant to us or the unit was that instead of the tele's being on the G1098/armoury shelf as general surveillance kit it became part of the rifle kit. I don't remember stands for them either although the reccy div and xxxxxxxxxx team would have had access to them.

Re the big Swifts (anyone know/remember who made them......) were good but...! We had to get new OG lens retaining rings made for some reason - I think it was dust and sand getting behind the OG lens - and Sgt Alex Lxxxxxx (one of the last REAL instrument Techs) had to formulate the plan of action with the manufacturer of the new rings (they were at Bury St Edmunds?). To do that job I wrote a few off that they could use as samples. We had a lot of them. Our new made rings were flat instead of beveled and were screwed down using pin pliers instead of a large flat concave screwdriver. Sorry to go off at a tangent with this useless info.

Incidentally, I seem to think that the Swifts came a dark grey colour and were over painted khaki prior to issue. The ones for Gulf 1 were then poorly overpainted sandy yellow

[Gil Boyd]

USI Ltd are indeed British and still located at Kenilworth, Warwickshire

[Peter Laidler]

I wonder why they were called the M-48 scope using a US type nomenclature and not the standardised L48A1 UK type nomenclature. Strange....... Were they MADE here I ask? I suspect that they were imported. I am thinking '...trials Bushnell telescopes' from the US.

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
I suspect looking at the layout of the way the numbering is stenciled for the NSN, that it was for offshore NATO country use not here IMHO. I have NSN's for some of my kit and mine is laid out differently as per laid down by Donnington, and have had stuff sent back becuase it didn't conform!

[Surpmil]

With Japanese optics to know who the actual maker of an item was one often has to look at the factory codes. Production can cross over on "export" brands. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/jbcode.txt

The codes are usually not picked out in colour and marked in an unobtrusive location.

[Peter Laidler]

We might have solved the UK Military M-48 querie. Just waiting for a reply from the Equipment manager and his contact at USI

[tr63]

Thanks for the information I think I have one some where in my junk draw never thought it was related to the l42a1 . It looked less than military capable !!

[Surpmil]

Thanks for the information I think I have one some where in my junk draw never thought it was related to the l42a1 . It looked less than military capable !!

I would agree 100%. The open "cutouts' in the top of the body for the focusing dials would fill with water pretty quickly.

They could have had the R.E.L. Telescope, Observing, Sniper's, with Stand, Instrument CNo.47 fifty years earlier; in test it stood up to six months straight in the rain.

I suppose some kind of sunshade was improvised on the not-so-Swift, so that the objective lens didn't collect bullets?

[tr63]

Thanks for the information I think I have one some where in my junk draw never thought it was related to the l42a1 . It looked less than military capable !!

Well I found the Swift 841 scope the serial is K89-3751 there are no marks as to government ownership . It has the shipping box but no owners manual . Anyone have a copy of the owner's manual that I can down load , etc. . Thanks for any help. This thing is very heavy it must weight more than the 3 draw Scout Reg.

[waco16]

This is a set of paperwork from a military issue swift as it cane from disposal, in its case with tripod