QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE - KAHLES 6 X 42 SCOPES

[Gil Boyd]

Kahles 6 x 42 scopes fitted to the C3A1 Canadian sniper rifles and others were defined as follows if this helps in the future:

Measure the telescopic sight tube you have, if it is 26mm diameter it uses the Low or High variant of RALS 4 or RAHS 4 that’s what the L and H stands for.

If it measures and 1” diameter it needs either the RALS3 or the RAHS3 hope that makes sense

Information

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[Lee Enfield]

Kahles 6 x 42 scopes fitted to the C3A1 Canadian sniper rifles and others were defined as follows if this helps in the future:

Measure the telescopic sight tube you have, if it is 26mm diameter it uses the Low or High variant of RALS 4 or RAHS 4 that’s what the L and H stands for.

If it measures and 1” diameter it needs either the RALS3 or the RAHS3 hope that makes sense

An important nomenclature correction:

Kahles ZF69 scopes were NEVER fitted to C3A1 rifles. ZF69 scopes were only fitted to C3 rifles. C3 rifles were based on the PH1200/1200tx/M82/Santa Barbara/FN commercial mauser '98 action.

There were experiments during the mid to late 1980s to change from the PH bases and rings to a 1 piece base, but these were abandoned when they decided to "upgrade" the rifle with a new (M.87) solid top receiver.

This rifle was the C3A1, which was fitted with the Unertl 10x (until the last year or so).

There were NO US Optics MST100 scopes issued (they failed waterproofing trials [leaked when left in a kitchen sink] according to my sources).

My sources tell me that ALL C3A1 rifles which are still in service (as sniper training rifles) have now been fitted with Schmidt & Bender 3x12 PM2 scopes.

[Gil Boyd]

Lee Enfield,
Thanks for that, yes obviously knew that, but we have a couple of members who do have ZF69's on their rifles for whatever reason, whether trials or otherwise and as it helped one person, thought it might help the wider family.
Clearly the 500 that came back to PH for refurbishment were replaced with their own Unertl 10 inch scopes replacing the Khales used.
Have a look at one of the pages covering that refurbishment contract, if you would like a complete copy, please PM me. Lots of odd things happened at that time from the records I have from PH

[Gil Boyd]

In addition if helpful from one of the engineers engaged in the refurb, when the C3's came in, they were stripped down, components were re used that could be used, things like barrels, stocks, ejector boxes, and the triggers were changed at that stage to PH Steel single stage.

Also the magazines were modified into a box magazine, instead of the mauser drop floor plate used on the C3's. The Canadians did have trouble with misfed rounds and rounds jumping out during trials when this change was completed however and were far from happy.

I can only pass on to you that ALL the C3 rifles that came in to PH for refurbishment to C3A1's arrived without scopes, as the new steel base blocks were fitted, and at that time the Canadians were supplied with the PH rings to cater for the Unertl scopes.

There were several trials conducted with the Kahles scopes in Canada but were found to be lacking in many areas and thus dropped, however, there were some rifles which clearly made it threw the trials still bearing those scopes for whatever reason, and the reason why I generalised in my first post in terms of the C3A1'a out there now bearing the wrong scopes.......... and there lies history.

[Peter Laidler]

All water under the bridge now of course but I'm quite suprised that more military users didn't go down the Bushnell telescope route. The UK Military looked seriously at one variant that was readily available off the shelf from Bushnell in the US and extremely good value too! I think I mentioned it, that it was rejected because Bushnell couldn't/wouldn't make a couple of modifications. I seem to recall that the grat pattern was one of them. I feel sure that someone said that one of the reasons was that we had to select an EU made scope before we went abroad while someone else mentioned that because Bushnell couldn't change something (grat pattern ?) it was suspected that they were an Asian import into the USA. This latter bit was confirmed during an earlier discussion on the forum.

[Lee Enfield]

In addition if helpful from one of the engineers engaged in the refurb, when the C3's came in, they were stripped down, components were re used that could be used, things like barrels, stocks, ejector boxes, and the triggers were changed at that stage to PH Steel single stage.

Also the magazines were modified into a box magazine, instead of the mauser drop floor plate used on the C3's. The Canadians did have trouble with misfed rounds and rounds jumping out during trials when this change was completed however and were far from happy.

I can only pass on to you that ALL the C3 rifles that came in to PH for refurbishment to C3A1's arrived without scopes, as the new steel base blocks were fitted, and at that time the Canadians were supplied with the PH rings to cater for the Unertl scopes.

There were several trials conducted with the Kahles scopes in Canada but were found to be lacking in many areas and thus dropped, however, there were some rifles which clearly made it threw the trials still bearing those scopes for whatever reason, and the reason why I generalised in my first post in terms of the C3A1'a out there now bearing the wrong scopes.......... and there lies history.

While the production scope mount was manufactured by Parker Hale, I have strong reason to believe that it was designed by John Unertl.
The top pic is an M40A1 mount made by Unertl
Attachment 74621
The lower pic is a C3A1 mount made by PH
Attachment 74622

In fact I have seen a few mounts which are not PH marked.

If you look at the design and construction of the Marines M40A1 mount (designed by JU), the C3A1 mount bears very striking resemblance...

on the M40 mount the rings are Redfields which are brazed to the base, on the C3A1 the rings are riveted to the base.

[Gil Boyd]

Just sold in the UK to a lucky recipient in Canada with its original X10 USO scope and PH mount so a few variants out there following trials

[Lee Enfield]

Just sold in the UK to a lucky recipient in Canada with its original X10 USO scope and PH mount so a few variants out there following trials

US Optics did NOT build the MST100 scope before 2002, well after the Canadian Unertl contract was completed.

[DanL96a1]

ZF84 & ZF95
Instructions KAHLES ZF 95, ZF 84 | Optics Trade