In the years after WWII, several countries experimented with general-use optical sights on service rifles. The Germans had pioneered the concept with the ZF-41 long eye relief optic during the war (and the ZF-4, to some extent), and the British actually adopted the EM-2 with a permanently-mounted 1x optical sight in 1951 (only to un-adopt it almost immediately in favor of the FAL). The US also tinkered with the idea, as demonstrated by this 1x optical sight on an M1 rifle for sale at Rock Island. I was unable to find any reference information on this type of sight, but it does seem to fit the period. Perhaps one of our readers will recognize it?
Semiauto pistol
RIA: Norwegian M1914 Kongsberg Colt (Video)
After a series of pistol trials, Norway adopted a copy of the Colt 1911 in .45 ACP as its standard service pistol in 1914. A license was purchased from FN (while under German occupation, interestingly) […]
Revolver
Colt “Cloverleaf” House Revolver at RIA
The Colt House revolver, better known as the Cloverleaf (and sometimes as the Jim Fisk Model) was the first revolver Colt designed from the ground up for rimfire ammunition. It entered the market in 1871, […]
Lever Action Rifles
Ball Repeating Carbine (Video)
The Ball Repeating Carbine was one of the last Civil War arms manufactured, as an initial order of 1,002 units was ordered in 1864 but not delivered until shortly after the cessation of hostilities in […]
Just a guess, but I imagine that “scope eye” was a signfiicant problem with this design in certain positions, but just imagine how awesome one of these would be on a .22-06 Duplex model would have been! Science freakin’ fiction!
A bit off-topic, but just happened to note this on the Yahoo feed:
http://news.yahoo.com/lady-death-wwii-sniper-film-aims-hit-russia-034543400.html
Looks like an interesting flick. Incidentally, Stephen Hunter’s most recent novel “Sniper’s Honor” (which was originally going to be called “She, Sniper”) is about a female Soviet sniper in the Ukraine. Like the rest of his books, it’s an entertaining and well-written read aimed at knowledgeable firearms enthusiasts. (which is to say there’s none of those “safety-on-the-silenced-revolver moments that makes the reader hurl the book in the trash.)
You know, that reticule is a lot like the one on the old SUSAT scopes we had on our L85’s.
Ahem… “Oh aftermarket parts designers…” Just might be something I’d like to do with one of my two M1s… sorry, no “duplex” loads! And if the reticle matched that of the EM2, well then, all the better! 😉
I’d say you’re probably right, it looks very much like an EM-2 1x scope, perhaps US Ordnance saw the EM-2’s in the late 40s and liked the idea of it. Although the EM-2’s scope doesn’t have such large elevation knobs.
I’d like to know where those adjustment knobs and mount came from. Definitely not some Basement Bubba job !