An Old Scope and an Old School Hunt.

**TStone** · 24-04-2020, 16:55

A while ago I bought a Tasco 1-3.5x20 on Gunsite. Or rather that is what I thought I was buying. The price was good and I like the old Japanese Tasco's. I thought it would make a good back up scope, should something happen to the Leupold on my 9.3x62. The scope arrived in a Tasco 1-3.5x20 box but when I opened the box there was something entirely different in there, an old steel tube Weaver k2.5x. By old I'm referring to the age of the scope, not its condition, the scope appeared to be brand new.

The seller, who had left the country, apologized and offered to refund me but as I liked the scope I declined his offer and kept the Weaver. This past weekend, in a fit of boredom, I decided to test the scope. As I don't like messing with my working rifles I mounted it on my wife's Musgrave L98 7x57. I was impressed with the clarity, field of view and the generous eye relief and frustrated with the effort of getting it zeroed. The adjustment dials is of the friction type, no clicks, and adjustment is rather inconsistent. Suddenly I remembered what an effort sighting in the older scopes had been. I've become spoiled with modern scopes that actually behave in a predictable manner when setting elevation and windage. Anyway, 10 shots later, once it was sighted the way I wanted it, it kept its zero.

I couldn't leave the scope on the 7x57 indefinitely, my wife who is used to a 3-9x variable, would not take kindly to a scope that is stuck on 2.5x. I did however want to hunt with that scope, so I took it out one morning. Seeing as I was using a scope that is older than many of the members of this forum and a rifle I've had for 30 years, I decided to make it an old school hunt. No rangefinder and no shooting sticks or other newfangled shooting/hunting aids. I would get close and shoot offhand or use a natural rest.

So, I set of with the rifle, ammunition and a knife. As this scope is not really suited to the open plains where I do a lot of my hunting, I hunted a stretch of thick bush close to the Orange river. I managed to get close to a young warthog boar and an offhand shot at 36 paces ended the hunt. I could also have shot a nice waterbuck bull at ±50m but he was not on the menu.

I really enjoyed the experience a lot. Now I'm thinking I might need an old school rifle to put the scope on. And, no Treeman, not a .303

**264WinMag** · 24-04-2020, 17:11

Thank you for the read T and for making this lockdown easier and worse ;).

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**Messor** · 24-04-2020, 17:11

Very nice.

I see you took my comment on the newfangled stuff to heart, see how nice it is to do old/pure style hunting for a change :)

**CorditeCrazy** · 24-04-2020, 17:12

Nice!

**treeman** · 24-04-2020, 18:17

Originally Posted by TStone

no Treeman, not a .303

I see you have all the right books and close 30K in bullets, but thats not nearly as impressive to me as that tidy desk - Like Wow!

**Brenneke** · 25-04-2020, 08:06

Perhaps your wife could supply a recipe .. for -- pig on the spit ?

How closely must the meat be checked for "measles" ( tape worm cysts ) ?

**killzone** · 25-04-2020, 08:26

Nicely done T-Stone

How about a 30-30 Lever Action with that Weaver ?

**MyLani** · 25-04-2020, 08:47

I am taking a friend and his father for a Buffalo Cow each after/when/if the Lockdown ends.
They really want to use an old 9.3x62, as my friends grandfather used that rifle to shoot Buffalo with many, many moons ago.
The rifle is a real classic Mauser 9.3
The scope is a Zeiss. Serial number must be 000001. The thing is ancient. I struggled to help him sight it in pre Lockdown,as there isn't dials per say. One "dial", you just screw up or down for height. We can't figure out how to do windage though. That is post lockdown issues though, but will make a great hunt

**BBCT** · 25-04-2020, 08:59

I like it!

How about an even-older-school hunt with an unscoped rifle? Something I've been keen to do so for a few years but my attempts have been thus far unsuccessful.

**TStone** · 25-04-2020, 09:14

Perhaps your wife could supply a recipe .. for -- pig on the spit ?

That pig is already too big to make good eating, for a spit you need an 8 - 12 month old hog.

Nicely done T-Stone

How about a 30-30 Lever Action with that Weaver ?

That will work. I have always thought that an old Marlin .30-30 would make a great pig gun when fitted with a low power scope...

The scope is a Zeiss. Serial number must be 000001. The thing is ancient. I struggled to help him sight it in pre Lockdown,as there isn't dials per say. One "dial", you just screw up or down for height. We can't figure out how to do windage though.

The windage adjustment on some of the old scopes were done on the mounts.

How about an even-older-school hunt with an unscoped rifle? Something I've been keen to do so for a few years but my attempts have been thus far unsuccessful.

When I was younger, I did quite a bit of hunting with open sights, with modern rifles, a traditional muzzzle loader and also handguns, but age have caught up with my eyes. Once I got to the wrong sight of 50, using open sights at anything except very short distances became impossible. Sad but true. So now a low power scope, or a RDS, will have to do.