I saved his comments as they were a peak into the history of a legendary firearms industry company. As usual with most gun forums, few of the poster new much about much and were posting all kinds of BS about Unertl and US Optics ( which did some shady stuff after Unertl went into limbo and got sued for their troubles irrespective of what you may hear otherwise) until most unexpectedly John R Unertl himself popped up to set the record straight. Last night I got thinking about Unertl again after a friend asked me something about those old beauties and remembered some years ago there was a forum discussion some where or other about what happened. The pricelist shows my 16X target scope at the time was 105.00.As you may have noticed my love o vintage target/varmint weapons and optics have been on my brain recently. I did find one of their handbooks (East Street address) with the seperate pricelist but no dates shown. Short of someone having a dated receipt from Unertl with serial number included, if they did that sort of thing back then, the info you seek does not exist.J Unertl Scope Serial Numbers. A good place to find them is eBay, but they are also available on several online retailers that specialize in weaponry. You can also offer your serial number for archiving which helps everyone who love these beautifully made pieces of shooting history.These days, Unertl scopes are mostly a collectionist interest, but many people that like weapons and its accessories would enjoy being the owner of one of these classic pieces. You must join to post but it is free. AS one forum “expert” even made the idiotic claim that the Unertls were made in a barn.The Unertl site previously linked is a great source of info and parts. I saved Unertl’s only post on the matter and the rest of the posts were nonesense.Each conmtrbuted to, and detracted from the business. All of the personalities involved here were strong personalities in their own right. TARGET SCOPE 1925-1950 WITH FINE CROSSWIRES AND STANDARD MOUNTS SERIAL NUMBER 29XX.My grandparents started the company, my parents worked at the company, I worked at the company. I have the authority to discuss the intimate details of this since I AM the last John Unertl that worked at the company you are referring to.2, UNERTL 2 TARGET SCOPE WITH MED-FINE CROSSWIRES AND POSA MOUNTS.
![]() ![]() J Unertl Scope S Serial Number IncludedAt that point I knew they were notGoing to make it building scopes. I met Rocky one time when he came to visit me with the 1911’s. They couldn’t handle the project, so the second time around he was a principle. One as a liason to an initial group of buyers. My understanding is that he had two different involvements in the company. I suggested to my mother to pursue other alternatives.Enter Rocky Green. Unertl Optical was far from operating out of a barn. I’m not sure if any of you out there were aware we made very sophisticated optical/mechanical instrumentation, optics for military jet gunsights, fire control optics (military stuff, not firemen) and wind tunnel instrumentation. Sorry, didn’t work that way. I can only assume the guys that bought the company just figured to buy some drawings,Program a CNC machine, stamp it Unertl & watch the money roll in. Hand fit parts meticulously assembled by true artisans. They were assembled, taken down, re-assembled, numerous times. I doubt you can find guys like this any more with this kind of skill and dedication. I fear the other guys missed this key ingredient.The Unertl employees were true atrisans that made these rifle scopes. The scopes had the benefit of this financing. The scopes were thatLabor of love because that’s how the company started. They were pretty meh if you are a real 1911 guy. I never touched one but I did see a couple. I only wish he would have written a book or an article about the company in some form for posterity.If you didn’t know, this Rocky Green fellow did market a few M1911s made with the Unertl name on them and they were a take on the older USMC used 1911s before MARSOC. They are truly the last of abreed.Enjoy those scopes, I would have no reservation saying they are STILL probably the best scopes out there.”There it is from the man himself. They have all played an important part in my life and I hold special reverence to each and every one of them. At that point our old guys started dying off, and with them closed a page in the anals of the shooting industry.I still have the opportunity to get together with the few remaingCompany people. They are pure art and they are still some of the best optics ever made. I do agree with Mister Unertl. I regret that I have since forgot his name and lost his contact info. Some years ago I got in touch with a fellow who did work at the original Unertl and had bought out the rest of the bases and accessories that were on hand when the real Unertl closed its doors. Immigrated to the US from Germany and worked for J. You can see in the image below what a high grade riflescope with all the trimmings looked like. The original Unertl closed its doors in the mid 1980s. Unertl had taken over the company and expended it and moved into modern designs. Below is a Fecker advertisement and you can see the resemblance. Unertl even supplied his scopes with Fecker mounts ( or what you would think of as “rings”) until developing his own. In the early days of the Unertl Optics Co. Unertl worked there as one of Feckers most talented and skilled engineers until leaving to start his own optics business in 1928. You can do the math on what the equivalent to 30 dollars in the mid 20s would be to today. How high quality? Well, in 1926 when a Winchester Model52 rifle cost $36 yankee greenbacks, a Fecker optic would cost from $30 to $50 yankee dollars. Google sheets for mac desktopA model was also made for use on the M82, 50BMG sniper rifle. A very tough optic that was the first to use the Mil-dot crosshairs. But the story of Fecker scopes will have to wait for another day.AS mister Unertl said above, the last Unertl to be developed and sold as a new design was the USMC 10X sniper scope. As of 2002 it still exists as a division of Contraves Co. The company was purchased for its advanced designs for missile tracking and guidance systems during the cold war. Though I would expect that from TFB. A few years ago I saw a post on TFB where one of their worthies ran into a guy who had a Unertl optic and he was shocked as he had never seen nor heard of one. He even told of using the scope to pound a tent stake into frozen ground one day and the scope was unfazed.It is a little sad to me that today few younger shooters even know the name. The 10x was much loved by Carlos Hathcock himself as he was one of the original testers of the optic for adoption to be used on the M40A1. I promise that there will be a longer upcoming article about it. The USMC sniper 10X was a fixed power scope but it had some pretty trick features, especially for its time. ![]() Now I’ve indirectly heard it about optics.Most people don’t know what they don’t know about CNC machines, starting with the spindle TIR. Doesn’t matter the product – 1911’s, Pythons, revolvers in general, double guns, you name it, match rifles. The picture was taken in 1948 in Johnstown, PA at an important event in precision shooting history.” I can only assume the guys that bought the company just figured to buy some drawings, program a CNC machine, stamp it Unertl & watch the money roll in.”I hear this all the time from gun buyers. You can see how well they thought of Mr. If you know who the other famous shooters are witout me telling you I will be very impressed. Most CNC machines can repeat positioning to no better than 0.0002″.
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