What is so good about Unertl?

I was a 8541 in the usmc 1995 -2000 and we shot the usmc unertl and i loved them.all those top end scopes like zeiss kahles and swarovski may look prettier and the optics may be as good or better but they would never take the beatings marines put on the unertl..and as said above that we were changing scopes to leupold is not entirely true the army shoots leupold but the marine are not looking to replace the unertl but there has been some contract problems since old man john unertl passed away..I like unertl and i'm 30 year young(not all are old cult)
 
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One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the adjustment system on the old Unertl's. It is far and away superior to any of today's internal adjustment systems, in every respect save for compactness. They are repeatable, and have a mind boggling amount of windage and elevation travel. They are NOT for a hunting rifle like for Deer or Elk, but for woodchucks and target shooting, the old Unertl's are tops in my book.




I have never had one, but from what I've read, that's exactly the reason they were prefered for sniper work. You could adjust it 30 (or whatever) clicks up, 60 clicks down, 20 clicks left, etc., then return to center and it would hold a perfect zero at any and all settings, even with heavy recoil rifles, unlike internal adjustment scopes of the time (and many still today).
 
Creekhunter John Unertl would be proud of you. I whish his wife could see you post. I had the honor of meeting John and his Marine sniper scopes were a big and important part of his life Thank You Mauser
 
I can't remember the exact numbers and am not going to look them up but shooting smallbore prone matches it took something like 100 clicks to go from 50 to 100 yards. The Unertl I shot in those matches never varied at all going up or back down. Absolutely perfect adjustments. The better new fixed power scopes come close but not quite as good. No variable power scope can even come close to a fixed power scope.

Jack
 
My father was a competitive shooter in the 1930s. He tells the story of how he twisted John Unertl's arm to build a custom scope of unusual power. I have the thing stored somewhere. I wonder if it's worth anything?
 
ClarkM said:
Looking at the 1963 Shooter's bible, [which I bought with my allowance]:

Lyman 4X $54.50
Weaver K4 $45.00
Redfield 4X $59.50
Leupold 4X $59.50
Bushness 4X $49.50
Kahles 4X $56.00
Stoeger 4X $27.50

Unertl 21.5" long 1" tube 6X, 8X, or 10X with spring and both bases $67.00


I got a Unertl Falcon for $14 at a gun show last year. It is not any better than a Leupold of the same vintage.
Click to expand...
We are not talking about falcons.
The Unertl ultra varmint is pure excellence for those who have been behind one. I love the 12x on the old BSA martini ISU
 
In the late 1970's I had a Tasco copy of a Lyman Super Targetspot on my 30-06 HB target rifle, pretty awesome scope. The old Unertls and Lymans were great scopes in their day but bulky. That was a lot of scope to have on the top of your rifle, eventually internal adjustable scopes caught up and surpassed the old outside adjustable scopes.

This is a pirated picture of the Tasco I had on my target rifle, wish I still had the scope, I'd build a rifle just for it.
v0eAc3.jpg


The old scopes can still do the job. I mounted an old(50+yrs old) Balvar8 on a 22-250 for the PM Egg Shoot and made it to the third round poor shooting on my part not the scope caused me to miss. We stopped on the way back from the shoot and used our Egg Shott guns to call coyotes, it got the job done. I still keep it set up like this.

uT9GMx.jpg
 
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