Aging a Zeiss scope

Gldnbear

Gldnbear

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Is there any way to approximate the age of a Zeiss scope? no serial number on it, the elevation knob cap says Carl Zeiss Jena, the bell has VZF 1.5-6x42-M, made in Germany. not much to go on there. i Recently bought an old Schmidt and Bender but it has a serial number on it so its easy to age it.

UPDATE: i found a sin inside the elevation cap on the dial #403666 if any one has a clue please let me know
 
medvedqc said:
contact zeiss.
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I tried but they appearently cant even narrow it down. they came back and said Zeiss, Jena product pre 1980. geeze what crap record keeping. Considering in WW2 the Germans keep records of absolutely everything I find it hard to belive they dont have records of serial numbers on their products at Zeiss. Oh well..............
 
Zeiss was split up after the war and became two distinct companies. Two very different companies.

"VEB Zeiss Jena" operating out of East Germany (DDR) ... and "Carl Zeiss AG" operating out of West Germany.

It seems that your scope was manufactured by "VEB Zeiss Jena" in East Germany.

That would put manufacture somewhere between 1952 and 1990.

And the East German Zeiss Jena scope factory was bought by Docter (Noblex) in 1991.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docter_Optics
 
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ok thanks gents , that probably makes more sense. In general do they still have the " zeiss reputation for world class optics? I'm guessing propably so, i can count leaves on a tree 200 yds out my office window, it seems amazingly clear.
 
Gldnbear said:
ok thanks gents , that probably makes more sense. In general do they still have the " zeiss reputation for world class optics? I'm guessing propably so, i can count leaves on a tree 200 yds out my office window, it seems amazingly clear.
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Gldnbear,

many who have grown up in the West will tell you that anything from "VEB Zeiss Jena" is a cheap Communist knockoff ... and those products are not the real "Zeiss" deal. And those that have grown up on the east side of the Iron Curtain will likely tell you that those products from "VEB Zeiss Jena" are the state of the art of the Communist world of that era ... Hey they launched Sputnik in 1957 ...

The truth .... is likely somewhere in the middle ..... ;)


p.s.: "Zeiss" as we know it has nothing to do with "VEB Zeiss Jena" ....
 
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0faustus0 said:
Gldnbear,

many who have grown up in the West will tell you that anything from "VEB Zeiss Jena" is a cheap Communist knockoff ... and those products are not the real "Zeiss" deal. And those that have grown up on the east side of the Iron Curtain will likely tell you that those products from "VEB Zeiss Jena" are the state of the art of the Communist world of that era ... Hey they launched Sputnik in 1957 ...

The truth .... is likely somewhere in the middle ..... ;)


p.s.: "Zeiss" as we know it has nothing to do with "VEB Zeiss Jena" ....
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in the communist world 3 factories where the "best": east germany, romania and yugoslavia for hunting it was the east germany ones as well for very decent binoculars but the 2 others were good as well ... not to be on pair with the western europe but compared to many others products ... from communist world no everything was lada lol ...
 
Well heres what i got from Docter...... "manufactured at Carl Zeiss Jena in Eisfeld" it dates from 1970-1980, hope this helps you. So i guess thats as good as its going to get. Being on the east side probabaly goes a long way to explaining the lack of acurate record keeping. As to the quality , i duno but its at least as good or better clarity than any high end leupold ive ever owned, and that goes for a couple thousand dollar MRK4 i had

thanks to all you guys that took the time to reply!!
 
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0faustus0 said:
Enjoy your scope! Nice find!

As medvedqc said, "not everything was lada" in the East .... and the quality of that scope is probably better than most scopes that you can buy today .....
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Thanks ! For what I paid for it I think I got a great deal, and it’ll be a fairly period correct scope for the browning hi power safari I want to put it on. It will be a nice pkg.
 
Pragotrade imported a lot of Jena scopes when they were bringing in the ZKK rifles as well as BRNO labeled firearms. I don’t recall if they imported the variable scopes but they certainly imported the fixed 4x and 6x scopes which usually came in a little roll up kit with covers, a collapsible ocular light shield, lens brush and a yellow filter.
 
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