What the heck is this military scope?!?

mh434

mh434

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 95.5%
21   1   0
Location
Manzanillo, Mexico
I've had this oddball scope around for years, but never knew what it was. I figure with all the expertise around here, somebody will be able to enlighten me. It has an objective lens of 36 mm, magnification of around 3.15X or so, and appears to have an illuminated battle-type reticule.

Here's some pics. First, a general one of the underside:

Militaryscopesmall.jpg
[/IMG]

A close-up of the markings -

Militaryscopesmall2.jpg
[/IMG]

One from the front -

Militaryscopesmall3.jpg
[/IMG]

And one of the reticule -

Militaryreticlesmall.jpg
[/IMG]

Can anyone tell me what this is, what gun it was used on, etc.?

Thanks in advance, fellow CGN'ers!!
 
Agreed, after having looked through them for 6 years. It's a C79 scope, the reticle is a dead give away and even the serial number is a give away in appearance and placement.
 
That's a De-Milled ELCAN C-79 scope.

The base has been removed.

The rubber cover has been removed.

The optical tube's seal has been broken and the tritium element removed.

DND sold a bunch off as scrap several years ago. They made it onto E-bay, and were selling for $30-50 ish.

I would suggest that it's a nice little curio, but spending the money to buy a new base ($3-400) and somehow get a rubber cover, and then somehow get a new seal plug (not to mention purging it and getting it to retain the seal) would be a lot of effort for a scope that has already been rejected by the military as scrap, and beyond local repair.

NS
 
Thanks, guys! I did think it looked kind of like an Elcan, but the lack of an outer cover threw me off. I might try lighting up the internal LED, as it looks like it's still in there. Shining a small light directly up into the body lights up just the tip of the reticule, so in the dark, you see a little triangle, pointed up.

Purging & sealing it might be an issue, alright, although I do have some ideas. The threaded, o-ring plug at the bottom makes it look possible, if I put it in a bag, filled with pure nitrogen, and can screw in the plug through the bag.

I wouldn't try putting it on a centerfire rifle, but I mightjust try it on a rimfire one day, if I can make a mount. As NavyShooter points out, mounts are easily in the $300-$400 range (working scopes of this type go for as much as $2K!!!), so I might have to try machining my own.

Anyway, it's a fun toy!
 
Oh...well, I think it's best I don't go looking for radioactive stuff to put in there! However, a small LED does seem to light up the reticule nicely. Gonna have to give this some thought. Sure would be cool to bring it back from the dead! Somewhere, I have another one, too (bought two at a garage sale back in the '80's) which, IIRC, still has the plug & seal in it.

The mount would be the biggest issue to deal with. Too bad the airsoft guys don't use something like the C-79 - it might make mounts (at least for rimfire use) accessible.
 
mh434 said:
Oh...well, I think it's best I don't go looking for radioactive stuff to put in there! However, a small LED does seem to light up the reticule nicely. Gonna have to give this some thought. Sure would be cool to bring it back from the dead! Somewhere, I have another one, too (bought two at a garage sale back in the '80's) which, IIRC, still has the plug & seal in it.

The mount would be the biggest issue to deal with. Too bad the airsoft guys don't use something like the C-79 - it might make mounts (at least for rimfire use) accessible.
Click to expand...

I really doubt this scope was bought in the 1980's as the unit you posted was made in 1992!!! Besides, this model of Elcan scopes were still at the R&D stage in the 80's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom