Scope from Bastone!

[6tharmored]

Greetings!

This scope was brought back from Bastone by my grandfather, who took it off the rifle to send home with the intendion of mounting to his .22 rifle. I asked him why didn't he just send the mauser back with scope and give the whimpy .22 to his little sister. He said he didn't think his mother would allow a German 8mm sniper rifle in the house. Afterall, he was only 19!

He was with the 6th Armored (128 AFA) and had the bronze star pinned on him by Patton during the "Battle of the Budge".

Any help on identifiying this scope would be greatfull. I've seen lots of snipers, but none with this scope.

Thanks, Mark

http://www.indianrivergraphics.com/scope1.jpg
http://www.indianrivergraphics.com/socpe2.jpg
http://www.indianrivergraphics.com/scope3.jpg
http://www.indianrivergraphics.com/scope4.jpg
http://www.indianrivergraphics.com/scope5.jpg

[gew98]

The scope is a commercial item - no military acceptance proofs.The type of dual inline claw mounts as well reflect a non military pattern mounting system. Likely this was a hunting rifle rig your grandfather found in a pile of surrendered firearms in germany proper.

[Simon O.]

As with everything else, the Germans used everything they could and civillian scopes were amongst the kind of items requisitioned or handed in for the Wehrmacht.

[gew98]

Simon ; to an extent that is true , but much overstated in WW2. Too many frauds like to mate 1920's and 0's era german scopes with military 98k's and claim they are real due to the extremely small selection of civilian equipment used by the wehrmacht early in the war. Like I stated - it's lineage is more likely a surreneded pile of civilian sporting arms than not.

[Over_Heer]

I've seen a couple of civilian scopes that were used by the wehrmacht, and they both had marks on the rings from the armory. I'm not sure if this is always the case, but it's something to look for.

[Willi Z.]

So far it does look like a civilian hunting scope from the 30s. Yes, there is always a chance that it was used during the early part of the war on a sniper rifle. The vast majority of these civilian double claw mounts were for civilian use.

I agree with Gew98 when he states that these are now often encountered on k98s and misrepresented as a sniper rifle.