Binoculars 7x56 BMJ

[Fred Fokkelman]

Hi guys, I have these binoculars for a while now. I just need to know if these are wartime ones.

[benutzer]

Yes it is

[Fred Fokkelman]

This binocular is taller than the 10x50. I always thought they were the same in height.

[phild]

IMO hard to say. There are dozens of posts in many threads written here on these models. The known wartime serial range ended around 500,0000 or so. There is another serial range from 1 (?) to about 40,000 where these models show up mostly marked Hensoldt but sometimes early on marked bmj. Parts are for sure WWII.

[Fred Fokkelman]

So this one with serial number 1328 must be a very early one?

[phild]

That’s my thinking. I have never seen or heard that these 1-40,000 examples are post war, that is merely my guess. If it is true, it shows that most parts were on hand and that some market existed. All examples that I recall seeing were made to military pattern with no center focus. I have seen some as high 15,000 I believe in ordnance tan. I have seen 7x56, 10x50 and 6x30. Each of these models are found in multiple sub ranges within the 40,000 or so range. So for example the 7x56 may be seen in 4 small ranges every 10,000 numbers or so. This is a very rough estimate

[Fred Fokkelman]

Thanks a lot for your elaborate reply.

[phild]

You are welcome. It is probably simpler to see when one looks at several dozen random examples from this range and records the serial numbers and model than it is to explain or read!

Many have cases with them and while the cases are military style with wartime dated latches, they do have differences in some details from the ones found with glassses in the 400,000 range so who knows? IMO IF these 40,000 range binos are post war, they were sold to occupation forces.

[MAUSER99]

these interest me as well.. the 7x56 probably had their own ser range.

the 10x50 range is much larger.. these get confusing as there are different lengths of the 10x50 but the 7x56 always seems to be the long body..

I have tracked some dates due to seeing multiple sets in cases.

Most are 1941 or 41. after 41 the leather wrap was deleted for the sand finish.

Optics coding started in 41 so these would have to fall into the 1941 time frame.

BmJ code would cement these as wartime.

[phild]

I agree that the bmj were wartime made, but going back to the 1-40,000 “thing” I’m not at all sure that they left the factory or were completed wartime. Most in that range are marked Hensoldt but a very few have been found with bmj deinstglas markings.

One can search Hensoldt on this forum and find several threads about these. Most of the posts are mine as not many seemed to want to dive in to these

[stroh]

The '+' symbol dates these as no earlier than late 1942. It was originally a blue color but that has worn off. It designates the type of cold weather grease that was used during assembly.

The earlier symbol 'O' , dates from mid 1942. By late 1943 it had changed again to a solid triangle symbol. All of these were colored blue.