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The French Army used a single pattern of rifle scope from 1949 all the way until 1995 - the APX L806, which was essentially a German ZF-4. It was finally replaced officially in 1995, with the adoption of the Scrome J8 F1 for use on their FR-F2 sniper ri...

In the late 1970s, H&K partnered with Hensoldt to create the ZP/AP (Ziel/Aiming; Projektor/Projector) and then ZPP/APP (Ziel/Aiming; Punkt/Point; Projektor/Projector). This was essentially a calibrated flashlight with an aiming point and pressure switch. It projected a beam of light that was spec...

All that is tactical is not necessarily new...and this shotgun is a perfect example. It was put together by a Tucson police officer in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and has all the elements of a very modern "tactical" combat shotgun. It is a Remington Model 11 semiauto shotgun (a licensed copy o...

This month at the 2G-ACM match, I thought it would be interesting to try out a “Ring Sight”. This is the same style of optics used on the FN P90 – the manufacturer marketed it for a variety of applications and I came across one designed for use on an AR carry handle (thanks, Steve!). It is a trul...

Laser Products Corporation got its start in 1979, with a laser sight mounted atop a Colt Trooper .357 Magnum revolver. Shortly thereafter they introduced a range of other small arms with lasers fitted, including the Mini-14, Remington 870, and AR-15/M16. The whole line was intended for police use...

The Zeiss 2.5x Glasvizier 16 optic is one of the most unusual and interesting of the German sighting systems used on rifles during the First World War. It is a bifocal optic, working in the same way as today’s SeeAll optic. Basically, a section of magnifying lens sits in the bottom third of the f...

In the years after WWII, several countries experimented with general-use optical sights on service rifles. The Germans had pioneered the concept with the ZF-41 long eye relief optic during the war (and the ZF-4, to some extent), and the British actually adopted the EM-2 with a permanently-mounted...

By public request, a minor treatise on diopter rearsights - particularly contrasting the design of a W+F K-diopter for a Schmidt-Rubin K31 with a Parker-Hale 5C for a Lee-Enfield No.4 and a modern RPA Trakker.

Also featuring an awfully chintzy table cloth that doesn't belong to the Bloke, but ...

The very early production MkI Bren light machine guns were made with two dovetail brackets on the left side of the receiver. The rear one was for the standard rear sight, and the front one was to accommodate two types of optical sights. A mounting for the No.32 telescopic sight (the same one used...

One of the pieces of feedback the German military got from the invasion of Poland in 1939 was a desire for a squad-level designated marksman in each unit. This would be a man with the best shooting skills of the unit, but not actually a fully trained sniper, and he should be equipped with a light...

Aside from the German widespread issue of the ZF-41 type scope, I have only come across three other military uses of long eye relief optics - and they are all Norwegian! One is simply Norwegian reuse of surrendered German K98k-ZF41 scopes, including updating them to .30-06 in the 1950s (these wer...

Specialized hobbies have always been a market for specialized gear, and competitive target shooting is a perfect example. Today, we have a set of P.J. O'Hare sight covers form the 1920s or 30s, along with a micrometer sight adjustment tool to show you. The sight covers were to protect the sights ...

When Britain entered the First World War, it had no formal sniper program. Germany was the first combatant to train and utilize snipers, and their effectiveness quickly convinced the British military that a similar program was necessary. Initially a wide variety of rifles were put into service, i...

In its continuing effort to provide everything for the US military from shoelaces to fighter jets, SIG has developed an optic which resolves a challenge with .300 Blackout and other calibers which offer both supersonic and subsonic loadings. Namely, how does one zero an optic for such a rifle? SI...