They never were mil spec
I designed mil spec equipment for many years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_Standard
If someone wants me to work on something for a satellite or jet fighter, when I read the specification, I will see mil spec 454.
I not want to bid on the job if that mil spec applies in general. But I will bid if it says "mil spec 454 to the extent specified herein."
The reason is that one mil spec ties into another and that into another until there are so many complicated requirements that some little aerospace company with 400 employees will never be able to understand or comply.
I saw Nightforce when they were in Kent, and they have ~ 4 parking spaces. They get stuff built in Asia. They are never going to make mil spec anything.
My father designed guns and vehicles to sell at Detroit Arsenal, Rock Island Arsenal, and to the Marines.
He told me that guns are not really mil spec nor commercial, but something in between. Guns would cost too much if they were mil spec.
I can tell you that those Nightforce scopes were not built to mil specs in the sense that I know them.
That would be like McDonald's calling one of their hamburgers "kosher".
A guy could go broke selling $400 mil spec hammers to the government. The paper work would kill you.
To make a mil spec scope, it would have to be made of mil spec components, with traceability on the materials and certifications. I would have to be manufactured and assembled in facilities that were monitored by the federal government inspectors. I have seen those guys demand an office and a designated parking space. I have heard of them demanding a hooker.
Because the there would be few scope components [you can get mil spec screws] that were mil spec, non standard drawings would have to be created for most of the components. Those drawings would call out 100% inspection and testing on each component. That would turn a $2 spring into a $200 spring in a hurry.
Years ago, I exchanged a few emails with Gale McMillan about his contract and him selling scopes to the Marines. They were build in Asia, and they were not mil spec.
But you could say they were built to a specification for a military contract.
They were not built per the huge catalog of documents called mil specs.
Would you sign a contract that had as a requirement, thousands of pages of mil specs?
