Win52B with Balvar 24

[DFOOSKING]

Well I finally picked up a scope I've been trying to get for 4 years now. Gun Show had a few gems to be had. This Bausch & Lomb 6-24x50 with the externally adjusted erector and the adjustment "knobs" around the maintube just looks killer. Has a tapering fine crosshair.

I passed this scope up last year at the same location and forgot about it as we rushed to beat a incoming blizzard. But I got her now. Hopefully it's not a turd. The box was a nice extra.

 

[DFOOSKING]

Found a card in the box under wrapping paper. Also has a cat tail throw lever and plastic lense covers

 

[Mister Ridge]

Nicer than mine. How solid are the adjustments?

 

[db2000]

Nice!

 

[DFOOSKING]

Nicer than mine. How solid are the adjustments?

They feel *okay*......time will tell. Its been mounted for all of 30min. And i don't plan to wander in 10°F anytime this upcoming week. Wednesday might hit 33°F....but I have no faith in the weather channel app.

If you have any paperwork on this optic. I could use some pics of it.

 

[Mister Ridge]

They feel *okay*......time will tell. Its been mounted for all of 30min. And i don't plan to wander in 10°F anytime this upcoming week. Wednesday might hit 33°F....but I have no faith in the weather channel app.

If you have any paperwork on this optic. I could use some pics of it.

Mine didn't come with the box or paperwork. I have just the scope and the plastic caps. Same reticle too.

 

[DFOOSKING]

Well been doing some research that some may enjoy. Searching around I found the operators manual and a 1956 American Rifleman article on this scope and some ads. I'll post screenshots cuz I'm good like that. Getting this info spread around guarantees we don't lose it.

I got the thing mounted but I'm still figuring out all the bobs and bits. Hopefully the manual answers my questions. There's a couple Youtube videos I found with a guy using one. You can search for that if you like.

I really worry we will be losing vast systemic knowledge when our elders start kicking the bucket. I have less and less faith our youth will carry the torch to maintain love for the old stuff. I'm not so much the grumpy old man or the "there's no replacing iron and wood" type. I fear we will lose the ability to use and appreciate this old stuff from a shooter's perspective. Plus it gives a little more appreciation for what our predecessors made due with.

If your curious....$239.95 in 1956 money is about $2800 today.

 

[DFOOSKING]

Here's the operators manual....

 

[DFOOSKING]

The pages are numbered if I screw up the order. BTW

 

[DFOOSKING]

American Rifleman article...the last page only covers a couple paragraphs.

 

[JG26_Irish]

View attachment 8583694

Well I finally picked up a scope I've been trying to get for 4 years now. Gun Show had a few gems to be had. This Bausch & Lomb 6-24x50 with the externally adjusted erector and the adjustment "knobs" around the maintube just looks killer. Has a tapering fine crosshair.

But I got her now. Hopefully it's not a turd. The box was a nice extra.

DFOOSKING - Great find brother! The Balvar is not a turd. It is a relic from days gone by and a very fine optic. I have two of them. One is mounted on one of my fine Winchester 52's. I often compete in 22 BR matches using a 52 wearing either a 20x Unertl or the 6-24x Balvar. When I first got my Balvar, I mounted it on the rifle and bore sighted it off sandbags on my back porch. I had placed a empty soup can at 50y to aim at and was stunned when I found that I could read the fine print on the label from 50y.

The Balvar is one of the clearest scopes ever. A little bit of Trivia: In the 50's and 60's, Bausch & Lomb was hired to make the large camera lenses for the super powered aerial spy cameras used first on the U2 and then the SR71 spy planes. They had access to a rare deposit of nearly pure quartz sand that was used to make glass of exceptional optical clarity. From time to time one of those bigass lenses had a flaw in it and rather than scrap them, they cut them up to make rifle scopes, namely the Balvar product line. It is like using a scope that was built using recovered alien technology. It was also one of the most expensive scopes in the world at that time. At $240 ea in 1956, for the price of one Balvar you could buy nearly three of the top of the line premier Winchester Model 52's which were selling for $88.50 in 1956. Yes, it is impractical and clunky for use in the field but for target work at one distance like 50y, it is as good as they get.

In the 60's B&L also made a slightly more modern 2.5-8x Bavar variable hunting scope. You could buy three pre-64 Model 70's for the price of one. I mounted one of those onto my 1963 vintage FN Browning Mauser style 308 and took it on Safari in Africa last year and it performed flawlessly. Made five one-shot kills with it on that trip. By the end of the hunt, my African PH and his lead tracker were both in love with it. The clarity of that scope is every bit on par with a Swarovski. Bought it for $60 on Ebay, lol.

Pics below: 1.) FN Browning 308 with Balvar 2.5-8x. 2.) Winchester 52B Named "Pretty Gurl" wearing Balvar 6-24x

 

[DFOOSKING]

DFOOSKING - Great find brother! The Balvar is not a turd. It is a relic from days gone by and a very fine optic. I have two of them. One is mounted on one of my fine Winchester 52's. I often compete in 22 BR matches using a 52 wearing either a 20x Unertl or the 6-24x Balvar. When I first got my Balvar, I mounted it on the rifle and bore sighted it off sandbags on my back porch. I had placed a empty soup can at 50y to aim at and was stunned when I found that I could read the fine print on the label from 50y.

The Balvar is one of the clearest scopes ever. A little bit of Trivia: In the 50's and 60's, Bausch & Lomb was hired to make the large camera lenses for the super powered aerial spy cameras used first on the U2 and then the SR71 spy planes. They had access to a rare deposit of nearly pure quartz sand that was used to make glass of exceptional optical clarity. From time to time one of those bigass lenses had a flaw in it and rather than scrap them, they cut them up to make rifle scopes, namely the Balvar product line. It is like using a scope that was built using recovered alien technology. It was also one of the most expensive scopes in the world at that time. At $240 ea in 1956, for the price of one Balvar you could buy nearly three of the top of the line premier Winchester Model 52's which were selling for $88.50 in 1956. Yes, it is impractical and clunky for use in the field but for target work at one distance like 50y, it is as good as they get.

In the 60's B&L also made a slightly more modern 2.5-8x Bavar variable hunting scope. You could buy three pre-64 Model 70's for the price of one. I mounted one of those onto my 1963 vintage FN Browning Mauser style 308 and took it on Safari in Africa last year and it performed flawlessly. Made five one-shot kills with it on that trip. By the end of the hunt, my African PH and his lead tracker were both in love with it. The clarity of that scope is every bit on par with a Swarovski. Bought it for $60 on Ebay, lol.

Pics below: 1.) FN Browning 308 with Balvar 2.5-8x. 2.) Winchester 52B Named "Pretty Gurl" wearing Balvar 6-24x

View attachment 8584858View attachment 8584859

When I said turd, I meant I hope this things works. There's really no way to know till it's all together if this thing works as implied by the seller.

So as I have now read the instructions. This seperate lock ring here sets the eye relief. You loosen it and slide it forward or rearward till the you have your eye relief where you want it and then lock it back down against the front ring. So that question is answered.

These two underneath screws loosened, allow you to turn the optic in the front ring to adjust for initial reticle level. Mine must be somewhat loose as I had it turn on my and that freaked me the F out there. The spring has thumbwheel to tighten to set spring tention. It tightens down into a slot in the maintube.

Here is better pics of the cat tail that I got with it. Its a neat little piece and works great. The bolt handle gets in the way at the very bottom of magnification. Not really a big deal to me.

One other question I got and need a little clarification. The manual here says the total travel iss only 40 inches(?)....

Sure doesn't seem like much for a target optic. Does that mean we can at least maximize the use of that mere 40 inches of adjustment? Or are we basically stuck with roughly 20 up and 20 down upon sight-in. 20 would get me 175yds-ish. Not the end of world since this will likely be a 50yd benchrest setup more than anything.

The hexagonal nuts hide screws that allow you to adjust the sights without using the knobs so they remain on zero and zero upon initial sight-in.

One positive is I've already ran the 52B with modern glass and I have tested ammo that is guaranteed to really hammer. So if I have problems....its gonna be directly correlated to this optic. So at least there's that.

 

[RTH1800]

Great scope. Thanks for posting!

If you need more elevation you can change front base height. Some bases are stepped so you can quickly change elevation then tune with scope adj.

I have boxes of bases. Reach out anytime.

 

[JG26_Irish]

When I said turd, I meant I hope this things works. There's really no way to know till it's all together if this thing works as implied by the seller.

So as I have now read the instructions. This seperate lock ring here sets the eye relief. You loosen it and slide it forward or rearward till the you have your eye relief where you want it and then lock it back down against the front ring. So that question is answered.
One other question I got and need a little clarification. The manual here says the total travel iss only 40 inches(?)....

Sure doesn't seem like much for a target optic. Does that mean we can at least maximize the use of that mere 40 inches of adjustment? Or are we basically stuck with roughly 20 up and 20 down upon sight-in. 20 would get me 175yds-ish. Not the end of world since this will likely be a 50yd benchrest setup more than anything.

The hexagonal nuts hide screws that allow you to adjust the sights without using the knobs so they remain on zero and zero upon initial sight-in.

One positive is I've already ran the 52B with modern glass and I have tested ammo that is guaranteed to really hammer. So if I have problems....its gonna be directly correlated to this optic. So at least there's that.

You already seem to know more than 90% of the owners. The round adjustment system for both vertical and horizontal windage/elevation adjustment is rather limited in its travel but does enable very fine adjustments. The grease in them tends to dry over several decades so, if yours does not move well, you can take it apart and clean/grease it for better function. Do not do this unless you have to. Those adjustment screws under the hex caps enable you to do coarse adjustment to match the rifle, load and desired zero and then use the fine adjustment to complete the job, so it is more effective than it sounds at first. The focus/parallax adjustment on the front objective lens is also very fine and if your target moves from 50y to 50 meters you will want to re-adjust it. It is tedious to adjust but once you get it right, it does not move. It therefore for me at least made a better scope for shooting only one distance since I lack the patience to fu#k with it over and over.

Something that I noticed with my first 52, a Pre-A speedlock rifle is this. I had a modern 6-24x optic mounted that worked very well, but when I mounted the big long BalVar onto the two mounting blocks on the bbl, the net effect is that it dampened the bbl harmonics so much that the already very accurate rifle became a total beast of a tack driver. I was thinking about selling the balvar which I had kept in the box for years without using it but after that happened, I said, no effin way, lol. I have had similar results with other bbl mounted optics. Those old bastids were on to something me thinks! I compete in a local outlaw 22lr BR match on a regular basis. I was always a mid pack competitor at that time. It was open to any factory 22lr repeater rifle but limited to sandbag rests only. No bipods or mechanical rests. We had about 16 regular competitors at that time and shot year round using a outdoor lighted range and indoor benches. Our group included 3 former national champions and several others who could win on a given night. After I mounted the Balvar, I went on a run for several months of winning many if not most of those matches. Today fully half of the competitors are now shooting old Winchester 52's and many are using bbl mounted optics like Unertl, Redfield, Lyman, Fecker, etc. Good luck with your BalVar. Let us know how it shoots once you get it all sorted.

 

[DFOOSKING]

You already seem to know more than 90% of the owners.

Well....most long term Hide members tend to know more than most. You spend enough time linked (even indirectly) to actual shooters.....your gonna learn something through osmosis. Versus the he said/she said/my cousin did sewing circle bullshit. The quote is true. "Its not that we are that good. Its just everyone else sucks that much."

The use the fine adjustment to complete the job, so it is more effective than it sounds at first. The focus/parallax adjustment on the front objective lens is also very fine and if your target moves from 50y to 50 meters you will want to re-adjust it.

Kinda like my Weaver T10. The parallax takes 100 rotations to get from min to max. What's crazy is that scope is 1" tube and the erector has like 8 revs with 15 MOA per rev. Then this monster B&L only has 7 MOA total.

Great scope. Thanks for posting!

If you need more elevation you can change front base height. Some bases are stepped so you can quickly change elevation then tune with scope adj.

I have boxes of bases. Reach out anytime.

I don't even know if blocks I got are technically correct. Lol

I may have to take you up on that. Hopefully I won't have to. I dug out the blocks that came with my 52B when I originally bought it 8yrs ago. All I know is the scope slid on and the ring screws tightened down. This is my first externally adjusted optic I've ever owned.

****

That said, I did see a scope that I've never seen before while at the gun show. Guy had a few rolling block type guns with externally adjusted optics on them. I just eye bang the scopes for 10 or so seconds. He says, "you ever seen one like this?". He has what he claims is a externally adjusted Tasco (no idea the model or magnification) in nice shape. But the crazy thing is it has like a 30mm main tube. Thing just looks massive in the rear external ring. He said it had to be custom ordered from Tasco. I guess it be late 70's to 80's based on its condition. I didn't ask what he wanted for it as I didn't have the cash on hand either way. I would have taken photos but I forgot my phone like a dumbass.

The gun show had some really cool guns at amazingly coke'd outta their god damned minds prices. There were 52's, a 37, Annie 54's, 541S's, 541T's......all kinds of shit. My 77/22 is gonna pay for my college in a couple years.