In my research on classic rifles, I have studied pictures of African and Indian safaris and hunting. Of the many hundreds of pictures I've seen, nary a one shows a scoped rifle, on safari. I know that until the mid '30s or so, scopes were expensive, delicate and clunky (technical term). By the early '50s, Zeiss, Weaver and Lyman and others I'm sure were widely used. They were reliable and fairly affordable, especially to those who could afford a safari. I still see no pictures of scoped rifles. I understand that the big boomers (another technical term) were probably not scoped for practical reasons, but no plains game rifles? Maybe it was a macho thing and when pictures were taken,they wanted to show their big guns? Anyone with thoughts? Captdavid

I think scopes were rather new tech then, and most of those might not heard of them.

I know we did not until the 70's, and even then I had a hard job convincing many people to use them.

The first time I made a believer of my father was when I got home lunch time, I found him shooting at liter cans put on the beach in front of our house, while he was on the veranda of the first floor.

The cans were probably 250 yards away and he was using an open sight 7x57 rifle.

I had a 220 Swift with an 18 power scope on it, and told him I can hit small condensed milk cans at that distance.

He did not believe me, so I went NBD got my rifle, and put some CBD there.

The cabs are about the size of small drinks cans of about 150 militer.

After he tried my rifle, he asked me to put a scope on his.

My cousin, a keen moose hunter, only got a scope in 1966, and I got my first 4x in South Africa in about 1969. I just don't remember seeing many around including in the military even though they were used in the US civil war, WWs, and Vietnam of course.

Not new tech !

Rigby 1901 offered a German Scope with a "see through" scope mount for their 275 Mauser Rifle
Jeffery: 1910 has scope offerings for their name brand Mannlicher and Mauser Rifles.
H&H 1904 offers scopes for magazine, rook and double rifles.

I'm almost 70. I am a scope user. My first .22 repeater wore a scope. All but two of my 'deer rifles' have worn scopes, except a B92 and a Shiloh Sharps. I've ever had a scope fail, loose mounts, twice, but no scope. Despite this I'm still putting iron sights on my 'refurbished rifles.
After contemplating my own question, but not given any direct information, I have a thought. Most of us hunt as a hobby, and we hunt animals that are probably not going to eat/kill us. If our scope fails, we miss not end up dead. On safari one can't afford to have failure. Hence the use of something that is super durable and low tech. That's why I'm not seeing scopes. It's the KISS principal, Keep It Simple Stupid! captdavid

Scoped Mausers had reached the British colonies of Asia by 1936 if this allegorical tale is to be taken as technically accurate http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/

In the "old days" hunters were younger and they got closer. Or, like Theodore Roosevelt, they missed a lot and also wounded a lot more game than today.

GBE,even before that. Corbett's doctor friend, who accompanied him on several hunts, used a scoped rifle either right before or after WW I. Captdavid

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:
In the "old days" hunters were younger and they got closer. Or, like Theodore Roosevelt, they missed a lot and also wounded a lot more game than today.

I see you're point but I think you might be painting with a rather broad brush........ Let's not forget that the original Kommandos in the Anglo-Boer wars managed some remarkable open sights shooting some of which was reported to be in the region of 1000 metres.

Even if the half that range is the truth, it's better than many/most people nowadays can manage with a scoped rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:
In the "old days" hunters were younger and they got closer. Or, like Theodore Roosevelt, they missed a lot and also wounded a lot more game than today.

In the "old days" scope manufacturers were few and far between and scopes were considered a privileged luxury, accessible to but a few. I had managed to obtain an old German military fixed x 4 power scope (3 posts) which gave satisfactory results and put me a "step ahead" of the "naked eye" crowd but also branded me as as being unethical and a cheat.

We are now in an era were the scope will do the shooting for you!

You could say the same for other electronic paraphernalia of which the GPS immediately comes to mind. The military were the first to use one then as technology advanced, the earlier ones were released on to the civilian market - gone were the days of navigating the seas relying only on compass, charts and landmarks.

You can say that again. In 1989 I got a charter captain license. Part of the test was plotting a course on a chart. Captdavid