i have a 1.5 to 5 scope with mannlicher name on the side in red and a red ring on the front of the tube. who made this for them? any help is app.

I don't know but the most likely maker would have been Kahles. Both are Austrian companies, Kahles scopes predated Swarovski scopes by about 60 years and many old MS rifles had Kahles brand scopes mounted in their youth.

It is always possible MS got some also-ran firm to make them, of course. I don't suppose you could post a pic, from which we might recognise a shape?

Reuss? who knows?

There are tons of optics companies in Germany/Austria beyond the common Swarovski, Zeiss, Leica, Optolyth, Schmidt Bender, Minox and Docter.

Tons more in the pre-war days.

True, BWW, but several of your suggestions could not have been the maker as they did not start making scopes until or after the original Mannlicher Schoenauer was pretty much done.

Docter, for instance, came out of the Eastern Zeiss factory some time after the Wall fell and Swaro, Optolyth and Minox seem to have come late to the scope game.

S&B certainly made scopes sold under other names, such as GECO, but only from 1957.

Ajack, Koehler, Hertel & Reuss (or Gerard), Hensoldt, Nickel, Voightlander, Kaps or even Meopta might be possibilities. There are other scopes but with some, like Sornet and Dolomit and some from Wetzlar, I can't be sure they were not just fighting-brand names themselves.

As said, a picture from domit might give us a clue.

Wow!

Thanks for the lesson. I knew there were a lot more, as I see old Mausers and Drillings regularly with old scopes from people I dont' recognize.

quote:

Originally posted by domit:
i have a 1.5 to 5 scope with mannlicher name on the side in red and a red ring on the front of the tube. who made this for them? any help is app.

Is it simply marked "Mannlicher", or does it have some other indication that it is proprietary to the Steyr-Puch-Daimler brand? "Mannlicher" has become such a generic term that the scope could simply be someone's Asian-made discount store scope with a prestigious-sounding brand on it. A red band around the objective would be consistent with such scopes.