I recently came by one of the original Weatherby Imperial scopes which were made to match the German-made Weatherbys (it was mounted on a Browning .22 Magnum that I bought). The information I have is that they were made by the firm of Hertel & Reuss through the 1960's.

They had a unique turret arrangement with two turrets on top and none on the side. The rear turret contained a focusing mechanism, while the front turret housed adjustments for the W&E on two concentric wheels

The scope is a "2.5x95" which I think refers to the relative brightness, not the objective. I has the Weatherby logo on the side of the turret housing. It is a very compact scope with a small objective bell that appears to house an objective lens of perhaps 24mm. The ocular bell is also relatively small in diameter, perhaps about the size of that of a Lyman Alaskan. It is equipped with a square-topped post/crosshair.

It bears some ring marks, so cosmetics are not perfect. But I thought I would post about it here in case there are some Weatherby enthusiasts who might like to have this scope (I've replaced it on the .22 Magnum with a Leupold rimfire scope). If you're interested in it drop me a Private Message and I'll be glad to take some photos for you and will entertain an offer.

I've got a couple of the Weatherby Imperial 2-7 variables made by Hertel & Reuss. They are an interesting design and the lenses in mine seem pretty good. The scopes are reticle-movement, of course, the best kind for a scope on any hard-kicking rifle (like a Weatherby ) but you have to mount them more-or-less to bore sight before tweaking the knobs away from the centre.

They were the first scopes I recall having neoprene eyepieces, to save the shooter getting 'Weatherby eyebrow'. While this doesn't help field blending, it is much better than most of the ones you see now, where some eyepieces look like tyres from a Tonka toy.

The only problem I've had is that the lateral and elevation adjustments on one of mine stuck together and when you move one, the other goes, too. Do the adjustments move independently on yours, Stonecreek?

Hertel & Reuss apparently knew how to make tough scopes as they acquired B.Nickel, Marburg about 1970 and I didn't hear of any mechanical problems developing afterwards. That 2.5x power should make it suitable for something like a 458 or 460 WM, and I would expect it to hold zero better than the scopes made now, where the whole erector set rocks around until it rattles.

So, were it not for the hassles of getting anything like that out of the US, I would definitely make you an offer.