# old weaver scope problems



## 10yearquest (Oct 15, 2009)

So last month my brother bought an older weaver 2.5-7 power scope and put it on his Marlin 1895 guide 45-70. he is shooting 350 grain bullets at about 2000 fps. It has alot of recoil. It was pretty tough to sight in but we were pretty sure we had it good. On a hunt a couple weeks ago it got wet inside of it. We took the eye piece off and warmed it up to dry it out.
Saturday he had a chance at a cow but after unloading his gun at her plus a couple she walked away unharmed. His first shot he had a very solid rest. long story short. What do you guys think. Do these older weavers have the ability to handle hard recoil. would water inside hurt it. Can scopes wear out. Give me your opinions..


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Too bad on the missed cow..

Has he checked the screw tightness on the mounts and rings? That's pretty heavy recoil...

I would suggest checking that first and then shoot at paper again to see how it's grouping. 

It could be the scope though.. previous owner could have banged it up badly. Could have been cow fever (the shooter) as well. :wink:


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

10yearquest said:


> So last month my brother bought an older weaver 2.5-7 power scope and put it on his Marlin 1895 guide 45-70. he is shooting 350 grain bullets at about 2000 fps. It has alot of recoil. It was pretty tough to sight in but we were pretty sure we had it good. On a hunt a couple weeks ago it got wet inside of it. We took the eye piece off and warmed it up to dry it out.
> Saturday he had a chance at a cow but after unloading his gun at her plus a couple she walked away unharmed. His first shot he had a very solid rest. long story short. What do you guys think. Do these older weavers have the ability to handle hard recoil. would water inside hurt it. Can scopes wear out. Give me your opinions..


Quest.....I'm shooting a 45-70 with a Leopold on it with no problems. Even when my son dropped the rifle on concrete, it banged up my new scope, but it is still very accurate. But, yes, I believe an older Weaver will handle the recoil. When a Redfield scope of mine fogged up, Redfield said the nitrogen had leaked out of it and repaired for free. Not sure about an older Weaver though. Is Weaver still in business ?


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## 10yearquest (Oct 15, 2009)

checked the screws and they are tight. We have not had a chance to shoot it again and I am curious as to what that will show. I can only guess on the "cow fever" I was across the canyon watching in my binos. He said he had a solid rest and the shot felt good. 

.45 too bad it isnt a leupold. I have never had a problem with the two that I own. Then again you cant usually buy them for 75 bucks on ksl.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Worst scope I ever owned in my life was a Weaver. Even the mild recoil of a .22-250 heavy barrel would adjust the POI dramatically. I threw it in the trash and replaced it with a Leupold and never looked back.


-DallanC


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## gwailow (Jan 20, 2008)

> Is Weaver still in business ?


Weaver is actually part of ATK now(Federal, RCBS, etc.)

Maybe you could try contacting them and see what their "techy's" know or recommend?


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## 10yearquest (Oct 15, 2009)

thanks for the pionts guys. We will go out and shoot it again when the time is right (cow elk season is over or tag out) Till then he will be shooting my beater 30-06 with a leupold on it.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

I think the last time I read a similar post the problem was the screw in the for-end. I had a similar issue once; a no can miss shot---well....I missed. I bought a new scope, because it had to the fault of the cheap Tasco, right? Before replacing it, I test shot it with the Tasco on and it was dead on....must have been the really clear skies and short distance that threw me off. :mrgreen: Of course, I had only one shot, while in this case he had several. Shooting it again will tell a lot. Good luck!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

There was an ex-Weaver guy in El Paso TX that ran a(the) repair shop for Weaver scopes. He did a great job, at a set price, but it took a long time to get the scopes back. He sold out his stuff to IronSight: http://www.ironsightinc.com/ I don't know anything about these guys.

I have 10 or 11 of the 2.5 x 7 V7s, mostly duplex reticles. 7 of these I bought new in the box and the others came with older rifles I bought and/or traded. I've had others that have come and gone. The scope was tremendously popular in the Midwest and in Canada where shots over 200 yards were rare.

V7s were prone to losing their seal. 2 of mine did just that, mid-hunt. Also, I had a few that had erector lens problems. To check for erector lens problem tie the gun down on a rest, set the scope at mid-range, say 5 power, put the crosshairs on a target, and move your head and eye back and forth across the eyepiece. If the crosshairs don't stay on target the erector lens is lose. I had that happen on a couple of them that I dropped.......one from getting bucked off a horse...geezus

I have V7s on a .300 Win Mag and my 12 gauge slug gun and they are still dead-on after many hunts and hundreds of shots. On the other hand, I have some that have been unreliable.

blah, blah, blah......PM me if you like


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## Frisco Pete (Sep 22, 2007)

I think that messing with the Weaver would just be throwing good money after bad, and you certainly never could be sure to trust it with an important hunt in the field. Obviously the nitrogen that keeps it from fogging is gone and both the nitrogen and seal need replacing. It will fog very easily from now on. In addition it sounds like their could be problems with the erector assembly as well.

I would suggest getting something like a Burris that are well known to hold up under recoil and are pretty well built, yet a bit less expensive than a Leupold.

Certainly cheap scopes can work, but they always are a gamble as evidenced by the experience of _wyogoob_


> V7s were prone to losing their seal. 2 of mine did just that, mid-hunt. Also, I had a few that had erector lens problems... I have some that have been unreliable.


I just hate to gamble with equipment when I am hunting.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Good comments Frisco Pete...

I'd like to mention....when the nitrogen leaked out of my scope and it fogged up, I took a Q-tip and cleaned not only the lense but the inside of the scope. Of course when I looked through it, the crosshairs were gone....oops..  

What are those cross hair's made of ....cat gut or spider webbing ?


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

10yearquest said:


> ....Give me your opinions..


OK, here's my opinion:
This is a no brainer...take that old piece of junk off and throw it away! Shoot that 1895 like it's supposed to be shot...open sights.


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## Frisco Pete (Sep 22, 2007)

> What are those cross hair's made of ....cat gut or spider webbing ?


Mechanical reticles are made out of something like flattened platinum wire or ribbon wire suspended on a mount. Another way to make a reticle is to use a photo-etching process on metal foil. Proper tension of this type is very critical because a slight error either way can result in failure under recoil or failure with extreme temperature variation. Pointing this type at the sun can also burn them out. This type is done offshore because of the nasty chemicals used during etching. The very thinnest crosshairs are fashioned from spider web!



> Shoot that 1895 like it's supposed to be shot...open sights.


Well how about an upgraded iron sight like a peep or aperture? XS Sight systems make one that is super popular with upgraded and tricked-out 1895s http://www.xssights.com/store/rifle.html. I would install the smaller .191" ID aperture. Comes with both large and small sizes.
These sure beat the factory buckhorn type of iron.


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## 10yearquest (Oct 15, 2009)

BPturkeys said:


> 10yearquest said:
> 
> 
> > ....Give me your opinions..
> ...


other than the "NO BRAINER" I agree with you on the open sights. It is not my gun though and even if I did not agree with it, the choice was all Franklin13's to make. I just helped him as much as I could. We knew the shots could be longer than 100 yards so he opted for a scope and zeroed it at 200 yards.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

In all fairness to Weaver, the V7W 2.5 x 7 riflescope was a well made-scope. The ones that I bought new have done me well. The ones that road on farm tractors, in the back of pick-ups, or that my teenage boys "broke in" have had their share of problems..any scope would......geeze, that one boy of mine could break a bowling ball. :lol: 

I read once in the 70s that over one-half of the rifle scopes sold in the USA were Weavers. I'm sure I paid around $100 for them in the early 70s; a weeks wages, take-home for me in 1970. Weaver was bought out by some foreign outfit and then there was a lag in scope production. When they fired up again the scopes were just not as well made as the old ones. 

I have a rare Weaver V7W with a post reticle on one of my varmint rifles. It has served me well for over 35 years.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

BPturkeys said:


> 10yearquest said:
> 
> 
> > ....Give me your opinions..
> ...


Many of us struggle shooting with iron sights. I am left eye dominate, but shoot right-handed. I wear tri-focals. So my eyesight is such that if I focus on the rear sight the front sight disappears and if I squint hard enough to get the front sight focused the rear sight is a blur. I love old turn-of-the-century guns and try to harvest a few doe antelope or a buck deer every year using open sights, but it's getting harder with eyesight like mine.

I try to put "period" scopes on my older guns. I have scopes on my slug shotguns and nothing hammers a scope like a 3" 12 gauge deer slug. Naturally some guns just don't seem "right" with a scope on them.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

> Naturally some guns just don't seem "right" with a scope on them.


Very true Goob....and some rifles wouldn't work without 'em...


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Oooh, a Browning!


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

.45 said:


> > Naturally some guns just don't seem "right" with a scope on them.
> 
> 
> Very true Goob....and some rifles wouldn't work without 'em...


That is a sweeeeeet rifle. Want to trade it for a Savage .223 :?: :wink:


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Al Hansen said:


> That is a sweeeeeet rifle. Want to trade it for a Savage .223 :?: :wink:


Sure Al......I'll trade you, if you want to sweeten the deal by throwing in the "Yellow Monster".... 

btw, the one in the pic isn't mine anyhow.. :mrgreen:


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

.45 said:


> [quote="Al Hansen":2x0bdqg3]
> 
> That is a sweeeeeet rifle. Want to trade it for a Savage .223 :?: :wink:


Sure Al......I'll trade you, if you want to sweeten the deal by throwing in the "Yellow Monster".... 

btw, the one in the pic isn't mine anyhow.. :mrgreen:[/quote:2x0bdqg3]

Deals off. And besides I didn't know that you rode .


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