Surplus Hensoldt Scopes

I posted this on a couple of gun specific boards I frequent as well but figured it couldnt hurt to try here too.

I'm having some trouble with a surplus Hensoldt Model One I picked up.

The windage and elevation werent adjusting for me and I cant return it so I went for broke and used brute force to solve my problems.

Windage freed up and moves nicely now. However the elevation adjustment also moves freely but doesnt seem to actually adjust the elevation. It spins and spins without doing a thing.

Anybody have any experience with these scopes or repair suggestions?

maybe it needs a battery

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Did you loosen the lock screw before trying to brute force it? That was a really bad idea btw.

There are warranty and repair places that a Google search will find . Many Hensoldt scopes are fairly expensive because the quality of the glass and worth spending money on to get them into working order . Don't force anything as it can be easy to break the erector prisim . With the windage freed set it on a window sill or something very steady and find a power pole about 100 yards away . The top of the pole will be about 12 inches wide . Put the crosshair on one edge of the pole while holding the scope rock solid and while looking through the scope adjust the windage to see if it tracks across 12 inches . Some older Hensoldts were metric while most modern ones are standard . If it metric about 3 clicks of windage will shift the verticle windage crosshair about 1 inch and if it's standard it will take 4 clicks . About 24 clicks will shift the verticle crosshair from the outside edge of the pole to about the center of the pole at 100 yards . This is no exact but will tell you if it's tracking properly . I'm thinking/guessing that someone adjusted the windage all the way left or right , bottomed it out and locked it up and usually a lock up is because of the force applied breaking the erector prisim . If the windage tracks , send it to a repair center for an estimate and if the price is worth it , get it repaired . I got a terrific deal on a Kahles scope some time back that no one wanted because the ocular barrel was totally missing along with the focus ring . I found a repair place that sold the barrel and ring to me , used , for 30 bucks and now have a $700.00 scope that cost me a total of $100.00 . A lot depends upon the model but Hensoldts are good scopes but like all scopes you can easily break it by forcing the windage or elevation past where they were designed to go and back out . Good luck with it and i hope some of this helps . Check places like ebay and gunbroker or Google search to find prices on your model , get a repair estimate and see if it's worth it . Call the repair place to see if it's a common problem , which it probably isn't , give them an accurate description of the problem and by doing the above test you can tell them whether it tracks/adjusts or not because if it does , it could get expensive if the erector prisim is broken . Next find an online manual and see how many mils , in the case of a metric scope or moa's for a standard scope there is in windage and elevation adjustment for your particular model . An example would be 20 m.o.a. of adjustment so at 4 clicks to 1 inch you'll have 80 clicks from all the way left to all the way right in your windage so if you do , the scope is adjusting properly , the erector isn't broken and it's probably well worth fixing . Hensoldts use "mostly" Karl Ziess lenses , high quality as opposed to Ziess Jenna from east German . My Kahles is an older ZF64 6 x 40 sniper scope that came from Israel and it looked like it was worth nothing but it has Karl Ziess lenses also and it's a great scope although it still looks rough .

Originally posted by janon
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

Did you loosen the lock screw before trying to brute force it? That was a really bad idea btw.

Yeah I did. I turned the screws out a whole turn or so so that only the center turret was moving.

It worked fine for a while then I reached this point where the elevation wouldnt go any higher. I figured since the scope was designed to adjust to 600 meters beyond the point of 100 meter center that it should surely adjust higher and could get away with a little elbow grease. Further turning was tough for a bit then got a little easier. Next shots I realized elevation wasnt moving at all and I might be in trouble.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


As bandito said, you probably bottomed out the elevation. It was probably never mechanically recentered so it didn't take much to bottom and then break from the force. Hard to say without seeing it. I'd take it into a gunsmith to let them have a look at it and give you an idea of what you can do now.