Scope Reticle Replacement

A customer brought in an old Weaver Marksman 3-9x variable power scope originally made around 1959 for reticle replacement. After asking elsewhere and being told the scope was too old, he asked me if I could make repairs or just replace the reticle. I assured him I would give the scope a good inspection and let him know what I could do. This wouldn’t be my first job of this sort.

I installed a crosshair The flare present here is caused by light passing through a non-focused lenses. 003" in diameter is used as across wire for the new reticle installation. in an old brass telescope onto a .22 rifle with an external mount I made when I was 16 years old. Since then, I’ve installed reticles and posts in a number of broken scopes. To inspect the scope, I removed the ocular (rear) lens to provide access to the back of the erector lens systems where the reticle cross wires had broken off.

The erector lens system is a sort of scope within a scope. In the case of a variable scope it is movable by rotation of a power selector. I could see dangling pieces of the cross wires, indicating where a replacement reticle had to be installed for it to be in focus. As the scopes power ring is turned, a cam moves the erector lens forward and back. The lens moves forward to increase power and rearward to decrease it.

Two focal planes are present inside a scope, one at the back of the ocular and erector lens, and another up toward the front between the collector and the objective (front) lens. In this case, the reticle was positioned rearward where I would have access to it and be able install anew reticle ring at the very end of the sleeve where the erector lens moved forth and back from inside. The new ring that would retain the cross wires would need to be short enough to not strike the erector lens as it was moved fully

Failure to set the reticle ring properly into the focal plane would result in an unclear reticle. rearward. All this could be accomplished just as a surgeon would use forceps and special tweezers. side diameter of the outer erector tube housing and turned a brass collar to fit inside it without binding. This piece was kept to 1 1/4" length. I then tried the collar for fit, which was fine. A search for suitable cross-hair material was the next step.

I found some multiple strand electrical wire that measured 0.003" which was a good size as the customer wanted a The next step is to make the new reticle. I carefully measured the in- Each task we gunsmiths take on will require some ingenuity and inventiveness—some just a bit more than others. This places the collar free of the moving erector lens system on the precise focal plane.

All scope users should know that the scope reticle (crosshairs) can be focused clear and crisp by loosening the ocular (rear) lens lock ring and turning the lens housing in or out until the reticle is crisp and clear. The lock ring is then tightened. This need be done only once and will serve anyone with normal vision. Some of today’s scopes have a calibrated ocular lens without a locking ring for easy focusing.

The outer edge of the bonding droplets prevent the reticle collar from falling into the tube. At this point the reticle can be bonded permanently into position. coarse reticle. The wire subtended about 3/4" at 50 yards (1.5 MOA) which would make it appear well in low light and easy to see while hunting. I stretched a few strands of the wire and put them aside. The next step was cutting notches at 90 degree intervals around the perimeter of the ring.

This was accomplished by laying it on an angle rule and making the notches with a machinist’s knife file. The notches were cut at a depth of about 0.10" and wide enough to hold a very small amount of J-B Weld used as across wire bonding material. The reticle ring was laid on a flat piece of smooth pine board. The over-length cross wires were stretched across the reticle ring notches and twisted at each end around laterally-opposing, slanted brads driven into the wood.

Bonding the cross wires in place was a simple matter of placing a very small amount of J-B Weld into each cross wire slot, being careful none spilled into the inner surface of the reticle retaining ring. A very small amount of bonding material was allowed to go beyond the outer perimeter of the reticle retaining ring to serve as a four-way stop as the ring was later lowered into the tube that guides the erector lens housing. The part was then set aside for the bonding material to set.

The next step was bonding the new reticle assembly in place. With the reticle assembly carefully removed from the board, each cross wire end was carefully cut at the outer edge of each droplet of J-B Weld. The reticle assembly was then tried for fit as it was lowered into the erector system housing. The cross wires were carefully squared up with the scope turrets and the reticle assembly was bonded firmly in place with drops of J-B Weld at the cross wire terminals where they ride on the erector lens housing tube.

Again, the scope was set aside for the bonding material to set. The next day I replaced the ocular lens and focused the cross wires by turning the ocular lens housing until the reticle was black and crisp against the sky. Scope fogging doesn’t seem to present a problem if such repairs are performed in a room with very low humidity. Ordinarily, scopes are filled with nitrogen at the factory for this reason. However, this is the least of one’s worries taking on a job like this.

Making up a scope reticle assembly and installing it is across between machining and a medical endoscopic procedure. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it can be successfully accomplished. It sure made my customer happy. AG