I've had several of the Winchester scopes like you show. Not an A5, it's a somewhat less expensive type that Winchester marketed before WW2 after selling the A5 rights to Lyman. It's basically a Wollensack with a Winchester name on it, if it's the sort that I had. A good low- to medium-priced scope for old single shot rifles IMO but not quite as clear or bright as a Lyman 5A or Unertl of the same period. It's described in Nick Stroebel's old scope book. Would be a perfect match for a low wall light sporter or light target rifle. The rings should have a pointed screw that fits into the target bases that have the small detent hole on the left side, not the ones with only the half-moon cut on the right. IMO it's more desirable than the scope on the Martini, by far.
Frequently old scopes have acquired a dust bunny on the reticle. It's possible that removing the eyepiece and blowing against the reticle with canned air will dislodge the dust particle, but please don't actually touch the reticle with anything other than possibly a camel's hair brush.
It's caveat emptor when dealing with these old scopes. Last week I bought a nice extremely early Unertl 6x 1" Target, my favorite Unertl model. I knew that it had a broken front ring-to-base clamp screw and I also knew that these early model Unertls required major disassembly for access to replace the screw and so this affected the price. The dealer hadn't spotted the broken screw and it took me a few minutes to find it, but I had been caught in the past so I thought I knew what to look for....
It ain't rocket science so I dived in and eventually replaced the broken screw after much weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth, but upon reassembly I discovered that the vertical crosshair was broken at the top. The hair had been vertical and appeared to be OK during the examination before the purchase, but apparently the dis- and re-assembly was enough to jar it sideways.
So now I need some 0.001" wire. Any sources?
Regards, Joe
