It's time for our Model 8 to go to a new home.
Great condition
Great Shooter
Numbers Matching
I'm 71 and as far back as my memory goes it's always been in the family. It's very collectable as you all know, but I'm not a collector. Time to make room in the safe for the type of shooting I do.
Chambered in 35 Rem.
Fitted with a vintage Kollmorgan 2.75 power scope. Kollmorgans are also collectable and are renowned for their great glass.
Please review the pictures and ask any questions you may have.
More pictures available
$895 plus shipping
Rem8a.jpg (69.33 KiB) Viewed 801 times
Rem8b.jpg (77.83 KiB) Viewed 801 times
Rem8c.jpg (122.63 KiB) Viewed 801 times
Last edited by SHJ1227 on Thu Jan 11, 2024 1:28 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Perhaps, but the uniqueness of the Kollmorgan scope more than makes up for it.
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So the Kollmorgen scopes were from Northhampton, Ma. It's where all the U.S. Submarine periscopes since WW1 have been made. Very cool company... moved to Northhampton during WW1 from, I think, NYC because of the threat of German attacks near the coast.
Kollmorgen was flat out during WW2 and had a massive output as U.S. put to sea hundreds of S-Class, I think they were called, subs. The Fish boats. They were all named after fish... before they needed Senate and House support and started naming them after states and cities... anyhoo... Kollmorgen made hundreds of periscopes and was massively tooled up when along came Hiroshima and... Boom... No more need for submarines.
Nothing. Nada. No orders. No sales. No boats being built... nothing. The company went from boom to... not a single order for anything.
Knowing that the Navy would eventually have to do 'something' to replace the aging boats... and with Rickover's 'nuclear' Navy coming together (Took 9 years to launch.... something like 7 years to get a periscope ordered!)... Kollmorgen was willing to do anything to keep their workforce together. For almost a decade.
So the best optics guys in North America (except maybe Frank Cooke's works) spent 7 years making... rifle scopes (for the returning GI's who wanted scoped rifles.) Spotting scopes. Even cut glass ashtrays.... yes, using optical-grade periscope glass... to make ashtrays. To keep their people busy and their works operating.
As soon as Rickover's navy got off the ground, Kollmorgen dumped all the ashtray and scope projects... I think they sold their scope line to Lyman?? Bearcubs? And stopped the ashtrays alltogether. But the result is that for about 5 - 7 years, some of the best scopes on the planet were being turned out in Northhampton... on the optical equipment created to make high-res submarine periscopes. And were being made at 'sportsmen' prices.
These scopes have some of the clearest lenses, best machining, best reticles (the dots are fantastic)... of the era. They are head and shoulders above almost anything else out there. And noone has ever heard of them. I still use one on my Sako Finnbear .270 and it is reliable as gravity. Dead nuts. Took the longest deer shot ever with it. 270 yards and right through the heart. Dot reticle.
Anyway... next time you are on 91 going through Northhampton... as you head North, look left and you will see a really tall square building/tower... about 20 feet on each side. With four rectangular holes near the top of it. That is Kollmorgen's Periscope Testing building. Every periscope gets assembled and tested in there before it gets sent off to Electric Boat or... whoever.
And that's who made your scope. Heck, maybe your ashtray, too! And why Kollmorgen Scopes are awesome. Even if un-heard-of!
Thats a great story!
And, a very nice 8 - I've wanted to add a scoped example to the herd for a while now but, alas, I am in Canada
Good luck with your sale sir!
I have been looking for a nice 35 for a while. Yours qualifies. Most of them that I find lately are pretty banged up. Is yours still available?
John T.
