Leatherwood scope

[tim1jr]

Has anyone ever used one of the leatherwood self adjusting digital scopes?

[rossman40]

If your talking the A.R.T. or Camputer scope (it's not a digital computer), the thing is getting the perfect cam for your load, then that cam is only perfect for that load and conditions. A friend had one back in the late 70s and while the ranging worked you had to look at your range and the look at his cheat sheet to see how much more correction you had to apply for the particular load in the rifle.

The A.R.T. scope was developed for the M21 (a sniper version of the M14). Jim Leatherwood had a good idea, it worked because the military only used one round (M118) and you used it from one weapon model so coming up with a cam that worked over a wide range was simple. The scope component is another thing, the original scopes were made by Redfield, then later and when Leatherwood had to provide replacements and parts the scope component was made by Hakko with most of it being farmed out to China (Hong Kong at the time). During the Gulf war a lot of M21s were brought out of mothballs but before then they were popular with the SOCOM crowd (which upgraded them to M25s with a fiberglass stocks and junked the A.R.T. in favor of a fixed 10X B&L) and the Israeli's bought a ton of them. I remember sharing a range with some SF guys and they actually had the objective lens fall out of one, they just stuck it back in like it was a everyday thing and kept shooting. Even in the second gulf war you would see M21s issued out to NG units but the A.R.T.s slowly disappeared as they failed or the M21s were upgraded to M25s.

[mike.dawson]

Rossman, you are truly amazing!! ;D I want you on my side when I go to Las Vegas and sit at the table. You would probably be able to come up with the winning hand!! How many times do you win at trivia contests at the local pub It is wonderful that you are a member of this group of men. I have enjoyed reading your posts for the past 2 years, and learning a lot, that I have been a member of the board.

Mike

[bigmoose]

Mike,
In two e-mail from Rossman, I learned more about scopes, [who made what] than all the reading I have done on the subject, truly amazing. It will be my guide, when I next buy a scope.

[rossman40]

The only truely digital scope currently available to civilians is the Elcan DigitalHunter. Kinda neat, instead of looking thru lenses what you actually look at is a small LCD screen. You can input ballistic data for your round and when you tell it the estimated range it will automatically adjust the reticle. You can change reticles, even design your own, and the neatest thing is it can record 5 seconds before and after the shot. Being digital the scope can work in lowlight situations and even with infrared. When they incorporate a laser rangefinder it might be the berries for gun shooting technonerds, at least till the batteries run out.

Elcan is a division of Honeywell, do not think HVAC, think guidance systems for Sidewinders, Hellfires and Mavericks. A lot of the technology for the Elcan DigitalHunter has spun off from the Army's Integrated Warfighter System (IWS) programs.

[jims]

Rossman is better than an encyclopedia. He has enlightened us many times plus he is hands on also, he worked on my triggers/bolt etc. and got them working well.