While visiting my father recently, I took another look at a Remington bolt-action rifle with a rather unusual scope. The scope dominates the look of this classic rifle and is unlike any optic I have ever seen. It is a “Spot-Shot” by R.A. Litschert.
I grew up in Randolph County, the home of Mr. Litschert. His shop was in a garage in Winchester, Indiana. As the story goes, Mr. Litschert was a tinkerer. In the late 1930s, he started converting low-power scopes into higher magnification scopes and later started selling his own line of target models. During World War II, he was contracted by the US military to build sniper scopes.
I’m always looking for interesting things to do at the range, so I asked to borrow the rifle and scope and see how they perform. (My father bought it used but had never shot this rifle.)
I took it down by the range and zeroed it at 50 yards. Then I shot across the pond at both steel and paper targets at 206 yards. The following pictures will describe what happened on this cold but sunny day.
The set-up at the range
The rifle is a Remington 700 BDL with the heavy barrel. It is chambered for .223 Remington. It has a 24” barrel and is 43.5” long overall. The trigger is exceptional. It’s light and has no discernable creep or overtravel.
The scope is 26” long with a 5” sun shroud for a total length of 31”! It is marked as a 20X power. (They came in 10X, 12X, 15X, and 20X.) The objective is 1.5” in diameter. It’s finished in blued steel. I imagine it would be a good varmint scope. The retical is a simple crosshair, very fine.
Internet research tells me that this type of scope was made in the late 1940s and through the 1950s until Mr. Litschert sold his business to his son-in-law, Myron Davis. Mr. Davis sold the scopes as the “Davis Spot-Shot”. There is conflicting information about when his company went out of business. One source says late 1960s and the other lists 1987 when the business closed.
This scope moves! The front mount allows the whole scope to move forward about 1.5”. There is a spring that holds the scope in place except during recoil. This ‘buffer spring’ reduces the recoil shock loading on the optics.
Recoil spring arrangement
The rear micrometer adjustment knobs have ‘J.Unertl’ stamped on them. That stands for John Unertl. He originally worked for J.W. f*cker and later founded his own scope and mount company.
The rear of the sight tube can move. It’s held on three points; one from the elevation knob, one from the windage knob, and the third point being a spring-loaded pin. Although it can move, it always returns to its precise setting. Just to look at it, it seems cumbersome; but it works!
The adjustment clicks for elevation and windage are very strong and positive feeling. I believe they are ¼ MOA adjustments. Clockwise moves of the windage knob moves the point-of-impact to the left. Clockwise moves of the elevation knob moves the point-of-impact down.
Rear adjustment knobs
I used 55 grain ball ammo from Winchester for all the work today. As expected there were no issues with the ammunition. Everything fed well and went ‘boom’ when it was supposed to.
Ammo used for the testing
Zeroing was done at 50 yards and took only seven rounds to do it.
View of the target stand at 50 yards
After zeroing, I fired 5 rounds at the target. They fit in a 1.25" circle.
Final target at 50 yards
The focus is accomplished by turning the front objective ring. The objective shroud ring can be locked against the focus adjustment ring to keep it from moving.
Scope range markings 
View toward targets across the pond
I took a few shots at the new steel target stand I recently built.
(https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/general_firearms_discussion/72334-homemade_target_stand_for_long_distance_steel.html)
The .223 rounds did not penetrate the treadplate but they did leave some healthy craters. I’m not surprised by the damage. I believe the plate is standard steel. It was left on our property when we moved here. I am looking into a plate of A500 someday!
Hits on the steel target stand
Close view of the hits on the steel plate
I also had a hanging flange. It took a couple of hits with little damage. I was hitting to the right so I made a few adjustment to move the shots closer to center.
I took five shots at a paper plate. I had a 3.5” group size. It would have been 2” without one flyer. As usual, I’m the weak link in the system.
With a 50 yard zero I required a 4” holdover at 206 yards.
Final target at 206 yards
Conclusions:
This vintage scope is surprisingly accurate! That the rifle is front heavy is not unexpected. However, if supported by a bench rest or bipod, the scope/rifle combination provides a very precise platform. The Remington 700 is a wonderful rifle with a great trigger.
This firearm does prove that not everything good in weapons has to be black polymer! There is still room at the range for some blue steel and walnut!
Be safe and happy shooting!
Joe Williams said:
How heavy is that scope?
I weighed the rifle and scope on a kitchen scale and it came in at 11.5 pounds. On the internet, I came across a specification for the Rem700 BDL at 7.5 pounds. That would make the scope weigh in at 4 pounds!
It may be slightly less than that as this rifle has the heavy varmint type barrel that would make the rifle weigh a bit more than the 7.5 pound spec. The Spot-Shot is probably in the 3.5-4.0 pound range. Compare that with current long-range scopes that weigh in around 1.5-2.0 pounds. Either way, this vintage scope is a handful!
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Original thread here: https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...nge_report_the_litschert_spot_shot_scope.html
