I shoot indoor .22 bullseye in the winter (usually with a 22/45) and I always wanted a top break revolver for no good reason, so I was interested when I saw this H&R Sportsman 999 at the gun show - double action, 9 shot, 6" barrel, adjustable rear sight - and I got more interested when I saw the price tag of $225. Trigger was good and it indexed fine, hinge and clasp locks up tight, strong rifling and good crown.  I later found out from the serial that it's 1938 or 1939 production.  The gun also had an interesting 1X scope mounted:
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I am no expert in antique scopes, and M.H.R. Co. 1942 Telescope M21 meant nothing to me.  The ultra fine reticle was hard to see in the bad lighting at the gun show but I could make out a series of horizon lines with the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, which I took to be bullet drop compensation at hundreds of yards.  I figured it must be a centerfire hunting rifle scope of some kind and had doubts about its usefulness on a 22 at 50', but the revolver alone was worth it, even if I had to toss the scope.  Dickered and paid $185 OTD.  

On the drive home it struck me odd that there would be any sporting scopes in production in 1942 on account of the war, and M21 sounded like a military designation.  When I got it in good light I saw "75 mm" at the base of the reticle, which certainly isn't the lens diameter, and I realized it's an artillery gunner's scope.  The drop compensation was for thousands of yards, not hundreds.  I hadn't thought they were this compact, or merely 1X when trying to hit something at 3,000 yards.  Most US 75's were mounted in tanks, so I searched for tank main gun telescope M21, which lead to FM 23-95 75-mm Tank Gun M2 (Mounted in Medium Tank M3) 1942, regarding the M3 Lee (stopgap predecessor of the M4 Sherman that fought all over in WWII): FM 23-95
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Which mentions that the M21 came equipped with a clip on battery and flashlight bulb to illuminate the reticle.  I found a tiny glass porthole on the scope body and held a flashlight to it.  

M3 Lee gunner's reticle:
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H&R Sportsman reticle:
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Yep.  Somebody installed tank gun optics on this .22 revolver.  As a WWII nerd and a fan of absurd weapon improvisation I am super jazzed.  Wonder if he was a Lee gunner and brought his scope home with him from the war to relive blasting Nazi tanks.  Or if it was simply the cheapest glass at the surplus store with good eye relief for hunting squirrels.  Anyway I ran out to the range to try it, 50' off a sandbag, CCI Standard:
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I discovered the front ring base is slipping in the dovetail and spoiling the windage zero, I'm going to have to Loctite it or peen the bottom of the scope base to tighten it up.

Snake Plisken is that you???

I keed...I keed...

Very cool revolver!!

So ph*cking cool!

Good buy.  I wonder why a sunshade would be placed on a tank scope though?  

BTW, I had a boresighter scope for a 20 mm Oerlikon gun (used by all USN ships in WW2).    I gave it to the Liberty Ship USS Jeremiah O'Brien in San Franciscograd.

ETA:  I did research on WW 2 and learned that while Unertl, Lyman and Weaver all advertised during WW 2, they probably had nothing but older products that were not wanted by the US Military.  Lyman recalled all its Alaskans still on the shelves for military use.  Like Weaver, Lyman relied on Bausch & Lomb for its lens and B&L was overwhelmed by military needs (spotting scopes, binoculars, tank sights).  Lyman made a better scope than Weaver but Weaver got dibs on the delivery (whenever B&L could grind lens for them).  Remington couldn't fill its orders for M1903A4 because Weaver couldn't deliver the scopes fast enough.  Remington was backlogged w/unscoped M1903A4 as far as 6 months and was stuck with unscoped rifles for a while (no income on idle products it couldn't deliver).  Strangely, Lyman delivered 100 Alaskans to Canuckistan which mounted them on their No 4 Mk1 (T) sniper rifle using a Griffin & Howe base type system. Griffin & Howe patriotically licensed Canuckistan to produce mounts based on their proprietary design at extremely little cost.   This stuff will be in Chapter 14 Guns & Equipment of my new book.

Awesome score and awesome story OP. And it sure looks like that setup shoots damn good as is. I wouldn't change a thing (except the loctite, and/or peening).

I doubt if it was a Lee tank gunner. More likely Army Ordnance man or even surplus disposed of after the war.  My uncle told me as high school kids they used to buy surplus army lens to build scopes.

Noice!

That is quite interesting.

That's cool af

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Nice score!
You can take a spring loaded center punch and raise a "tit" or two in the bottom of the dovetail.
That will tighten the mount up.Get it where you want it,then put some RC609 locktite on it.

That h&r is nice. The 999 was what I learned on.

Very cool

Neato!

this

You can also just use a small piece of shim stock

That's cool AF.

that's a score!

Thats a cool story OP, thanks.

I also like those pistols and am looking for one.

So ugly it's beautiful. Wouldn't you like to know the story behind old weapons? Wonder if it punched paper or fur?

Very cool old gun you have there!

Best thread on arf today.

2 things I really love. 22's, and especially H&R 22's. I've got a nickle plated H&R that I bought brand new in the early 80's. Mom had to sign for it.  Cost $149.  Also have a snub nosed one that I paid $25 for. I also have a 4 inch. They are not really that accurate,  but they are a blast to shoot. No telling how many tens of thousands of rounds I've put thru those guns. It's a shame that H&R went out of business in the 80's.

That's one of the cooler thimgs I've seen this week. I'm jealous OP.

Really cool, OP.

I also have a 999.  The end of the firing pin broke off.  I was lucky enough to locate one of the old parts guys from the gun show and find his shop.  He was able to replace the firing pin for me for not much $$.  Neat gun, shoots great when I do my part.

That is a cool find.

Top-break .22s are cool as fuck.

Having a top-break .22 with a tank optic is one of the most awesome things I'll read this week.  Way to go, OP.

If your target has the sun behind them you’d want to minimize glare, also the reflection of your lens is a target indicator that can get you killed.

What's the scope worth by itself, now that it has been identified?

Cool find and history for sure.  Awesome post
Watch the scope be worth a bunch of money.

Would be pretty cool to rig up a small LED to keep it illuminated.  Could go all steampunk on it.

Excellent find.

Huh.

This is one of the cooler cool story bruhs I've read in a while Awesome find!

That's the coolest find I've heard of in a long time. I would've been so pumped to find that out.

That's really cool. Nice find.

Very interesting!!

Very interesting find.

One of those tiny micro Streamlights with a right angle fiber optic mounted on the side to illuminate the reticle would be tits.

cool!!

This.


And sandblast then Cerakote.

A bore light, yeah, that would do it.  I was imagining that I'd have to rig up a little reflector.  I need a way to mount it along the scope that looks period correct.

ETA: one with the flexible metal gooseneck would look extremely 40's-50's
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Yes, the price is right, but I'd have passed it up without probably a second thought. I have no imagination or curiosity like you do. And for that matter, I'll bet that gun was glanced at by a lot of people like me who thought nothing of it.  A little cleaning up and oiling to bring the color back, some checking on the SN# and scope for a little bit of history as you did, and voila....... you did very well indeed!! I'm actually kind of envious of you. Congrats on a REALLY NEAT find!!!

That is the coolest thing I’ve seen today!

cool post OP, I may have one of those optics in a box in my stash, I'll go check it in a bit.

That's cool. I love those top break guns.

I used to work at an engine rebuild shop for Cummins and we had a room for rebuilding fuel pumps. In this room there was what looked like a crude microscope and it was used for inspecting injector tips and small injector parts. It had a fine crosshair in it. Got to looking at it one day and same deal. Had an old looking crinkly finish and very obvious military markings on it. Looked it up and it was a scope out of a tank. Someone took an old artillery scope and by attaching some small lens adapter to it turned from a telescope to a microscope (no idea how that works but it did). The adapter was a lens or lenses in a housing that fit over the end of the scope and secured with a thumbscrew.

I picked up a 999 this year.  Mines a 56 I think.

They are a bitch to work on due to all the hand fitting involved in manufacture, but it will shoot many tens of thousands of rounds.