The unertl scope that we know today didn’t come into production until 1915 when he was able to convince Winchester to purchase 2000 of them chambered in. Unerth began working on his own designs, primarily for military contracts. He was an immigrant from Austro-Hungarian empire who came to work for the Iver Johnson Company in 1910 as an engineer. The unertl design was developed by Louis Unerth (Unertl) in 1913. Because unertls are heavier, they tend to dampen a rifles recoil a bit better than other scopes, but unertls are not going to be as light and sleek as modern scopes either. They are also slightly shorter than most tubes which gives them a bit more strength. This makes them much more rigid and less prone to bending or warping. Unertl tubes are basically a heavy duty tube that has a much thicker wall than most other tubes. The unertl name is now mostly associated with a type of rifle scope tube used on high power rifles. They were typically found with a 1/4 minute-of-angle (MOA) or finer crosshair reticle and adjustable parallax. The unertl scope was (and still is) one of the most rugged, reliable and durable scopes on the market. 30 caliber and 8mm Mauser and 1917 Enfield and 1903 Springfield rifles for military use and big game hunting arms like Winchester Model 70s, FN Brownings, Pre-’64 Win M70s, Remington 700s ,and others chambered in popular hunting calibers. Unertls were most commonly found on high power rifles such as. There were a wide variety of unertl scopes made during their run from 1915-1975 for government contracts and commercial sale. It is correct to say unertl scope but unertl scope tube.

Simply, unertl refers to the brand of scope and not an actual design. The unertl scope is something that doesn’t get discussed much in the shooting community.

Unertl spotting scope