doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Winchester A-5 scope repair

Does anyone here know how difficult it is to repair the cross hairs in this scope and who does this work nowadays?

You might try Parsons scope service. The make no mention of the whether or not they work on Winchester scopes.

It is pretty easy. I do my own. Magnification helps, either a visor or a table magnifier or a dissection scope. A jig to hole the carriage that the crosshairs are attached to is useful - and can be made out of kindling if necessary. Nothing special to it.

Parsons is pretty much defunct now. After Gil's death his son tried to help keep it going, but he has his own construction business that took his time. Many scopes sent to him sat for much too long unfinished.
I wouldn't send any scopes to Parsons unless I heard something changed now.

Good to know! Thank you for the very valuable information.
Steve

Indeed. I was flummoxed by crosshair replacement for many years, having sent a couple out for professional help in that regard. Then two years ago I bit the bullet and bought some .0005" tungsten wire and dove into a Fecker and a Litschert. I won't say its easy-peasy but certainly do-able. Like Brent, all it took was a magnifier visor, a steady hand, and a jeweler's screw driver and it was done. I wouldn't begin to try it without magnification. I just set the crosshair carrier ring on the desk, with good light, and hunched over it and did it.

Could you elaborate on your jig, Brent?

Once I just used a couple of woodworking clamps to hold it to the table. A few times I have used a vise (dicey - you could "unround" the cylinder), but mostly I just have this wooden gizmo I made for holding shotshells when roll crimping. It will old round things pretty well, and I rubber banded it in position with some bicycle innertube. Not pretty, but effective.

I have tungsten wire, but have also had extremely good results with pantyhose thread. It is amazingly fine - if you thoroughly dissect the yarn down to the last fibers.

If the screws for the crosswires are hacked up, one can simply glue the new crosshairs with superglue. Either way, a hemostat can be very helpful for that work.

I sent my first broken crosshairs to Sexton (forget his company name now) in Tulsa. Took half a year or so. Won't be going back. Much easier to do it myself.

If you want center mil dots or something other than simple crosshairs, you need a pro. But I like stuff simple.

I use round wooden dowel turned down to just slip into the crosshair ring so it's held during the work. Clamp the dowel in my vise. Then I use small alligator clips hung on the end of each wire to add slight weight. Hang the wire across the crosshair unit and then put a drop of super glue on each edge. Clip off the excess and reinstall the unit in the scope.
Alcohol, or lens cleaner takes care of foggy lenses.

Yeah the gator clips are a huge help.

Without them I had a tough time getting the new tungsten crosshairs tight, and not breaking them. Just didn't have the ability to feel such a fine amount of tension.

Vall, that's one reason why the nylon fibers are good. They stretch a little and the weight of your clips is enough.

I have four Lyman Alaskans at Parsons which have been there for over a year. I have not even gotten an estimate on repair cost. I talked to the son last week and he promised to get back to me, but so far not a peep. Disappointing, to say the least!

Ironsightinc.com Tulsa, Oklahoma The last time I talked with them it was a 6-8 week turnaround for crosshair replacement..

I�ve had Iron Sights Inc clean / repair 6-8 scopes over the last few years. Great work, appropriate turn around, and they always answer the phone. Prices seem to run about $100 for about anything I�ve had done.

Thanks to all for helpful responses. I'll study the possibility of doing it myself. There seems to do-it-yourself info on the internet, too.

The internal threaded lock rings will need a tool to unscrew them. I make them to fit various scopes by using hacksaw blades and wooden dowel. They're like a spanner nut, and have a notch on opposing sides.
I cut the hacksaw blade to length to span the two notches. Then cut a notch in a wooden dowel, and epoxy the piece of blade into the dowel. Then just slip it into the tube and unscrew the spanner nut.
I've made enough different types that I can take most scopes apart with the ones I have here.

Vall, Thanks for the tool tip. You make it sound doable.