Old Meopta scope info request

[sevorg]

Good afternoon all. I've been rummaging about in the gun cupboard and came across an old Meopta 6x42 scope. I know nothing about these and wondered if anyone can share their knowledge with me please? I've had it around 7 years.

Scope - https://imgur.com/RdOGNbZ https://imgur.com/UPGFt5e https://imgur.com/63MsYch
Reticule https://imgur.com/v4CAEWf

Any ideas how old it might be?
Are they considered to be good quality? The glass looks good to my ageing eyes.
Where were they made? There is no country of manufacture I can see.
The optics are good but the metalwork has a lot of marks and scrapes as can be seen in the pics, would anyone hazard a guess at a value?

Finally, i assume this https://imgur.com/X4nKMJM is to aid range estimation, but how do you use it, and is is suitable for sub12 air?

Many thanks, Tom

[DSidelever]

classic quality too!

The 6x42 designation and the type of reticle shown in your pics indicate a Deer Stalking scope (made in the Czech Republic BTW).

Meopta are one of the very best European scope makers and always have been however, I know of few models that are entirely suitable for air rifle use - generally they would have a minimum focus stated as @50 yard

Your example looks like an 'Artemis' Meopta, if that helps.

[Shed tuner]

yup, and many of them have that ret...

Great quality scopes.

[DSidelever]

probably infects MORE P/B old hands than there are Airgun Collectors !

A couple of points I would make:

Although that scope might not be suitable for shorter ranges, as is, it would be counter-productive to try and change the min. focusing ('change Parallax' as it's usually incorrectly termed). The Ret would still be unsuitable ... probably.

Meopta lenses are fabulous quality and their scopes are general incredibly well built - sturdy; a straightforward & simple fixed mag scope like this from this era 1980-2000 (ish) would almost certainly stand-up to use on a springer.

Basically. it's worth good money

[DSidelever]

I believe Meopta scopes were distributed here by 'Marchwood' (or similar) but certainly not any more.

The Ret. looks very much like an early attempt at the proprietary Meopta '4b' reticle.

[sevorg]

As always, a wealth of knowledge in the good old Collectables section, thank you all for the replies. I half suspected it might be reasonable quality as it was on my Whiscombe when I bought it from vasbyt.skollie who used to frequent this place. It was good at most ranges other than the closest, I guess due to relatively low mag and not having a massive objective and I do like the simple reticule.

I had been reluctant to put it on my springers as it obviously didn't get a hammering on the Whizzer. As it would appear from comments above to be a sturdy beast I'm now thinking of putting it on my 77 as it's a similar vintage and should go nicely. (Glad I didn't let it go with the gun when I sold it.)

Thanks again, Tom

[Mach 1.5]

Vikings Arms are able to service these scopes if need be?. A word to the wise, they only have a 30 year warranty on them so after that they will charge. My little 4 x 32 cost me £130 plus vat to get serviced and turret repaired. Mach 1.5