F.H. Souther rifle scope

[marlinman93]

Another great old scope maker. This one is a bit later from the post Depression era, but one of the rarest scopes to find. FH Souther was in Massachusetts, and built his first scope for a friend who knew Souther worked building optical equipment, and couldn't afford the expensive factory made scopes. He asked if Souther could build a scope for him, and he did so in his basement work shop. The friend went to a match with his new scope, and soon Souther was flooded with orders from other members of the Masachusetts Rifle Assn. club!
Souther never quit his job at the optical company, but continued to build target scopes for local customers, and eventually sold them through Kimble Sporting Goods also.
This one took a very long time to find!
It's an unusual 7/8" tube instead of the 3/4" tube most target scopes used. So better light gathering than the smaller tubes, but not as good as the large objective Sidle I own.

Mounted on my Schoyen Ballard in .32-40 cartridge.

[firefly1957]

Great bit of history there!

[725]

What a classy outfit. wonderful story!

[marlinman93]

There were a few small one man operations back in the late 1800's and early 1900's who built scopes. All were men who worked in the optical business for larger firms, and did this either as a side job, or started out as a side job and later it became a full time job.
Most of these one man shops built such small numbers of scopes that today they are almost unheard of, and the scopes they built are unknown to most people. Add to this the fact that some didn't rollstamp their scopes, and it makes them even harder to find without knowing what you're looking at. Fortunately Souther marked his!

[Green Frog]

DROOL! Another great find. Thanks for sharing.
Froggie

[marlinman93]

DROOL! Another great find. Thanks for sharing.
Froggie

This Souther was purchased from a friend at one of our monthly collector gun shows at OAC this summer. He had it for sale on his table, and at the end of the show we were packing up, and I asked to look at it. He handed it to me, and immediately added he'd make me a bargain price if I wanted it! I was already infatuated with it, so with his "bargain price" offer, I had to have it!