Freeze Your Scope??

Redtail

I was given an old Weaver scope and wish to put it on my deer rifle.While talking with other shooters,someone said the old Weaver scopes would "fog-up" in cold weather.Another fellow said to put the scope in the freezer for an hour and if it didn't fog there it never would while hunting.

My question to the Experts>Are these guys just pulling my leg cause I'm green,or does the freezer test realy work?
I want to use this scope,but would feel more confident with a little assurance.

mrbruce

The old Weavers were a good scope and didnt fog up any more than any of them did back then. It won't hurt to put it in the freezer to double check it.
You can dunk it in water to see if it leaks too..
If it dont leak it won't fog up..

wpage

Better to know B4 opening day.

tsr1965

If it leaks, it will not do any good to put it under water, as all of the Nitrogen has leaked out by now. I disagree that they were as good as the Leupolds and Redfields of the 60's and 70's. They were better than any of the Japan, or asian made scopes of the period though. That is when we had American pride in manufacturing.

Best

Redtail

Are ya'll saying "If it don't fog-up in the freezer,I should go ahead and mount it on my rifle?.

Well it did not fog up.Just a little ice film on the outside that wiped right off with a cloth.

oneoldsap

Fog would be inside the Scpoe !

He Dog

You are good to go if you want to use that scope. Be aware that you can buy better optics today for a couple of hundred dollars than any thing made by any one 25 years ago or more. On the other hand it is really satisfying to hunt with an older rifle and a period correct scope. Good Hunting!

nmyers

Saw "How It's Made" on cable last week. They showed how optics are made at Swarovski, & they dunk & freeze everything as a final quality control check.

Neal

babun

I have always checked "suspect" scopes by submersion in VERY hot water. The hot water will raise the temperature and there for the pressure of the air/nitrogen inside and you will see small bubbles come from the leaking area. No water will get into the scope if you do this quickly before the gases inside the scope equalize with the hot water temps. If you see bubbles, your scope can be a "fogger".

GuvamintCheese

Go to 5min. 30 sec into the video to see how leupold water tests there scopes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72XhFKTyLPI

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by Redtail
I was given an old Weaver scope and wish to put it on my deer rifle.While talking with other shooters,someone said the old Weaver scopes would "fog-up" in cold weather.Another fellow said to put the scope in the freezer for an hour and if it didn't fog there it never would while hunting.

My question to the Experts>Are these guys just pulling my leg cause I'm green,or does the freezer test realy work?
I want to use this scope,but would feel more confident with a little assurance.


That will work.

If it doesn't fog up in your freezer, it won't fog up because of cold temperatures on your hunt.

Note that this only tests to see if water vapor has ALREADY entered your scope. By itself it isn't enough to test if the scope is waterproof or not.

In other words, in theory the scope could pass this freezer test, but still fog up later if it gets exposed to water at some point in between.