Springfield Armory Museum - Collection Record

TELESCOPE SIGHT - U.S. MODEL 1908 WARNER-SWASEY SN# 1531
Manufactured by Warner & Swasey Co., Cleveland, Oh. - Standard Model 1908 sniper scope. Equipped with wind correction table and drift. 6x magnification. Sight has an overall length of 8" and a tube length of 6". Reproduction eye piece provided by Colonel Brophy (6/23/82). Sun shield rotted. Optics obscured. The sight was once attached to SPAR-1782.

Markings:
Scope: TELESCOPIC MUSKET SIGHT/MODEL OF 1908 NO. 1531/THE WARNER & SWASEY CO./CLEVELAND
OHIO USA/PAT. FEB. 13 - 06 MAY 22 - 06 DEC. 15 - 08.
Inside of mount rail: NO. 515.

Notes: "Report of Board of Officers - On August 6, 1904, the first report was made on the Telescopic Sight received from the Warner & Swasey Co....In the report on the first test made, it was noted that in firing, 'the shock of recoil causes the elevating and deviating screws to turn, requiring re-setting for elevation and deviation after each shot.' Also that 'the rubber extension on the eye piece is not sufficiently still to protect the firer from injury.' On recommendation of the Board, the gun and sight were returned for modification to remedy the above defects.
On October 21, 1904, the sight was received back from the Warner & Swasey Co., with the points above noted connected. Upon the first shot, however, after the sight was received back, the attachment holding the sight proper to the elevating screw, was broken. The sight was accordingly returned, the broken part replaced by a new and stronger one and was returned to the Board for further test on November 1, 1904. On November 10, 1904, the Board reported that 'the as at present constructed gives better results than the open sight....'
The telescopic sight as finally tested...embodies all the features considered by the Board essential for a telescopic sight. It stood the tests given it by the Board in a satisfactory manner and no importance is attached to the failure to secure better targets with it than with the open sights. There can be no question as to the advantages to be derived from the large and clearly defined field of view, and as the devices for retaining the sight at a given setting for elevation and ...are satisfactory, better targets must follow from the use of this sight, especially under conditions such as are encountered in service. The cost of the sight, which is estimated at about $35.00 or $40.00, may be considered excessive, but the Board does not believe that the cost be materially reduced without sacrificing features essential to insure it superiority over the open sight.
The Board wishes to state that the Warner & Swasey Company have spared no effort to meet the various difficulties which have arisen in the development of this sight and have been very successful in meeting them."

"The Telescopic Musket Sight, M1908 was manufactured by Warner & Swasey. The sight consisted of three parts: 1) telescope, 2) the lever or arm on which the telescope was mounted and 3) the mount or slide which was affixed to the rifle's receiver with three screws.
The Warner & Swasey prismatic sight had a short focal length of 7 inches. The focal length, combined with the 20 mm objective lens provided a magnification of 6x, with an eye relief of 1.5 inches. The small lens limited the amount of light reaching the eye and the short eye relief required the use of a rubber eye cup. The rubber cup often fit so snugly that three holes had to be punched in it to relieve the vacuum created when the rubber cup was shoved back against the shooter's face by recoil.
The reticle, etched on a glass insert, consisted of vertical and horizontal lines and three stadia lines that provided a man-sized target 5 feet 8 inches high at 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 yards. A Poro prism was used to provide an erect image but it also further reduced the amount of light reaching the shooter's eye and the prism was easily knocked out of alignment in its mount. The eyepiece was a Steinheil achromatic lens mounted in a long neck which was screwed in and out to focus and was locked in place by a focusThe telescopic sight was attached to a mounting arm mated with a bracket bolted to the left side of the M1903 rifle's receiver. The bracket had two 0.8 inch locking notches spaced one inch apart. The dovetail on the arm slide over a matching dovetail on the bracket and a plunger engaged the chosen notch but did not lock into place. A disk at the front of the arm provided the elevation adjustment which acted against a spring at the rear of the bracket to tilt the scope. A windage screw on the arm pressed against the bracket to move the scope left or right as needed. Elevation adjustments could be made in theory to 3,000 yards but at ranges beyond 400 yards, play in the mounting system introduced accuracy errors. The detachable mount was made of steel and the scope housing of brass and bronze. The entire assembly was painted with a glossy enamel. The field of view was quite good at 7 yards wide per 100 yards of distance. The complete assembly weighed two lbs.
Model 1903 rifles were selected for the sniper role by star gauging. The eight pointed star was not marked on the rifle's muzzle as this practice was not initiated until 1921. Senich reports that 2,075 M1908 Warner & Swasey sights were sold to the U.S. Government between 1908 and 1912 but Brophy estimates that only 1,550 were mounted on M1903 rifles.
All M1908 Warner & Swasey telescopic sights mounted on rifles were marked with the rifle's serial numbers - 'FOR RIFLE NO. XXXX on the inside of the arm where it mated ot the bracket. Each Warner & Swasey telescopic sight was serial numbered in its own sequence. The Model 1908 sight was issued in consecutive serial numbers but were not attached to consecutively serial numbered rifles.
Extensive work performed by Walter Eyeberg and communicated to the author shows that the M1903 rifles serial numbers with the M1908 scope ran generally between 312,000 and 410,000. Two rifles were noted with serial numbers of 116 and 298 and these may have been still in the rod-bayonet state when they were fitted. Telescope numbers ran generally from 2 through 1,720. The reader should note that 1,720 was the highest number observed at the time of the study and not the highest number produced. It is believed that both the M1903 and the later M1913 Warner & Swasey series of scopes were numbered consecutively. The lowest M1913 scope serail number noted in the study was 2,008." - Poyer

"Starting in 1904, the U.S. Army was searching for an appropriate telescopic sight to be used on the Model 1903 Springfield sniper rifle. Two that eventually were tested and later approved for use were the Warner-Swasey Model 1908 Musket Sight, and later the improved version, referred to as the Model 1913 Musket Sight. Both were prismatic design scopes, both the 1908 and 1913 having a magnification of 6x. Both mounted to the rifle with an overly complex and brutishly heavy side mount that could only be concocted by the intricate workings of the military mind. The scopes were supplied with their own leather carrying case that included a special tool to be used in performing the much-needed maintenance that the scopes constantly required. By the 1920s, the Army had decided to look for a better sniping sight, which they found in the Winchester A-5 Scope." - Stroebel

See Canfield, THE WARNER & SWASEY MUSKET SIGHTS, The Gun Report, May 1984.

References:
Poyer, Joe. THE MODEL 1903 SPRINGFIELD RIFLE AND ITS VARIATIONS. North Cape Publications, Inc. Tustin, Ca. 2001.
Senich, Peter R. THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF U.S. SNIPING. Paladin Press. Boulder, Co. 1980.
Stroebel, Nick. OLD RIFLE SCOPES. Krause Publications. Iola, Wi. 2000.

REPORT OF A BOARD OF OFFICERS CONSTITUTED IN COMPLIANCE WITH PARAGRAPH III, POST ORDERS NO. 64, DATED SPRINGFIELD ARMORY, MASS., AUGUST 8, 1904 IN THE WA

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