Every year marks an anniversary. We remember best the milestones in our lives, forget most of the others. This year, 2007, is especially notable in the shooting and hunting industry.

In May 1907, Ernst Leitz, unveiled his first binocular in Wetzlar, Germany. Leitz broke with tradition by using rolled magnalium (magnesium-aluminum alloy) for the body of the 6x18 Binocle. Company patents covered weather-proofing, prism attachment and focus adjustments. Caps for the prism housing also served as the bridges connecting the barrels. In 1910 Leitz announced 10x, 12x and 18x46 binoculars. Period catalogs recommend the 10x and 12x (also with 42mm objectives) for alpine hunting. Light in hand, these binoculars were produced in small numbers and remain prized by collectors.

By 1913 Leitz had redesigned its binocular bodies to include a center rod or full-length hinge to add strength and preserve collimation (parallel barrel alignment). Leitz took advantage of the expiration, in 1908, of an 1893 Zeiss-Jena patent that described objective spacing wider than ocular spacing. Binoculars with this profile would become known as Porro-prisms, after the original glass by an Italian of that name. A Leitz 8x30 introduced in May, 1911 was followed that year by a 10x50 Porro II model with a cast metal body. During World War I, a 12x60 appeared, specifically for navy use. In 1916 a 7x50 joined the line. Leitz was the first company to make large Porro prism binoculars. Most were of brass. They circulated in the civilian market after war’s end and were produced at Wetzlar until 1931. In 1920 Dr. Ernst Leitz II, a partner with his father since 1906, became sole manager of the firm.

Four years later its name changed from Leitz Camera to Leica. In the years since, Leica’s binoculars have continued to set standards for quality and innovation. The Amplivid 6x24 appeared the year Dr. Leitz died in 1956. Remarkable for its super-wide 212-foot field (at 1,000 yards), this binocular remained in production until 1962. Leica’s famous Trinovid series appeared in 1958, first with a 7x42 and an 8x40. “Trinovid” derived from the binoculars’ three main selling points: stellar optical quality, slender pentaprism design and internal focusing. Alas, the price—650 Deutsche marks—proved too high for the market, and these Trinovids died early.

But the line was soon revamped. While they remained expensive, these binoculars came to define the best Leica could produce. Many discriminating birders and hunters considered Trinovids the best available from any manufacturer. Then, a few years ago, the Ultravid appeared. If you can detect a difference in the image, your eyes are better than mine. But Ultravids weigh about 10 percent less. In my view, there is no better glass for hunting than those in the current Ultravid line. Both it and the Trinovid series offer 8x32, 10x32, 8x42 and 10x42 versions, as well as compact 8x20s and 10x25s.You can also buy a 7x42 Ultravid, and 8x, 10x and 12x Ultravids with 50mm objectives.

Leica Televid 62 and 77 spotting scopes rank among the best. For the utmost in resolution, specify APO (apochromatic lens) versions. The firm’s CRF 900 and 1200 laser rangefinders yield the fastest, most reliable reads of any I’ve tried, in compact packages.

Leica is unapologetic about its products’ prices, which reflect the company’s commitment to quality. You’ll wring many hunting seasons from an Ultravid binocular. And every year you’ll see game you’d miss with lesser glass.

The same dedication to superior optics shows up in Bierbetal, Germany, where 50 years ago (1957) two men set up shop in a stable. Capitalized by 5 Deutsche marks, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Bender started making rifle-scopes at night, while keeping their day jobs. Now 60 people build Schmidt & Bender sights at a modern, almost clinically spotless facility not far from the company’s humble birthplace.

The partners had an uphill path early on. Not only did they presume to challenge German optics giants Zeiss and Leica, but the established Austrian firms of Kahles and Swarovski! Just building excellent scopes wouldn’t be enough. In post-war Germany, hunting scopes hardly ranked as necessities. Armistice hadn’t restored wealth or healed the countryside. Even hunters who could find and afford good hunting were unlikely to stock up on scopes. Even the best optics of that decade were subject to failure. Fogging and reticle separation didn’t plague iron sights, and most shooting on the continent was short enough for irons. Also, scopes were sometimes viewed as a crutch for riflemen incapable of accurate shooting with traditional sights. Finally, many rifles needed costly gunsmithing to accept or perform well with scopes.

But Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Bender persevered. They insisted on photo-quality optics with the latest in coatings to enhance brightness. Machining tubes and internal parts to very tight tolerances, they installed thin wire reticles in those first scopes. Over the next 50 years, improved designs and better lenses, CNC manufacturing and a marketing effort in the U.S. boosted the fortunes at Schmidt & Bender. Unlike the Japanese competition, and stateside companies bent on high-speed proliferation of scope models, S&B took a conservative view, insisting that each innovation and each new scope serve a purpose, that optical quality never be sacrificed to meet a price. Now Schmidt & Bender sights rank among the most revered in their native Germany. But more than 60 percent of production sells overseas.

Top-end in the S&B series is the Zenith, a quartet of 30mm variables. There’s a 1.1-4x24, a 1.5-6x42, a 2.5-10x56 and a 3-12x50. All feature Posicon adjustment dials that let you see how much windage and elevation movement is available as you zero. You can also zero for several ranges or loads, then reset the dials and return to those zeroes.

Flash-dot reticles are available on all Zenith scopes. Unlike ordinary lighted reticles, Flash-dot vanishes when you shut it off (or when it automatically cancels after six hours to save battery). When it’s on, you aim as fast as with a fluorescent shotgun bead. Switched off, it allows you precise aim with the black reticle (your choice of six). Flash-dot incorporates a compact, unobtrusive side-mounted dial and a place under the windage adjustment cap for a spare battery.            

One of the most useful of S&B’s fine rifle sights is no more. The 4x36 I acquired years ago still has all the power I need for big game hunting. Its stablemate remains, however. S&B’s 6x42 boasts elegant lines as well as optical brilliance. Ditto for the 8x56 and 10x42. These fixed-power scopes have plenty of tube for easy scope mounting, plus the rugged simplicity I value in a rifle sight.

Certainly the most celebrated anniversary in the shooting industry this year is Leupold’s. In 1907 Frederick Leupold set up a shop in Portland, Oregon, to build and repair survey instruments. My book on the company, commissioned in early 2006, details Leupold’s fascinating history. Here it is in a few paragraphs:

Gold. In 1898 droves of young men headed north over Chilkoot Pass to wrest riches from frozen Alaskan dirt. The treasure hunters included two adventurers from Boston. To their dismay, Adam Voelpel and Frederick Leupold found nothing but hardship in the Klondike. They returned to Massachusetts, where Leupold had landed seven years earlier after immigrating through
Ellis Island.

Markus Frederick Leupold was an only child, born in Ravensburg, Wuerttenburg, Germany. After completing his education and a machine-shop apprenticeship, he sailed for America. Frederick’s skill with tools and knowledge of engineering brought him work almost immediately. The pay was good too—$12 a week for six 10-hour days. The Boston firm of C.L. Berger & Sons, maker of survey instruments, took him back after the Alaska debacle. In 1899 Frederick Leupold wed Rose Voelpel, his friend’s sister.

Asthmatic and itching to move West, Adam Voelpel soon left Boston for the New Mexico territory. In 1907 Frederick Leupold followed Adam across the Mississippi. He settled on Portland. Adam contributed capital well before joining his brother-in-law at their new survey instrument shop. Though he’d later change the spelling of his last name to Volpel, the firm initially presented itself as Leupold & Voelpel. The immigrants built most early transits by hand, turning out only a dozen a year.

In 1914, inventor J.C. Stevens designed a hydrologic (water-level) recorder that would operate with minimal attention. He convinced Fred Leupold to manufacture the device. Its success and the resulting partnership gave the company a new name: Leupold, Volpel & Co. The Stevens instrument sold to public works agencies that helped nurse the nation through the Depression. When many small businesses were folding, the employee roster at Leupold, Volpel & Co. grew to 40. 

In January 1942, two years after Adam Voelpel’s death, the company again changed its name, to Leupold & Stevens. The company geared up for the war effort and produced compasses and sextants for the Liberty and Victory ships and, as a subcontractor, supplied a precision part for a bomb fuse. By this time Frederick’s son Marcus had worked 30 years at the firm and had assumed the role of assistant manager. A musical prodigy, Marcus had declined a promising university career to help with the family business; but he continued to play the piano in concerts.

Just why Marcus explored rifle-scope production remains a mystery. Maybe he drew inspiration from his first deer hunt in eastern Oregon—organized in 1940 by his wife Ruth! Then again, it may have been a west-side trip. Oregon’s Coast Range, often shrouded in mist, had fogged many a scope. When Marcus aimed his rifle at a buck and found the view obscured, he fumed, “I could make a better scope than this!” Whichever side of the Cascades gave Marcus his vision, the decision to build rifle-scopes would change Leupold fortunes forever.

A 1946 company newsletter hailed the first Leupold scope as “a great advancement in telescope sights . . .  Adjustments are made by turning graduated sleeves with the fingers . . . The Riflescope is 2¼ power, with a wide field of view and long eye relief. It weighs less than seven ounces and is 7/8 inch (or 22mm) diameter so that it will fill the greatest variety of mounts.”

Leupold’s wartime technology would make the scope even more field-worthy. To keep sighting optics clear on Merchant Marine vessels, engineers had evacuated air from each scope, replacing it with dry nitrogen gas. In 1947 Leupold & Stevens became the first American manufacturer to build fog-proof scopes. Leupold’s Plainsman featured internal adjustments and a permanently sealed, nitrogen-filled tube.

Not all design work on Leupold scopes came from company engineers. L&S management was wise enough to take cues from shooters. Many suggestions came from Jack Slack, who came to work at the firm in 1953. Jack kept in touch with hunters and brought field savvy to strategy sessions in Beaverton. “During one meeting,” recalls a colleague, “he stood up, lifted his heel and swung a scope against it, breaking the reticle.” This graphic demonstration showed that recoil-proof scopes could still fail if they lacked protection against side impact that might result from a fall. Jack hunted with people like Jack O’Connor, who urged the standardization of a one-inch scope tube. Slack took O’Connor’s wisdom to Leupold’s board room. “Pioneer,” “Mountaineer” and “Westerner” scopes became prototypes for the firm’s famous “M8” fixed power and “Vari-X” variables.

Leupold met strong competition during the 1960s, from Weaver and Redfield, Lyman and Bausch & Lomb. The challenge: differentiate Leupold scopes from others at first glance. This cue had to be readily visible from all sides. But it couldn’t affect the scope’s profile or be construed as tasteless. It had to be easily applied without affecting the optical system, and it had to endure hard field use. Leupold engineer George Schray came to the rescue in 1965, with a thin gold-colored metal ring sandwiched between the objective housing and the objective lock ring. The company jealously guards this signature feature.

In 1962 Leupold announced its Duplex reticle, a dual-thickness crosswire that quickly supplanted the standard crosswire as the most popular reticle in the U.S. Lots of scope makers have copied this reticle, but of course they can’t call it the Duplex. In 1968 L&S moved to Beaverton, just west of Portland.

American shooters still lust after Leupold scopes. Why? Jack Slack may have best summed it up when he said: “We don’t try to make scopes everyone can afford; we just make the best scopes affordable.” Leupold also supports its industry, donating 1 percent of net domestic profits to the Heritage Fund, established by the National Shooting Sports Foundation to help ensure the future of the shooting sports.

Fifty years ago, as Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Bender were converting that stable into a rifle-scope facility, Elvis Presley made his third appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. His performance included, for the first time on Sullivan, “Heartbreak Hotel.” You might also remember 1957 for the debut of the .280 Remington cartridge, the birth of Weatherby’s great Mark V rifle and a Chevrolet sedan that set a timeless standard for style.  

If you haven’t marked enough birthdays to recall Ike in the White House, 26-cent gasoline, or the first episode of Rin Tin Tin, you’ve an enviable number of elk seasons left! I hope each will be the richer for knowing a little of the history of the glass you carry.