Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

Other

Rodney H Otteman

Rick R Regan

Erik R Halverson

Victoria J Peters

Gary R Williams

Neil T Mai

Forrest D Babcock

Wayne Perley

Klaus P Mahr

Ross N Anderson

A compact spotting scope includes a housing with an outer surface having a grasping region sized and shaped to fit in a user's hand. An optical element positioned within the housing is adjusted by manually rotating a side-mounted adjustment knob that extends laterally from the outer surface of the housing opposite the grasping region. The side-mounted position of the adjustment knob allows the arm and wrist of the focusing hand to be maintained in an ergonomic position during manipulation of the adjustment knob, thereby further facilitating steady support. An internal support member of the spotting scope includes a frame portion and a generally tubular portion, which are preferably formed together of unitary one-piece construction for aligning optical elements of the spotting scope.

Compact spotting scope with side focus control

A compact spotting scope includes a housing with an outer surface having a grasping region sized and shaped to fit in the palm of a user's hand so that the spotting scope can be held at eye level with one hand in an ergonomic arm and wrist position for steady support. An optical element positioned within the housing is adjusted by manually rotating a side-mounted adjustment knob that extends laterally from the outer surface of the housing opposite the grasping region. The side-mounted position of the adjustment knob allows the arm and wrist of the focusing hand to be maintained in an ergonomic position during manipulation of the adjustment knob, thereby further facilitating steady support. An internal support member of the spotting scope includes a frame portion and a generally tubular portion, which are preferably formed together of unitary one-piece construction for aligning optical elements of the spotting scope.

Carriage for optical elements in an optical sighting device

Compact spotting scope

A non-telescoping adjustment mechanism for adjustment of a riflescope or other sighting device includes a core that is rotatable about a central axis of the adjustment mechanism and an adjustment knob, which is rigidly coupled to the core and which extends from a housing of the riflescope to a protrusion distance. Rotating the adjustment knob causes the core to rotate for adjusting an adjustable member within the riflescope. An index slide, threadably coupled to the adjustment knob, reciprocates along the central axis between the adjustment knob and the core in response to rotation of the adjustment knob. A scale, positioned on the adjustment mechanism, provides a visual indication of the degree of adjustment applied to the riflescope through multiple turns of the adjustment knob. The indication is achieved without increasing the protrusion distance of the adjustment knob.

Non-telescoping riflescope adjustment mechanism

The invention provides a unique rifle scope detent mechanism, and rifle scope including such a detent mechanism, for adjusting elevation and windage of a rifle. The detent mechanism includes a convex spring with a detent ridge, that cooperates with grooves formed on a frontal face of a jack nut. Accordingly, as the jack nut is rotated during adjustment of the rifle scope, grooves of the jack nut click in and out of ridges of the spring. The jack nut is threadingly coupled to a jack screw that reciprocates as the nut rotates, thereby urging against an inner tube of the rifle scope that contains optics to adjust the rifle for elevation or windage.

Radial detents for rifle scope adjustment

A force-equalized pivot mount for a telescopic sight such as a riflescope includes a lens holder having a pivot end positioned between a fixed half-socket and an opposing movable half-socket. A resilient member biases the movable half-socket toward the fixed half-socket to pivotally capture the pivot end therebetween. Rotation of the lens holder generates first lateral friction forces at a first sliding interface between the fixed half-socket and the pivot end that are equalized by oppositely-directed second friction forces generated at a second sliding interface between the movable half-socket and the pivot end. Force-equalization prevents the lens holder from walking within the pivot mount, reduces wear at the sliding interfaces, and improves aiming accuracy.

Equalized pivot mount for riflescope

A focus adjustment mechanism for a telescopic rifle sight includes a rotatable cam hub including a drive face and a spiral cam track formed in the drive face around an axis of rotation. An actuator slide of the adjustment mechanism is slidably mounted to a housing of the telescopic rifle sight for movement along a longitudinal axis of the housing. The actuator slide includes a cam follower that is operably engaged in the spiral cam track so that the actuator slide moves generally along the longitudinal axis in response to rotation of the cam hub to changing a setting of the adjustment mechanism. The actuator slide is operatively connected to a movable optical element positioned within the housing of the telescopic rifle sight to drive the optical element in response to rotation of the cam hub. The rate of linear movement of the optical element relative to the rate of rotation of the cam hub is controlled by the shape and arcuate angle of the spiral cam track. A spring biases the actuator slide relative to the housing to prevent rifle recoil from inducing changes to the setting of the adjustment mechanism.

Spiral cam mechanism for rifle sight adjustment

A telescopic sight is provided that includes an integral mounting bar for connection to a barrel of a firearm and integral auxiliary equipment mounting features for mounting auxiliary equipment onto the telescopic sight. The auxiliary equipment mounting features facilitate the mounting of multiple devices that allows for quickly alternating between different aiming devices or to simultaneously use multiple aiming devices. Clamp assemblies cooperate with the mounting bar to secure the telescopic sight to the firearm and provide adjustment of the height position of the telescopic sight. The clamp blocks are adapted to fit onto a mounting rail of a firearm. The mounting features are universal and require no post-mounting adjustment to accurately align the auxiliary equipment.

Aiming Device with adjustable height mount and auxiliary equipment mounting features

The invention comprises a rifle scope having an adjustment sighting mechanism, the mechanism itself, and methods of making and using the rifle scope and adjustment mechanism. The rifle scope includes an inner and an outer tube, the outer tube mounted on the rifle and the inner tube being sealed within the outer tube. The inner tube is fixed in a ball-type joint at one end, with the other end free and having positioned therein an erector lens or a reticle. An adjustment mechanism adjusts the sight of the rifle scope by displacing the second end of the inner tube. The adjustment mechanism includes a threaded adjustment plunger that is rotationally fixed with respect to the body of the scope. The adjustment plunger threads to a rotating member having a threaded portion. As the rotating member rotates, the adjustment plunger, being prevented from rotating, moves in a direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the rotating member. As the threaded adjustment plunger moves inward or outward with respect to the outer tube, it adjusts the position of the inner tube, which is biased against the adjustment plunger by a spring. The rotating member is rotated by a dial, having an engaged position in which rotating the dial moves the adjustment plunger and a disengaged position in which rotating the dial does not move the adjustment plunger. The disengaged position is used to reset the zero on the dial after the rifle is sighted in at a particular distance.

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Aloha, OR, United States of America

Rodney H Otteman