Somewhere between sporting and effective

The riflescope has come a long way since the mid-19th century, says Graham Downing, but people have always grumbled about change

- Graham Downing

Deerstalking has generally been an early adopter of improvements in firearms technology, many of which are a result of the constant development of military small arms. That has certainly been the case with sighting devices.

As the accuracy of rifles improved in the early 19th century, there was a clear need for a better sighting system for precision marksmanship. While there had been a number of early experiments with telescopic sights, the first reliable riflescope was invented by Lt Col David Davidson, who exhibited his new design at the Great Exhibition of 1851, where he demonstrated it to keen deerstalker Prince Albert.

Davidson patented his invention in 1862. It was applied to Whitworth’s new muzzle-loading rifles and was successfully used by Confederate marksmen in the American Civil War.

Riflescopes were also made by Edinburgh opticians for use on the Scottish hill, and by 1887, when Henry Holland took out a patent for a sight similar to Davidson’s, they were already being fitted by the top Scottish rifle makers Alexander Henry, John Dickson and Daniel Fraser.

Vision of the future

Within 30 years, snipers on both sides were using them to deadly effect on the Western Front. Of course, there were some grumbles about the riflescope being unsporting for use on a stalking rifle, but any negativity probably had much more to do with the fact that early riflescopes, which were inadequately sealed, were prone to misting up in damp weather and the mounts used to attach them to a rifle were less than perfect.

Kenneth Whitehead pointed out in his Half a Century of Scottish Deer Stalking that scopes were generally detachable, carried in a leather scope case and, if the weather was wet, were only clipped to the rifle immediately prior to the shot being taken.