History
John Unertl founded the John Unertl Optical Company in 1934 and the company manufactured military sniper scopes during World War II. The company was most notable for its MST-100 (7.62mm) and MST-150 (.50 caliber) 10× scope used by the USMC Scout-Sniper program and the first scope to use a Mil-Dot reticle. In 2002 the company was purchased by 21st Century Technology, Inc. (owned by Col. Rocky Greene) and the headquarters was moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. In the early 2000s the Marine Corps began phasing out Unertl Scopes in favor of other scopes like the Schmidt & Bender 3–12×50 Police Marksman II LP. By 2006 the company had begun marketing firearms in addition to their line of scopes including a civilian copy of the Marine Corps MEU(SOC) pistol and the M40A3 Sniper Rifle. By 2008 the company had closed its doors. There were actually three successive "John Unertls". Sr. started the company and ran it until his death. Jr. took over after that. And while the company was well known for its rifle scopes, its major revenue came from high end optical systems made for various branches of government including very sophisticated optical/mechanical instrumentation, optics for military jet gunsights, fire control optics, and wind tunnel instrumentation ( Schlieren photography systems for the Naval Surface Weapon Center in White Oak, MD). The last John Unertl, John Robert Unertl, after leaving the company worked his way up to Division President of the optical instrument division of Leitz.Products
* Fixed-power Target Scopes * Hunting Scopes "Falcon", "Hawk" & "Condor", 2 3/4×, 4× & 6× respectively * 10×43 Vulture * Ultra-10 43 vulture * Spotting Scopes * MST-100 10× for 7.62×51mm (Used by the Marine Corps, FBI & Canada) * MST-150 10× for .50 caliber (Used by the Marine Corps) * Very sophisticated optical/mechanical instrumentation for governmentReferences
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