I purchased this little 4 power scope many years ago at a St. Charles Mo gun show. I had just finished reading "The M-L Cap lock Rifle" and was planning on building a target/squirrel rifle. I was even going to build a rifling bench and rifle the barrel and purchased a 40 cal blank. Well that didnt happen. I am now thinking of mounting it on my 45-70 RB. I have seen a few others but they all had a black finish on them. This one appears to have left the factory with a polished brass finish. It is missing one of the mounting plates that should be easy enough to make. Any idea on date of manuf.? Thanks, Ed

My guess is somebody removed the "Japan" finish off the tube at some time in it's life. I've never heard of any left in bare brass, but seen many that people made this way later. Hard to tell what happened over so many decades.

I bought a very, very, clean looking Wollensak scope with the original box on eBay. When it arrived, I found it was missing every lens but one! Hahaha! 

Lesson learned....

Col. Whelen covered the Wollensak scopes in his little book on telescope sights published in 1936, so there would be your manufacturing time frame.

He included the Wollensak and the “very similar” Sears&Roebuck scope in the chapter on “Junior Rifle Scopes,” which were made for light .22 rifles and not up to the recoil of large game or big bore target rifles.  However, he did mention that he knew of a Wollensak which had been mounted on a .25-20 rifle and used “with perfect results.”

The Wollensak, with mounts, cost $10.00 back then; the Sears-Roebuck $9.95.

I had my Wollensak mounted of a home made 22 rifle although I had to make home made Unertl type bases for it so I could test the scope and the rifle. Everything worked great but the home made mounts looked so ugly I put the scope back in the nice little case I made. Since the rifle was "Home Made" with bits and pieces of old rifles there were no iron sights available for it so It got put away also. I just ordered some Unertl type mounts from Brownells and I really would like to get the scope set up correctly.

Yes, those appear to be the higher quality Marlin #2 mounts. Sleeves are the same, as are the front rings. So any Wollensak, Marlin, or Sears Ranger sleeve will fit. Not sure if I have any in my parts box? Have to check today.

I made a sleeve for my scope marked ranger,by using a shaft adapter sleeve for an electric motor. I used a 3/4" to 7/8" pulley shaft adapter. They have a 3/16" key way slot,and are about 3"long, and came blued. Not as nice as an original sleeve,but it will work okay.