old scopes
If the OP is satisfied with his old Redfield and all he intends for it is to "target shoot" I see no reason to suggest him to change. If it works, why fix it? As to how the old scope will do with 7mm mag recoil can only reman to be seen. Again, if all I was doing was punching paper, I'd shoot it 'till it breaks.
I have some older Redfields, though not as vintage as the one described. I sent two back to the Ironsight OK outfit to be rebuilt, a fixed 4x and a Widefield 2.75x(?), back when it was $50 and the turnaround was a month or so. Neither is mounted on a rifle anymore. Why? A semi-modern Leupold VariX-II from the '90's, a Burris Fullfield from the same era, either USA or import, or recently a Leupold Freedom or a Vortex Crossfire II, all $200 dollar or less scopes when I bought them, offer greater clarity and are distinctly brighter in low or flat light. If one intends to hunt their rifles in all conditions, a more recent halfway decent scope is way ahead of a vintage number. I'll add that if not rebuilt, one is taking a gamble on the old seals. The animal of a lifetime may appear and your scope has gone wonky.
That said, I still have some vintage scopes mounted, a Weaver K12 and an import Redfield 2-7x (?) but both on rifles I either plink/target with, or hunt on clear dry days across open hayfields and pasture where the light is perfect and we are done long before dusk. If a coyote, crow or groundhog gets away because of a wonky scope, who cares?
Finally, for Fudds like me, the huge astronomy optics so common on hunting rifles these days seem a bit much. My biggest scope is a 6-24x, mounted on an F-T/R rifle, and I was underscoped by most of the competitions standards.
I hunt simple 1-4x tidy variables, God forbid several fixed 6x Leupolds, some very Fuddlike 3-9x40mm Leupolds and Burris numbers. I'm trying to talk bamaboy into the loan of a rifle with a 4-16x Burris as a spare rifle for a prairie dog hunt I hope to make and the rifle I intend to shoot most on that hunt (if it happens) wears a fixed 10x. Only the 6-24x is 30mm with a bell of 50mm. Mounted on a .308, seems a bit much for prairie dogs!
