POTD: A Reflex Sight Before It Was Cool – Nydar 47
Sam.S 03.17.22
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have something I knew of but had forgotten about, the Nydar 47 Reflex Sight! These very neat and somewhat common sights were a cool bit of marketing back in the late 1940s. They originated from anti-aircraft guns that used new electronic reflex sights (a lot like today’s, albeit with much bigger batteries) and some were even tested to be fielded in infantry use. The Nydar was a contraption using a prism showing a dot surrounded by a circle. These were marketed for shotgun use and there were written plans for rifle use but a rifle design never came to be. For shotgun use the center dot was supposed to represent one foot of spread at 50 years while the outer circle was supposed to mean two total feet spread from the center circle.
“Procured by the U.S. government during WWII to aid in aerial gunnery training. Features a factory installed Cutt’s Compensator, standard barrel markings with “U.S./flaming bomb” just forward of the breech. The barrel is correctly not marked for a choke. Standard markings on the receiver with the war time production “U.S./flaming bomb-MILITARY FINISH” marking on the left side. A Nydar shotgun sight is mounted on top of the receiver. Manufactured by the Swain Nelson Company of Glenview, Illinois, the Nydar sight was similar to the sights used in World War II Allied aircraft (a bullseye is projected onto a large outer ring which is mounted with reflective glass). The sight has a leather lens cover. Smooth walnut forearm and pistol grip buttstock with the military “crossed cannons” acceptance mark followed by the “FJA” final inspection mark on the left side.”
Lot 644: U.S. Remington Sportsman Model 11 Semi-Automatic Shotgun. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/77/644/us-remington-sportsman-model-11-semiautomatic-shotgun.
