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The Zf-41 was an optical sight produced in Germany during the Second World War.

History [link]

A German sniper aims through a ZF-41 scope on his Kar98k rifle (the scope can be seen on the last visible part of the rifle)

Starting from 1941 the short 1.5x Zielfernrohr 41 (Zf41) telescopic sight was fitted to some Karabiner 98k rifles for sharpshooting use. The Zf-41 was in fact the first attempt to provide the ordinary infantryman with a rifle capable of being used, if not for pure sniping, then at least for sharpshooting. Most modern-day armies have adopted some form of optical aiming device on infantry weapons (such as the ACOG scope). It was initially planned to equip most combat units with the Zf-41 scopes, but only 6% of German weapons production could fit the sight.

Though useful for sharpshooting with normal infantry units, the design was generally rejected by sniper schools and disliked by snipers, because the 1.5x magnifying scope was deemed insufficient for shooting effectively over long distances. Problems were the scope's extreme eye relief, poor functioning in bad light and low magnifying power. Nonetheless, lack of better scopes made that the Zf-41 was used by snipers at the early stages of the war against the Soviet Union, though many snipers preferred captured Soviet rifles and customly-equipped German rifles with civilian scopes such as the vintage Gewehr 98.

By the end of the war in 1945 more than 100,000 Zf-41 scopes had been produced, the largest production of German optical sights during the war.

References [link]

• Pegler, Martin. Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper (Osprey 2004) p. 188-189

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