A fellow on the Unertl collector page on facebook recently bought this treasure. Anyone with Peter Senich’s books will recognize it.

This is one of my favorite rifles in my collection for multiple reasons.

“1) The Unertl and mount came out of the Jim Leatherwood estate and has his own written documentation from when he acquired it from Bill Donovan in 1997. What makes this particular scope and mount so special is that it was used by Carlos Hathcock in Vietnam after Bill Donovan (2112 armorer) assembled 11 rigs with the 10×43 Unertl Vulture and his hand made mounts. He made the mounts in his work tent atop hill 55 in Vietnam in 1967. He only made 11. Being a sniper himself, Bill Donovan and Carlos Hathcock tested these set ups on a live patrol in 1967 per his documentation. Carlos used scope and mount number 00003 and Donovan used scope and mount 00006. Hathcock recorded 5 confirmed kills with this scope and it has a total of 11 confirmed kills between himself and other snipers using the set up. It’s an incredibly rare and historic piece of USMC Sniping history.

Only three of the original 11 scope mounts survived combat in Vietnam. Bill Donovan brought the three home with him from Vietnam. He sold serial numbers 00003 and 00006 directly to Jim Leatherwood in 1997. Leatherwood himself used one of these set ups and gathered confirmed kills. The serial numbers he used was never documented like 00003 and 00006.

2) The rifle… nothing to do with Carlos Hathcock, but is special in its own right being serial number 000311 (Marine Corps Infantry designation being 0311) and was built by Elmer Balance in 1974. He was the original manufacturer of Springfield Armory M1A rifle using USGI parts. This is one of the first 400 he built in Devine TX before he sold the company to the current Springfield Armory back in 1976. This rifle has NM barrel and TRW components with an original USGI NM stock from 1964. I can’t fathom a better set up to mount this Hathcock scope atop. Enjoy”