"Kay"code - Ford Werke Zf41 scope?

Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg

Senior Member
Was perusing the excellent wwiigermansniper.com site and noticed the kay code, Ford Werke scope listed for zf41 rifles. I have never seen one of these and wondered if anyone had any more pics or information about them?
 
The marking on this scope is not kay but kov: Etablissement Barbier, Benard et Turenne, Paris , well know maker of ZF41 scopes .
 
I am sure enough mistaken. With my eyes on a small phone screen…… I don’t see a picture of the kay maker on this page.
Anyone have a shot of this scope?
 
I would assume the 'kay' scopes are a misreading of some kov scopes. The last two letters could easily be mistaken for an 'a' and 'y'
 

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That is interesting! So perhaps Ford-Werke never made any of these scopes? I assume "kay" is a code found on other materiel, correct?
 
Wolfsburg said:
That is interesting! So perhaps Ford-Werke never made any of these scopes? I assume "kay" is a code found on other materiel, correct?
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I just went through the entire zf41 optical section of the forum and did not see any data of a “kay” scope submitted by members. Yet it is included on most lists of known makers. IDK
 
biggymu said:
I just went through the entire zf41 optical section of the forum and did not see any data of a “kay” scope submitted by members. Yet it is included on most lists of known makers. IDK
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Garbage in, garbage out.
 
biggymu said:
I just went through the entire zf41 optical section of the forum and did not see any data of a “kay” scope submitted by members. Yet it is included on most lists of known makers. IDK
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Yeah that's what I'm finding as well. I simply can't find anything about these, info or pics. Ford Werke was and is a thing but was this code ever actually applied to them in any regard, not just scopes? At least in the case of these scopes, it def seems plausible that "kov" has sometimes been misread as "kay", as mentioned above. I wouldn't mind having a "kay" scope for my scopeless ar42, although I imagine they must be pretty rare, if they exist at all.
 
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In the old book “The German Sniper 1914-1945” by Peter R. Senich, “hap” and “kay” are listed as the manufacturer of ZF41. And Richard D. Law says in his book “Sniper Variations of the German K98k Rifle” that he could not find any example of those two makers. During my research, I have gained data of “bmj” and “emv” which are not listed in those two books but have never seen data of “hap” and “kay”. So, for the time being, I do not list those two as ZF41 manufacturers. I do not hesitate to show respect to Mr.Senich as a great forerunner, but I do not believe him just because he writes so. That leads to the myth “Kar43 is 5cm shorter than Gew43”!
 
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