Schmidt & Bender

Schmidt & Bender (often abbreviated as S&B) is a German company specialized in producing high end telescopic sights for hunting, sports, law enforcement and military arms.

The company was founded in 1957 by instrument maker Helmut Schmidt and master instrument maker Helmut Bender. The company started with producing telescopic sights for large German (mail order) hunting equipment sales chains under various brand names and gradually started to produce telescopic sights under their own brand name. Currently (2008) the company is still a family enterprise.

Much of the assembly process is done by hand, which is why the company can only turn out a limited number of scopes annually.

Schmidt & Bender is an ISO 9001 certified company. This implies all research, development, production and assembly is monitored by an independent agency.

Schmidt & Bender Hungaria Optik
In 1992 Schmidt & Bender Hungaria Optik GmbH in Budapest, Hungary was founded as an independent company by Schmidt & Bender GmbH & Co. KG, Biebertal, Germany. The process of privatisation in Hungary made it possible for Schmidt & Bender to buy the production of precision optics and fibre optics from the government-owned enterprise of the Hungarian Opticai Works (MOM). Schmidt & Bender bought Hungarian Opticai Works since this company produced and still produces the optical components Schmidt & Bender uses in their rifle scopes. In 2008 Schmidt & Bender Hungaria Optik employed 80 people. The fixed magnification models of the Schmidt & Bender Classic product line can be either "Made in Germany" or "Made in Hungary". The Hungarian made scopes are normally not offered to US and Western European customers and tend to be somewhat less expensive.

The outsourcing of component production or external purchasing of specialized components to or from countries like Japan, Hungary, etc. is quite normal for high end telescopic sights producers. Stating a country of origin often does not guarantee that a product was completely made and assembled in that country. Some competitors of Schmidt & Bender however refuse to provide information to consumers regarding relevant (optical) components sources.

Products
Schmidt & Bender offers telescopic sights in the:
 * Classic product line designed for hunting.
 * Precision Hunter line. These scopes are produced on special order and based on Classic line scopes, each equipped with a top-mounted bullet drop compensator and reticles designed for accurate shooting at longer ranges.
 * Zenith product line designed for hunting.
 * Sport line designed for field target sports shooters.
 * Police Marksman (PM) product line designed for the military and law enforcement.
 * Police Marksman II (PM II) product line designed for the military and law enforcement.
 * MILITARY MK II product line designed for the military. These scopes are essentially PM II models with an additional laser filtration lens coating to protect operators against being wounded/blinded by laser light sources. The MILITARY MK II scopes are marketed by sniper rifle manufacturer Accuracy International and have the Accuracy International company logo depicted on a turret.

For some models the option exists to have mounting rails underneath the riflescope to provide for mounting solutions that do not use scope rings. These rails are an integral part of the scope body and can not be removed. The most recent rail mounting system of Schmidt & Bender is their propriety "Convex rail". The Convex rail uses matching slide-in mount fasteners to connect the riflescope to the gun and offers the possibility to tilt the scope up to 1° to the left or right.

Sniper rifle manufacturers promoting the PM II / MILITARY MK II product line
The British high end factory sniper rifle manufacturer Accuracy International actively promotes fitting the Schmidt & Bender PM II / MILITARY MK II product line as sighting components on their Arctic Warfare family of sniper rifles and sells these products as accessories, which is rare for a rifle manufacturer.

The Swiss fire arms manufacturer Brügger & Thomet (B&T) uses specially made Schmidt & Bender 3-12x50 PM II LP product line scopes with a B&T designed TRS reticle pattern for their APR bolt action sniper rifles.

The German fire arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch (H&K) uses Schmidt & Bender 3-12x50 PM II telescopic sights as standard aiming optics for their PSG1A1 semi-automatic sniper rifles.