I purchased my (used) 40XB in 6mm International with the 2 0z trigger in the late 70s. I has been an excellant varmit rifle but I haven't really shot it much. It gives me 3/8" groups pretty consistantly and without much effort to find the best load.
In the early 90s I met and made friends with Merle "Mike" Walker, the man who developed the 721/722, 700 and 40x rifles and a load of commercial cartridges, such as the .222, .22-250, 7mm Mag., and the 6m International wildcat for Remington. He also developed the first 20/24x scopes for bench shooters that would mount on the action instead of the barrel after teaching himself the fundamentals of scope optics. He is a bright guy, for a Yankee.
He got his ground glass from the same people who made lenses for the Lyman Super Targetspot scopes and used Unertl mounts. The tube and assembly was done at the Remington plants in Illion, NY, so it was a Remington product with components from others and is the scope 1911 illustrates above. While I watched, Mike assembled a treasured 20x for me with parts he still had in his little home shop in Lady Lake, FL, at the time. He moved and now lives a few miles from me, near Hendersonville, NC. He's old, frail and nearly deaf but still ambeling along pretty well for his age.
My 40XB now wears that Remmy scope and I have often wondered what the collector value of the combination would be. This thread sort of prompted me to tell the story, not that it matters much to the original topic.
