The History of Shepherd Scope is a history of ideas. In 1979 while in a sound sleep, Dan Shepherd dreamt he was hunting deer. He looked into his scope to check its' zero and saw that there was a bright light dead center of the scope and another star like light at about ten o'clock high. He turned a dial on the scope and the light at 10 o'clock began to move toward the light in the center of the scope. He kept turning the dial until both lights were aligned in the center of the sight picture. He knew the scope was re-zeroed! When he awoke the next day he could not get that dream out of his head and by 1983 the Shepherd Dual Reticle Scope, was on the market.

The scope was developed by taking the best features of the German system and combining them with those of the American system. The Japanese came into the picture because their lenses tested to be superior to even the German lenses. As Dan pursued his study of scopes and developed his Dual Reticle system he discovered some amazing things that could be done that would soon obsolete the present scopes on the market and revolutonize the design of rifle scopes and their' reticles. He found that the German practice of putting a 4 minute thick reticle,(reticle means "crosshair", or other aiming device) in the front focal plan made that reticle the most reliable in the world since the only thing between it and the target was the front lens and according to Shepherds' Law of Zeros, in order for a scope to lose its' zero something must move between the reticle and the target. This meant that all the erector lenses and the zoom system that were so troublesome in American scope because they were between the crosshair and the target were not a problem to the German Scopes. A very good system indeed!---BUT, in optics as in life , there is no free lunch. The German scope was extremly reliable and would not shift the point of impact on zooming or even if an erector lenes shot loose the reticle would still be on unless you moved the front of the tube and thus shifted the direction that the front lense was placeing its' image. The big drawback to this system ,and what made it unacceptable to American shooters ,was that the reticle changed size when you zoomed the power up or down. This meant that on high power it fully covered a 20 inch target at 500 yards and blocked it out so you could not affectively shoot at long range. German snipers solved this problem by simply mounting their scopes upside down with the thick reticle hanging down from the top instead of sticking up from the bottom. This allowed them to see the target, guess at its' range say a "Hail Mary " and shoot. Dan thought about this and decided to put his range finding/bullet drop compensateing circle in the front focal plan so the circles would work on all powers and still have the reliablilty of the German system. The circles would act like the peep sights on a target rifle and give quick target engagement at all ranges and on all powers. Dan took a page from the German Sniper Manual but instead of turning the scope upside down he removed the front crosshair altogether and and put an American type duplex reticle in the rear focal plane. The Shepherd now had all the advantages of the American reticle in the rear focal plane and the German reticle in the front.

The range finder works on all powers. The cross-hair does not change size and block out the target and as an unexpected bonus, each reticle monitors the other and tells the shooter if anything inside the scope has moved. Windage is no longer a guessing game as you can see the adjustments take place as you dial them in. Just like in Dans' dream. Once zeroed, the reticles will stay aligned with each other unless something inside the scope moves. That means that as long as those two reticles are in alignment the interior of the scope is on the money. You now know where to look if groups began to spread or shots are missed. Look at the base, ammo, barrell bedding, etc. Because if the scope reticles are still in alignment the scope is still zeroed. Shepherd is truly the most reliable scope in the world...