Finally knocked something loose mechanically inside my Vortex Viper 4-16FFP I have on my 22LR trainer. Have suspected something might have been slightly off until I was shooting out to 171 and 222 with it and when I went back to shoot at my 100 yard zero, I was .5MILS high even though I was zero'd just before. I know I can send it in and am not worried about it.
This got me thinking to what may have caused this. It could just be that anything mechanical will eventually fail, or I started considering that maybe the terrain I am driving through to go shoot 3-5 times a week has something to do with it (or maybe not?).
Right now, I am driving about 15 minutes in my Jeep into BLM/public land that has no road and its a very basic trail consisting of packed sand and rocks. After it rains there are giant 'potholes' as well until the terrain eventually evens itself out. Now I'm not driving 50mph over these and jumping them or anything, but even going 10-15mph you start to bounce around a good bit from the uneven trail and plethora of rocks bedded in the ground. If anyone here offroads or goes onto public land with primitive roads, you know what I'm talking about.
The rifles I bring are usually in a padded zip up 'bag' but not in a hardcase as this takes up a ton of room. They are also not flying around or smacking against anything, but instead are just in their padded bags and layed in the back of the Jeep (I took the rear seats out so its like a mini pickup bed). There is obviously some moving going on for anything inside the Jeep, including me, while going down these trails.
I know the whole 'I bumped my scope' thing is a bullshit myth from people who sight their rifles in once a year and then miss in a totally different atmospheric environment as well as use cheap ass Tasco scopes; but can this constant josseling do something like this? Would I be better off with a padded case even though the rifles/scopes aern't hitting anything and instead just moving with the Jeep over uneven terrain?
This got me thinking to what may have caused this. It could just be that anything mechanical will eventually fail, or I started considering that maybe the terrain I am driving through to go shoot 3-5 times a week has something to do with it (or maybe not?).
Right now, I am driving about 15 minutes in my Jeep into BLM/public land that has no road and its a very basic trail consisting of packed sand and rocks. After it rains there are giant 'potholes' as well until the terrain eventually evens itself out. Now I'm not driving 50mph over these and jumping them or anything, but even going 10-15mph you start to bounce around a good bit from the uneven trail and plethora of rocks bedded in the ground. If anyone here offroads or goes onto public land with primitive roads, you know what I'm talking about.
The rifles I bring are usually in a padded zip up 'bag' but not in a hardcase as this takes up a ton of room. They are also not flying around or smacking against anything, but instead are just in their padded bags and layed in the back of the Jeep (I took the rear seats out so its like a mini pickup bed). There is obviously some moving going on for anything inside the Jeep, including me, while going down these trails.
I know the whole 'I bumped my scope' thing is a bullshit myth from people who sight their rifles in once a year and then miss in a totally different atmospheric environment as well as use cheap ass Tasco scopes; but can this constant josseling do something like this? Would I be better off with a padded case even though the rifles/scopes aern't hitting anything and instead just moving with the Jeep over uneven terrain?
