Rifle Scopes Tell us about failure...

[The King]

I wanted to touch base again regarding failure.

Failure of your optical system seems to be the number one issue I experience while teaching folks how to long range.

So tell your stories of epic failure here - the more insane the optic the better. Doesn’t have to be the scope failing either - it can be your dumb ass failing too.

I’ll start with two personal failures.

1. I was hiking up a serious mountain to engage some targets we had set up in a mystery shopper fashion next valley over. This is always neat - you go out the day before and each person sets a steel target wherever they want and without anyone else seeing where they put it. Easier in the mountains.

So I had just picked up a Schmidt Bender 1-8. And the way I had slung my rifle brought the scope into contact with my American Kami knife hilt’s glass breaker. It was an adventure.

2. Work issued me an SR25 with a Nightforce 3.5-15 F1. We went to a training class and were working on “SDM in the back of the truck” type work. So slow driving while shooting and fast driving while transitioning range to range.

I had decided to jam myself in the back by the cab as the best position. Dumb ass driver takes the WRONG turn and runs the truck into a tree so hard it breaks the windshield. And incidentally rips my rifle out of my hands and craps it under the duallies.

Nightforces are tough - but when you rip the top rail off your SR25 it’s okay for it to be Z shaped after that.

I hadn’t slung up or I might be dead now.

As for “the scope ate it” , I seem to have awful luck with Vortex optics. Almost every one I have owned went back at some point. The PST Gen 1s, the Razor HDII, the Strike Eagles, all of it back to the factory.

I remember when my friggin HdIIs illumination turret started unscrewing way too far...

It seems in fact that many of the Japanese made optics die on me far too soon. The Burris 1-8 was among them. And enough bushnells to fill a trash can.

 

[JMGlasgow]

My M14 scout has rattled the lenses loose on my Burris 2.75x Scout scope.

My M1A Supermatch rattled the reticle loose on a Burris XTR 3-12x50.

My M700 30-06 hunting rifle has shaken the erector lenses loose twice, both scopes were Vortex Diamondback 4-12's. The second one failed in 1 shot and was replaced. I promptly sold it after replacement.

I don't own a single scope that hasn't been sent back for repairs at least once. I've owned Burris, Steiner, Vortex, Bushnell, Leupold, and Springfield Armory.

 

[Nortex]

Had a gen 1 razor go down in the middle of a match. The vertical screws on top of the "zeroing turret" under the main turret backed out thus giving it a +/- .2-.4 variation. Vortex told me they had not seen that before and I've yet to hear of similar from anyone else. Either way they fixed it very fast scope was out of my possession a total of 7 days.

 

[tomcatfan]

This is a user error story of completely wrong tool for the job. The scope I was using was a Vortex Viper and the turrets on the viper were really easy to reset, all you had to do was pull up on them and rotate to zero. They were spring loaded.
I was shooting my first ever DMR match with movers and was dialing the appropriate lead with my turrets as my reticle was just a target dot (terrible idea). I stopped hitting targets real quick and after the stage I told my stage RO that my optic was no longer zeroed. The RO was awesome and let me rezero before the next stage and I was over 10 minutes off in windage. I was lifting up on the turrets as I was making adjustments. I realized after that stage that I was using the totally wrong tool for the job. I was new to the game and was just looking to learn. That match taught me a lot.

 

[LawnMM]

Guess I'm just lucky, only issues I've had were with Vortex.

Had a PST Gen 1 with a canted reticle and a Gen 1 Razor that had it's zero stop keep coming loose in matches. Sold the Razor.

Have a Bushnell ERS and XRS that have been flawless, a NF F1 3.5-15 with no issues, now a Minox Zp5 that's been great.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

I won't go into it but, never ever do any type of hunting of things that hunt back, w/o being able to revert to irons if you have to.

 

[gnochi]

Do ID-10-T type failures count?

1) One of my first deer hunts, it’s nearing dusk in eastern Washington in the mountains. It’s also cold AF, and I’d rushed out after school so was just wearing jeans and an orange sweatshirt.

I hear something crashing through some brush, take a good look when it enters my line of sight, and yep, it’s a big buck. Couldn’t get a count of the points beyond “many”.

I raise the rifle - Marlin 336 in 30/30, cheap scope from the 50s with a wire reticle - and breathe out onto the eyepiece lens. Couldn’t see squat through that scope, even 6 hours later.

2) One of my first range days since getting into precision rifle, I torqued the scope rings and scope down onto a leveling wedge. Of course, when you remove the leveling wedge holding the scope up, you also dramatically reduce the amount of clamp load inside the rings... and my scope decided to slip by about 1moa per shot.

 

[CStroud]

I won't go into it but, never ever do any type of hunting of things that hunt back, w/o being able to revert to irons if you have to.

Sounds like a good story in there somewhere.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

Sounds like a good story in there somewhere.

There's a few here who know it.

 

[longgunJR]

So about three weeks ago I shot a match where I got 22 points out possible 75, I had just gotten my new ATACR 5-25 F1. Couldn't hit anything past 500y, that day I learned the parallax marks on the turret rarely match real world settings, this in combination to my reticle improperly focused (I was seeing double) made me almost reconsider this sport and get a knitting kit instead.
Scope is fine, I just dint set it up properly & a mistake that won't bite me again.

 

[Rookie]

My first competition rig had a Nightforce nxs 3.5 to 15. Had it mounted on a 20 Moa slant base. At some point the elevation turret stopped working. I sent it back to tonight force and they said that with the 110 MOA elevation built-in, they recommended a flat base to avoid over compression of internal Springs. They repaired the scope for free and sent it back. It still sits on that same rifle and works great. That was about 15 years ago.

 

[hypno02]

I had the illumination stop working on my 1-6mk6. Send it back to leupold, they replaced the module, and now all is good. Still trust that tough little sob.

0 Issues through the years with the rest of the Leupolds, NF, SWFA, Bushy Elites, Aimpoints, Acogs, etc.

 

[tomcatfan]

Scope is fine, I just dint set it up properly & a mistake that won't bite me again.

For me, these are the best type of "failures". At least you can learn from them and grow as a shooter.

 

[acudaowner]

I am predicting for the future many many more rifle purchases like the two 1916 mousers I just got and the smith 41 and yea its a replica 1858 conversion , I like it , yea prediction really came true I am the great spengally I know the future . Now i just need to hit that old lottery come on mega millions lol that 50.cal shaped hole in my dried shriveled heart needs a patching .

 

[Northernjets]

Had a Nikon Prostaff rimfire II fail on my 10/22 on it's second range outing. Fired a group, placed the rifle down to load up the mag, picked it up and the world had rotated on me. Reticle had somehow rotated when I put the rifle down. Sent it out for warranty replacement, got one a few weeks later. Ended up selling the scope with the rifle.

 

[thejeep]

My zero was approx 1.2 mil high on match day from the previous day. Action screws had loosened up to hand tight. (Hadn’t ever rechecked)


Torque increased by 12”lbs and holding.

 

[hypno02]

I forgot — had a Cronus G2 that hit at 10.25 on a 10 mil tall target test. Great CS got it resolved of course.

Replacement was sold.

 

[wigwamitus]

General fail topic - turrets slipping while in the field:

01- Mk4 6.5-20x TMR (FFP) M5
I was shooting at 500yds and dialed up and the turret slipped loose. It was a "friendly" competition and my shooting buddy (competitor) was prone right beside me. But I didn't want to give up. So I fired a couple of "sighters" did some playing around with the ballistics calculator and determined I was now double zeroed at 37/600 (and something - I forgot the exact number it was 6 years ago ) but based on that, I was back in the game and hitting targets. I won by a tiny few points, but the important lesson was "don't quite if you don't have to".
Later analysis determined that I did not sufficiently tighten down the turret. So this is a "shooter" failure which caused a "turret failure".

02 - Mk4 3.5-10x TMR (SFP) M3
Shooting at 600yds at night with NV clipon and moon(big illuminator in the sky) ... M3 turret slipped ... this time, is was too dark to see the splash of my miss, so I couldn't calibrate my zero. But again, I determined I didn't sufficiently tighten turret. This was also about 6 years ago. And if it seems like I'm picking on L&S scopes, well those were the only two scopes I had back then

==
03 NXS 2.5-10x MIL-R (SFP)
Shooting at 500yds at night, went to return to zero stop and turret slipped. I had thermal clipon so I could see splash of miss (I was about 6 inches low at 500yds) ... so I could hold for that.
Later determined one of the 4 zero stop screws was loose. These are to be tightened to 4 i/p. I was fresh out of 4 i/p torque wrenches so I had to follow the instructions in the manual and "wing it". But one was loose. I re-set the zero stop and after 420 rounds, it has not slipped again. So, I suspect shooter not getting 4 i/p exactly right. This one happened this year. It was my first experience with the NF zero stop with the 4 i/p adjustment screws.

==
So, lesson learned, pay a lot of attention when your tightening the turrets, else you might have to discover how to find your new zero in the field in order to stay in the game !!



==
General fail topic - rain on the glass

There have been many of these, I will mention a sample of two:

01 - Mk4 3.5-10x tmr (spf) M3
Shooting at night with nv clipon at 150yds ... raining ... not using any light shade to cover the gap between the rear lens of the clipon and the objective of the day scope. Both got water streaks on them so bad, I could no longer see the target. Plus it was cold enough that the water started to freeze. I had no materials to take care of the situation with me. I was done. Lessons learned, use the danged light shade if any chance of inclement weather.
Keep glass cleaning materials in your day pack.
This was six years ago.

02 - NF 7-35x T3
Shooting in the day in the rain ... I have shot in the rain a lot and even when the glass gets some water on it, it hasn't stopped me in recent memory, but one day this year it did ... and again I had no proper cleaning materials. I dabbed a napkin on the rear lens and got enough off that I could continue.
This is around the same time, but in this case, the rain is heavier near the target than where I'm setup on the RRS at around 770 yds ... click on the pic to see it larger.

I don't have exactly the pic I recall on flickr and imgur no longer works for me on this site, but again, lesson learned, take glass cleaner in the day pack ... and use the lens covers except when shooting.

There have also been numerous cases of glass fogging up when I forgot to apply fog tech. Keep some fogtech in the day and night packs.
There have been a few cases if glass icing up ... the warmth of your hands on the other side of the cleaning wipe can thaw it .. but you have to take off your gloves.

==
General fail topic - scope base come loose

This has happened twice to my #1 shooting buddy (on the same gun with the same scope base - after the second time I replaced the scope base for him, since he left the gun at my house ... he tried a cheap chinese scope base ... I replaced it with a more expensive USA scope base. Lesson learned scope bases are important !! Don't skimp on that one ! And this is about the only case where I use blue loctite.

Happened once to me on .338LM I loctited the scope base, ,never happened again.

Happened once to me on .308WIN ... I loctited the scope base, never happened again.

Lesson learned, if you never use loctite anywhere else, consider it on your scope base. Especially if they come loose.

==
I'm sure there have been 100 others ... if I think of them I will update this post.

 

[TxWelder35]

Every single screw on any of my scopes that I personally did not torque and loctite has come loose on me at some point. Lessons learned, torque your own stuff. Trust no one.

Each time something has come loose its almost a relief. You are shooting, and then your groups gets worse and worse and worse and you can't imagine you are shooting that bad then you realize your scope is wiggling.

Only scope I've had to send back was Vortex Viper HS. Wouldn't hold zero. Sent it back and it was back in my hands 7 days later.

 

[The King]

Today, I unclinched my scope butthole and bought something not made by Nightforce for the first time in Ages!

It, of course, is broken right out of the goddamn box. For $3000.

 

[JMGlasgow]

Brand?

 

[The King]

It’s the RX1 Revic PMR. It is supposed to have a locking turret on both elevation and wind age, but only the windage locks.

I actually prefer it this way oddly - don’t want my damn elevation to lock when the computer inside tells me if anything moved.

I’m just concerned that the optic may have a self destructing shower of fine metallic shit into the innards every time I spin the knob with the lock engaged.

That said, the scope is super neat.

 

[hlee]

So, a user failure story. Shooting a 22lr match recently, the next stage is the 50y kyl. I dial my zero back on the scope and wait to begin the stage. Buzzer sounds and I get set to break the first shot. Bang... No ping. WTF. You're an idiot hlee, and a full review high. Went 9/9 on the remaining targets, but missed that fat meatball to start...

 

[dms416]

Had a S&B 1-8x24 CC Short Dot that I had on a work gun. Went to do monthly cold-bore with it and 8x looked like someone had smeared vasoline on it...couldn't see shit. Was ok 4x and lower and fine on "CC". Apparently the "CC" 7y parallax setting got stuck and wouldn't transition back to 100y.

S&B fixed it, but now I'm gun-shy on anything with that "CC" setting now.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Lots of good stories and some lessons. My scope related experiences are things such as wont hold zero or brain fart issues.

 

[The King]

1-8 CC short dot was the worst scope SB ever made.

Had a S&B 1-8x24 CC Short Dot that I had on a work gun. Went to do monthly cold-bore with it and 8x looked like someone had smeared vasoline on it...couldn't see shit. Was ok 4x and lower and fine on "CC". Apparently the "CC" 7y parallax setting got stuck and wouldn't transition back to 100y.

S&B fixed it, but now I'm gun-shy on anything with that "CC" setting now.

 

[Sutherlandsd]

Just sent a diamondback tactical vortex back for a parallax adjustment that just spun freely...

5 days had a new scope this one is quite nice for the $300 spent.

 

[TheGerman]

There may or may not be a NF 3-15 F1 laying on the side of a hill somewhere in Afghanistan. I can confirm that said scope was in a pair of rings and attached to a rifle. At some other point, it was not attached to the rifle.

Allegedly.

Im sure @THEIS will chime in on how this is clearly an ITAR violation.

Allegedly.

 

[THEIS]

Hi,

How in the world did I get drug into this, lol?

Sincerely,
ITAR is watching you, lol

 

[dms416]

1-8 CC short dot was the worst scope SB ever made.

Not sure I'd say "worst" but it's pretty bad for the money. I thought the 1-8 High Power was worse. The turrets on both were a joke.

I wish they'd quit dicking around and just do a normal 1-6x even if it's 34mm.

 

[TACC]

Great learning experiences for me and others.