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Top scope brand that costs 4k+ keeps cracking

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welp.. going to take some crap for this. After more thorough look with a light… it’s not the ocular lens. It’s the lens on the objective side of the turrets. But not the outer lens. It’s a lens by the turrets.

If it were me, I would talk to whomever it was that made the scope and if they have a US facility and agreed I’d send the whole damn rig in as is. Rifle and all, then ship them some ammo. Give them the best possible chance of figuring out what is going on and why.
 
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welp.. going to take some crap for this. After more thorough look with a light… it’s not the ocular lens. It’s the lens on the objective side of the turrets. But not the outer lens. It’s a lens by the turrets.
The plot thickens!

So was it the same lens that broke last time or not sure now?
 
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The plot thickens!

So was it the same lens that broke last time or not sure now?
Don’t know for sure. The company didn’t tell me. They told me it was a fluke and nothing I did caused it. (The first time it broke)
 
welp.. going to take some crap for this. After more thorough look with a light… it’s not the ocular lens. It’s the lens on the objective side of the turrets. But not the outer lens. It’s a lens by the turrets.
So likely the parallax lens didn’t adjust anymore either? As I think that’s the lens that is just forward of the turrets.
Here is a pic from old nightforce literature, but the idea is the same on many of the brands.
85E2E3C4-5FAE-4DFF-B838-ADF9AFB0992E.jpeg
 
If it's the lens by the turrets, basically under the rings, makes it even more likely you are over torquing the rings.

How have you verified that your torque driver is accurate?
I agree. But I’ve checked and even went lighter the second time. I’ve never heard of the lenses cracking but the turrets operating fine and the parallax moving fine. I’ve been using a torque spec higher on other brand scopes with the arc mount with no issues.
 
Now that the OP discovered it's a cracked lens on the forward side of the plumbing, I think it's even more likely something is out of alignment. It's also possible the manufacturer had a few anomalies and the cracking is a result of that.

Or it could be a cursed scope.
 
And for those that like to do math..............Where's @Baron23.

Ted posts the equation used to compare clamp force of multiple smaller screws to a single larger one.

It was 10 years ago tomorrow.

1642989812364.png
 
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Oh, and clearly there's a tolerance issue and its failures are likely due to thermal expansion rate differences. The glass is shrinking slower than the tube.
 
And the box cover is right there.


So now it has me curious....ZCO is a great scope. But do they have temperature issues going from hot to cold?
Living in Colorado and having owned 3 with a 4th on its way, I've had no issues going from hot or warm to cold af. Small sample size but potentially relevant
 
Living in Colorado and having owned 3 with a 4th on its way, I've had no issues going from hot or warm to cold af. Small sample size but potentially relevant
Larger sample size considering everyone we shoot with.

I literally posted how I've never heard of a ZCO issue the other day. And now this.


Edit: The good news, it appears ZCO has Zero issues dealing with warranties. See what I did there?
 
So the thread st
And the box cover is right there.


So now it has me curious....ZCO is a great scope. But do they have temperature issues going from hot to cold?
sometimes shit happens. I’ve had an ATACR dead on arrival, two PM2 malfunction, etc.

Maybe it was the glass incorrectly spec’d or bad quality from their supplier. ZCO could be completely innocent in this matter. Or there could be an assembly issue. Who really knows. They’ll more than likely correct the issue in the end and get OP a repaired or new scope.

Hopefully OP wasn’t on some thousand dollar hunt or had a national competition. Or something of that nature. That’s where I’d be upset.
 
Living in Colorado and having owned 3 with a 4th on its way, I've had no issues going from hot or warm to cold af. Small sample size but potentially relevant

Yeah I'm just purely curious now.

It happening to dude's optic once, ok, whatever. Twice with the same thing assuming what hes seeing/saying are right, thats just fucking weird.

I've used Hensoldt, Leupold and Nightforce optics in less than ideal conditions and at times extreme cold (Hensoldt) where they came with some sort of special grease in them and extreme heat (Leupold/NF) where they did everything from sit in the direct sun with a 115 ambient temp and then go through a cold night in the vehicle, or outside and I never even remotely thought the temperature shift would do anything to them nor did it ever.

Having this happen twice on the same optic is just odd.
 
Yeah I'm just purely curious now.

It happening to dude's optic once, ok, whatever. Twice with the same thing assuming what hes seeing/saying are right, thats just fucking weird.

I've used Hensoldt, Leupold and Nightforce optics in less than ideal conditions and at times extreme cold (Hensoldt) where they came with some sort of special grease in them and extreme heat (Leupold/NF) where they did everything from sit in the direct sun with a 115 ambient temp and then go through a cold night in the vehicle, or outside and I never even remotely thought the temperature shift would do anything to them nor did it ever.

Having this happen twice on the same optic is just odd.
I agree it's odd that some how he managed to get not only one scope with an issue, but two.

Shit happens, but how the manufacturer responds and handles the situation makes a world of difference. Curious to see what comes of this after ZCO looks at it. Regardless I wouldn't let this deter me from following through on my purchase. Should I have any issues with it, I sure as fuck won't air it out here. Unless left with no other choice like that dude and his NX8.

If I notice anything odd caused by temperature swings, I'll let ya know man lol
 
I agree it's odd that some how he managed to get not only one scope with an issue, but two.

Shit happens, but how the manufacturer responds and handles the situation makes a world of difference. Curious to see what comes of this after ZCO looks at it. Regardless I wouldn't let this deter me from following through on my purchase. Should I have any issues with it, I sure as fuck won't air it out here. Unless left with no other choice like that dude and his NX8.

If I notice anything odd caused by temperature swings, I'll let ya know man lol

Like I said, was just curious. We may have found the ONE scope they made that does this.

Or, since I'm not sure anyone uses these deployed and/or in extreme conditions (never know, all sorts of random shit was there) maybe we somehow found out that they dont like temp shifts because no one thought to test that? Or again, its the 1 in a million that does this. Or OP forgot to tell us how he dropped the rifle on the scope 72 times between shots.

More or less just now curious if this is a variable.
 
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Pretty sure OP said the manufacturer didn't replace his scope the first time, they repaired it. So if the (hypothetical) flaw remained present, it might not be so improbable that the failure would recur.
 
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Can anyone answer this?
What are the extra front mounts used for? Red dots/reflex?
Could the extra mount be causing the problem?
Screenshot_20220124-073233_Chrome.jpg


If it's the scope on the far right, has the OP installed one of the extra mounts?
 
Knowledge is power. This is making me reconsider leaving the backup rifle at home.

Though I think something is hinky with the OPs rifle or ak etching fir him to have it happen twice.

Why it’s a faux pau to post failures or a tracking test here is beyond me. On equipment forums I frequent people talk / bitch about failures / successes all the time. IE that machine has 10k hours very little issues/ that one is a pos needs a trans every 2-3k hours
Knowledge is power 100%. But to come to the wrong forum, say my scope broke, provide no detail or photos, and drag it out is just retarded. This thread should've been made after the scope was fixed again, and then saying "ZCO warranty is GTG".

Or if they didn't fix it or gave the run around, air the grievances and then have ZCO come in and give their side of the story. 🤷🏻‍♂️ This was honestly a dumb thread and OP should feel bad.

A few isolated instances won't cause me to worry about it.
 
What you're talking about is informational posts. Where someone lays out their experience with something. People don't want to do that on here anymore bc this place is full of typer snipers. Some know it all will come along and belittle. 308Pirate is the worst. Know one knows better than him.
I think the OP didn't want to deal with the fallout if he came in here saying it was ZCO.
 
It helps get to the root of the problem quicker though. Would you go to a car forum and post "$30k+ car having issues." "Hey guys, I have this warning light on but not going to say which and I don't know what it means. Can someone help me diagnose it?"
 
Haha, I was going to say the same thing. I have had 3 different PMIIs take a heaping steaming dump in me over the years...
I thought a few years ago when I was interacting with the company’s warranty repair technician that it felt nice that there was a name and customer service assigned to the process. Then I came to the hide one day and seen an entire thread praising how awesome the technician was which he was as far as I could tell. But then I was like, there has to be a lot of warranty repairs for something like this to happen. It’s not something you expect from the “gold standard.” Other brands, sure but not the gold standard. I just thought that was odd.
 
So do we know what brand yet or what? Jesus Christ.
You must have not had the patience to make it to post #201

That’s where all this hypothetical shit show really starts to come together

I think……🤨
 
So he paid an extreme price for a used Tasco. Got it.
 
I love my arc rings but for the love of god I wouldn’t torque them to anything above 35 in-lb. As long as your scope doesn’t slip, the minimum amount of torque is the best.
It's been beat to death already, so I won't repeat the obvious, but do you make a habit of ignoring mfg direction or is this a one-off situation?
 
It's been beat to death already, so I won't repeat the obvious, but do you make a habit of ignoring mfg direction or is this a one-off situation?
Unfortunately, this is the one off situation as it makes no sense. If you have followed Ted long enough and have observed his design principles, you may know what I mean. There is pretty good reason why ARC is not much more successful than it is.

From the note you are making, I dont think you are with me tho, so stick with the "mfg direction".
 
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