Ever Had a Scope Failure?

[EIB0879]

Never in 43 years had a scope failure.

 

[MIL-DOT]

Yeah, one comes to mind. Several years back I had a Beeman R9 Goldfinger (springer pellet rifle). The "Goldfinger" designation merely meant it had a gold colored trigger, and came with a Bushnell Banner scope mounted (yeah, big whoop ).
Within a month of getting the rifle, I found that the magnification adjustment wouldn't move at all. I ended up contacting Bushnell, who had me send it in, then they later told me they could replace it, or I could pay a very reasonable amount of money to upgrade to one of their considerably nicer scopes from their "Elite" series.
This worked for me, since the Banner is basically their wal-mart junk scope, and I paid another $160 and got a Bushnell Elite 3200 5-15x Tactical , with Mil-dot reticle and target knobs.
Win-win, IMO, and me and Bushnell stayed freinds. Believe it or not, I later traded that air rifle and scope on a very decent AR15 !!

 

[Pablito1]

I have had a Vortex Viper 6.5X20 elevation adjustment fail 2 times. For sure Vortex repaired the scope without question but now I am afraid to use scope due to the past record.

Regards Pablo

 

[Sheepdog1968]

only optics i've owned that have NOT failed are aimpoint and trijicon. i'm not saying they don't fail...just that i have owned 3 t1 micros and a comp4, and 3 RMR and an acog for years and never had a bit of grief out of any of them.

personally, i don't run backups on carbines. just optics.
i have RMRs that cowitness with pistol sites on my pistols and i practice with both
I don't run irons on my long range guns because they're not really capable of backing me up. i do occasionally keep a spare optic, but it takes tools to swap, and then needs to be zeroed

Have you tried shooting at say 25 yards with the red dot off just to see how well you can do (sort of simulates a failure)? I suspect for center mass shots it would be ok. Just curious.

 

[Sav .250]

Certainly doesn`t happen often but it does . Have had (1) .

Nothing is infallible.

 

[taliv]

Yes and also with the light on but with the front lens covered which you can still use like an occluded eye scope

 

[jaowens76]

I was helping a buddy zero his rifle a month or so before deer season and his Redfield reticle shifted so that it went from 1-7 vertically rather than 12-6. And the center was bouncing spring like. IIRC he was shooting an '06 so nothing crazy recoil wise.

 

[gwpercle]

My scoped rifle was run over in the deer camp by a kid on a 4 wheeler. Soft cased rifle was lying on the ground while we put up tent. He ran right over it ... bent the scope tube but didn't hurt the rifle (soft ground). Removed scope , used open sights...Happy Ending!

Things other than simple failure can happen, a slip or fall can render them useless, some kid can run over it....you never know.
All of my rifles have iron sights...just in case !
Gary

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Back in the 70's I bought 5 Redfields and every single one went back to Redfield in Denver at least once. One went back 3 times. The problem was they would not hold zero. I never could trust them after that.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Back in the 70's I bought 5 Redfields and every single one went back to Redfield in Denver at least once. One went back 3 times. The problem was they would not hold zero. I never could trust them after that.

Me too. I had several of that era Redfields go T.U. On me back on the 80's.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

Yes and also with the light on but with the front lens covered which you can still use like an occluded eye scope

How well did it work under those conditions?

 

[taliv]

you're not going to win any benchrest matches that way, but it works better than most would expect. caveat: your eyes have to be normal. i.e. both working, normal dominance

the late Pat Rogers used to have everyone in his carbine classes do this; shoot a drill or two with masking tape over the objective lens of whatever optic you were using


edit: if it's not clear what i'm talking about, just take a red dot, put your hand over the front, so you can see the dot but nothing behind it. keep both eyes open and focus on your target. your brain will overlay the two images and you will see the dot superimposed on the target when your sight is aligned. you can try it indoors without a rifle. then confirm the bullet goes where you expect on your next trip to the range

 

[tarosean]

yep.. Ive broken at least one with a tumble down a mountain side (shattered lens). One that was crushed between a horse and tree (snapped at turrets) and two that wouldnt hold zero (Vortex Viper and SPI). Course that covers around 40years.

 

[FL-NC]

As a sniper in the military, our rifles (M24) had the ability to mount a redfield Palma peep sight. They were included with the system for marksmanship training as well as an optional backup, but couldn't be mounted while the scope was on the rifle. Not to mention, a sniper without the capability of his optic is much less effective- iron sights or not. As newer scopes were issued over time (upgrades) many of us (me included) would carry the older/spare scope in our ruck (padded and protected) in the event of accidental breakage of the primary. Of course, our mounts were very well made, and we were issued small torque wrenches to insure minimal deviation if a scope was dismounted then re-mounted. So, maybe obtain a cheaper (but not junk) backup scope and rings? Just food for thought.

 

[taliv]

that's a good idea FL-NC and pretty much the only workable solution if requirements include precision shooting imho. several PRS competitors have a backup scope. i know of two instances where they were used.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

you're not going to win any benchrest matches that way, but it works better than most would expect. caveat: your eyes have to be normal. i.e. both working, normal dominance

the late Pat Rogers used to have everyone in his carbine classes do this; shoot a drill or two with masking tape over the objective lens of whatever optic you were using


edit: if it's not clear what i'm talking about, just take a red dot, put your hand over the front, so you can see the dot but nothing behind it. keep both eyes open and focus on your target. your brain will overlay the two images and you will see the dot superimposed on the target when your sight is aligned. you can try it indoors without a rifle. then confirm the bullet goes where you expect on your next trip to the range

Thanks. My concern was it dying in the middle of a self defense situation. Sounds like it would be good enough for civilian applications in that event.

 

[CraigC]

I've had several fail, mostly cheap scopes. I've seen:

Wildly shifting POI (twice).

Loose objective lens.

Broken reticle.

Uneven focus.

Fisheye to the point of uselessness.

Canted reticle (Burris).

Red dot that quit (Vortex).