Ever Had a Scope Failure?

[Stick Man]

Some of my rifles that receive regular use have clean barrels, but I do like the concept of, and to have, backup iron sights. You know, in case your on a serious elk hunt and break you scope miles into the boonies.....or if you break your scope somehow going down those whitewater rapids in a canoe and are then thrust into situation where it's either kill or squeal, like a pig.
Seriously though, it seems like some real insurance without any real disadvantage. For that reason, I've been thinking about putting irons on my other serious use guns. But then I checked reality. I've never had a scope failure, I don't know anybody who's had a scope failure, I don't even remember hearing second hand about someone who's had a scope failure. I have optics of a bit better quality than a VX-1 on anything that will be used for more than a day's walk, too. And it's not like irons are immune to breakage, anyway. The only sights I have seen break, are irons.
I've starting to lean towards the view that they're fine to have if you've already got them, but probably not worth the hassle and cost of getting if you don't, especially with good scopes.

Anyway, for the sake of conversation, has anybody had any catastrophic scope failures? Or even sight failures for that matter. Any stories associated? Or opinions on what I've said above?

 

[Welding Rod]

I have a had an EOTech sight fail completely, and a second fail partially.

I also had a Burris Signature series crack a lens because I failed to lap the scope rings which evidently needed it.

 

[silicosys4]

Yes
I was five miles back on foot, walking a gated road,
Checked my scope and found my crosshairs had rotated into an X and slipped down in the glass noticeably.
No irons and no way to get the scope off its mounts anyways,

So that deer hunt turned into a mushroom hunt.

Scope was a cheap Simmons 2-7x.

 

[stringnut]

I have had a couple of cheap scopes fog. This was 20 plus years ago. Had a Weaver that the parallax was so far off at 200 yards there was still apparent crosshair movement. My brother had the croshairs turn. Don't know how many Bsa, Tasco, Simmons, and other really cheap scopes that I have seen develop wandering zero if the magnification is changed. However, this is over 40 years of shooting. Also , only a few of the issues were mine, the rest happened to others. Some I witnessed, others, I just heard about. Scopes do fail, but, it is quite rare. I have never had a Leupold, Nikon, or Burris fail if that means anything. Having owned less than 100 scopes in my life that is pretty statistically insignificant.

 

[redneck2]

Have used scopes for maybe 50 years, I've had multiple scopes fail. As noted, your odds of failure increase exponentially as price goes down.

Failures include a Simmons .44 Mag scope that cost me a 14 point, 28" spread buck. Also had an old, old VX-III Leupold fail. They replaced it N/C.

I worked at the LGS. We had a pile of Trashco scopes for WAY cheap. About 40% of those failed

I had a Bushnell 4x on my 12 gauge slug gun for years. It was relatively low cost, and never failed. Held up to the recoil of 3" slugs for probably hundreds of rounds.

Scope failure is far less common now than it was maybe 30 years ago.

 

[ford8nr]

I had an eye piece fly off a New Tasco World Class pistol scope on the 5th shot of Heavy .44 mag loads. Replaced free by Tasco - never used on the 44 again.

Had a Leupold Veri-x III fog up on a cold Nov deer hunt. Cost me a big 9ptr when I couldn't get a shot off. Leupold did a complete rebuild free of charge on the 25-30 year old scope!

 

[CB900F]

Fella's;

Yeah, a Burris. Bought two of their scopes & two sets of mounts. One set of mounts is still working correctly. One scope was simply unsatisfactory, the other, never mounted on anything except a .22 rimfire, had the reticle fall over. One set of mounts couldn't hold against recoil. The set of Talley mounts has now done just fine on the same gun & scope with about 100% more rounds through the gun.

Three outta four ain't good. My money goes to other companies these days.

900F

 

[Pete D.]

scope fail

I bought one of Leupold's V-series scopes and mounted it on a model 70 Winchester. Brand new. I took it to the range to sight it in and when I went to take the cap off the windage turret....the turret fell off.
Leupold replaced it directly.
Pete

 

[herkyguy]

My Zeiss Conquest fogged up partially on a cold winter morning. I was in a stand, looking for deer, when a fox crossed the path about 75 yards out on the trail I was sitting on. I had been keeping the rifle close to my chest and the only thing i can figure is that once i rested the rifle and it was in colder air, it momentarily partially fogged up on the outside of the lens. I could still see the blur of the fox, but didn't take the shot. As the fox crossed back into the brush, the scope cleared.

not exactly a "failure" but still was a bit of a disappointment.

 

[bearcreek]

My Zeiss Conquest fogged up partially on a cold winter morning. I was in a stand, looking for deer, when a fox crossed the path about 75 yards out on the trail I was sitting on. I had been keeping the rifle close to my chest and the only thing i can figure is that once i rested the rifle and it was in colder air, it momentarily partially fogged up on the outside of the lens. I could still see the blur of the fox, but didn't take the shot. As the fox crossed back into the brush, the scope cleared.

not exactly a "failure" but still was a bit of a disappointment.

Is it even possible for a glass or metal object like that to not fog up in that situation?

 

[entropy]

Had a scope and mount that someone had JB welded to a Mosin Nagant come off under recoil. Gave me a nice 'scope eye." Had to laugh about it though, it solved how we were going to get the mount off....

 

[Axis II]

I had a bushnell shotgun scope for a few years and sighted it in the week before gun season and it stayed in the case the next 5 days until I was ready to hunt. I shot at a deer and missed, then wounded it and finally put it down. I didn't think anything of it and when I went to put the gun back in my backpack I have that carries the gun I noticed the scopes glass was about to fall out of the eye piece. I called and emailed bushnell and didn't get a response until over a month later. they said I pay shipping and also put a money order in for shipping back to me but they are basically telling me its my fault. after that never owned a bushnell again.

 

[redneck2]

Is it even possible for a glass or metal object like that to not fog up in that situation?

cabelas sells a cleaner that is also anti-fog. Comes in a small round orange container

In the above case, I suspect he breathed on the glass when he pulled it up

 

[H&Hhunter]

I've had multiple scope failures over the years. Back in the days when I was young and trying to save money with cheap scopes I had several fogging issues and several crosshairs break. I've had more than one leuopld go gunny sack internally, something to do with an erector spring. And to no fault of the scope I've cracked a few scope lenses over the years due to tumbling down mountains, horse rolling over on them etc etc. Most recently I had a Zeiss HD 5 go titts up after the first round fired on a .375H&H. Fired the shot and the scope went blurry. It was dead, Ziess sent me a new one no questions asked. Don't kid yourself, scopes fail. Even good scopes.

 

[natman]

I've never had a scope failure, I don't know anybody who's had a scope failure, I don't even remember hearing second hand about someone who's had a scope failure.

Let me fix that. I had a Simmons on my hunting rifle back when budgets were tight. I sighted it in after arriving in Colorado for an elk hunt and it was spot on. Back home after the hunt (alas, no shooting during the hunt) I took it for a practice session and it sprayed shots all over the paper. At some point during the hunt / return flight the scope had given up holding a zero. That opened my eyes. You put way too much time, effort and money into a hunt to have it ruined by a malfunctioning scope.

I still have some cheap scopes - on my range toys. My hunting rifles wear Leupold VX-2 or better.

 

[Acera]

Yes, EOTech broke after 1st string at a carbine class, finished the class with irons. Plus two other times when batteries leaked, but EOTech quickly send replacement parts. I don't keep batteries in them anymore.

Years ago had a regular scope break a cross hair.

The red dot I had on my Buckmark pistol just took a dump and will not work properly. That pistol is back to being iron sight only now.

 

[wally]

I had a first generation Leaper's 3-9X fail. It had been on several different rifles over the years, it was decent and significantly smaller than most. Most of my shooting was at 3X and I used 9X when shooting off sandbags for sighting in.

It was on a 5.45x39 AK which shot a lot of rounds (the corrosive surplus was like $120/1200 rounds). When I opened up a new case that was Romanian instead of Russian (or vice-versa) I decided to test POA/POI with the new lot of ammo and that is when I discovered the zoom had broken. Was fine at 3X but got blurry as soon as I turned the zoom ring.

So in reality only a partial failure as I've no idea of how many rounds fired between the time it actually broke and the next time I used the zoom and discovered the problem.


I also had a cross-hair break on a cheap 4X scope that came with my Sears/Savage .22lr after I put it on an air rifle -- before I learned the "reverse" recoil of spring piston air guns eats up normal scopes.


External fogging will happen, scope, camera, windshield, whatever, whenever the right humidity and temperature difference conditions occur. Anti-fog solutions and wiping can help, but temperature equalization is the only real cure which will happen automatically, eventually.

Internal fogging is a failure of the seals, any decent scope is filled with "dry nitrogen" to prevent internal fogging.

Here in Houston external fogging happens all the time when you go from inside air-conditioned comfort to outside -- I keep my sun glasses in the car or out on the patio so they don't fog when I go outside and need them.

 

[HankB]

Some years back I was a member of a gun club that opened its range to the public a couple of weeks before deer season - when working as a range safety officer, I got to see a lot of rifles and scopes pass through the range - hundreds each weekend.

I remember two Leupolds failed; in one case, it was an AO model on some sort of magnum; the guy was shooting from under the rail in front of the firing line, and recoil drove the scope upward into the bottom of the rail; the AO portion broke from the impact and was cocked downward about 10 degrees.

The second Leupold was a 2x pistol scope which had the internals rattling around loose inside; don't know exactly what the story was there.

Many, many cheap scopes (most notably Tasco) broke crosshairs, adjustments, the zoom ring, had wandering zero, or fogged up inside.

I don't recall seeing a broken Zeiss, Burris, Redfield, Weaver, Schmidt & Bender, Swarovski, or Nightforce, but the population of these going through the range was rather small - in some cases, downright tiny.

(As an aside - seeing a lot of guns as well as 'scopes go through the range, I saw which guns tended to malfunction a lot, too. Which is why I'll never buy a Remington 7-series autoloader.)

As for myself, I own a number of Leupold pistol and rifle scopes, and so far have not had any problems with them whatsoever. Also own a Bushnell which has been perfect, but seeing as its only mounted on a .22 rimfire it's hardly being stressed much.

 

[Casefull]

Never had a Leupold fail. Lots of problems with other brands.

 

[Holescreek]

I've had to return two Vortex Crossfire 2's for failure to hold zero after being shot mounted on 7.62x54r rifles. They rattle loose and Vortex keeps sending a new replacement.

 

[Charles S]

I have had a Simmons (at the time I thought a great scope) fail on a Encore 300 Winchester Magnum. I put a Nikon Monarch on it and is has never failed. I have also had an Eotech fail - have a wandering zero when hot. Do not store your AR with an Eotech in your truck in the Texas summer.

I only have one rifle with backup sights. I generally carry a backup rifle on a paid hunt, but then again I have never flown to a hunting area.

 

[taliv]

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

 

[thebaldguy]

I have had a China made 4x cheap scope fail. It worked pretty good for a while. For some reason, after a few years or so, the crosshairs would rotate! The scope held a zero, but the crosshairs would be messed up. I did not have iron sights on the rifle, so a new scope was needed.

 

[newfalguy101]

Cracked a lens on a fixed 4X handgun scope, apparently on the last round I fired while zeroing, because it wasn't broke while I was zeroing the gun and was when I pulled down on a Whitetail a couple weeks later.

 

[Elkins45]

I've never had a scope I paid >$100 for give me any problems, but I have had a handful of Simmons, Bushnell and BSA low-end scopes suffer various fatal breakages.