How long to let your gun set before rechecking zero?

[Captains1911]

I guess I should add that with me not worrying much about checking zero anymore is becaus

So I guess if a person has cheap stuff they would need to check more often but I'd venture to say most of todays more basic scopes are made to the quality of a 1970s Leupold.

So that said, for fun and nostalgia this past fall I drug out some old guns that had not been fired in decades. One was my first centerfire rifle, an old M77 25-06 heavy barrel with it's Leupold M8 10x that I had not shot since the mid 1980s or so. Loaded up some rounds with some old stock Speer 100 gr spitzers and some old metal can 4350 from the day and guess what. That gun centered it's groups around an 1 1/2 high at 100 yards just like I always had it zeroed when I packed it for probably miles over my shoulder as a teenager. It has it's original wood stock but it has been pillar bedded and floated but after all that time and me living in three different houses that gun was still minute of groundhog with the same bullets and powder as it was nearly 40 years ago. So my experience once again does not support your claim of the mechanism within a scope just magically shifting the crosshairs.

That’s an example of one rifle. Do you think I’m suggesting this is the norm, because I’m not. I’m only suggesting it’s possible.

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

That’s an example of one rifle. Do you think I’m suggesting this is the norm, because I’m not. I’m only suggesting it’s possible.

I don't disagree and I'll admit not many people can say they still have access to the same ammo components as they would have had that long ago so there is not a way to do a wide test on it. I just happen to have went for a period of many years doing very little shooting sports and picked up again years later where I left off so as a result I have decades old components and load data for a handful of rifles that have not changed or been out of their stocks which did make for an interesting outcome that this thread just happened to hit upon. That's what has left me of the opinion a good and proven setup without any changes doesn't change zero from just sitting in a safe.

 

[Bazoo]

I appreciate the discussion here. Interesting replies for sure. I’m surprised at the number of votes for any length of time.