Have you ever broken a good modern scope?

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Good being defined as at least US$300, and made in the 2000s or later?

I've read stories here and there of people dropping rifles and the scopes losing zero, but they never say whether it was a good scope to begin with. I'm wondering if people have dropped a rifle with a "good modern scope" and the scope was functioning perfectly fine.

Thanks.
 
Well, at an into shooting day I had the XCR-M and Serbu .50bmg out for the finish of the day. My mother was behind the XCR, when the .50 went off beside here, and it caught her off guard, and the rifle slipped out of her hands and landed upside down on concrete directly on the scope. (Vortex razor HD.) Nice heavy rifle, dropped from shoulder height onto concrete onto the scope? I thought it was a goner...

Turret caps were messed up and the batter cover got scratched when I took the cover off since it was dented in. Glass was perfect, turrets still clicked perfectly, magnification settings were all fine, rifle still zeroed, etc.

Sent an email off to vortex asking how much it would be to buy the replacement parts, and sent pics and the story, they responded no worries, we just put them in the mail, no charge! Great bunch of guys over at Vortex, they really stand behind their product!

Before the drop...





 
I had a vortex viper that worked fine for the first 50 rounds on my M14, then decided that the reticle belonged somewhere where all I hit was dirt about 2 lanes over. It cost me somewhere around $300 and vortex sent me a brand new one free of charge.
 
I know a couple guys that got a little too over zealous when tightening their ring screws and crushed the tube so badly that the turrets/reticle would not track at all and the side focus would not adjust for parallax at all, rendered the scope totally useless. After releasing the pressure and re-torquing to proper specs, the scope worked just fine.
 
I took a good spill down a ravine years back that road rashed the crap out of my VX1 4-12x40 and flattened the side of the objective bell. It held zero.
Years later when I mounted it on a Sako .270 and bore sighted it, the knobs ended up on the 0's.
It looks like a dud from all the abuse but the optics are flawless.
On the other hand...
I jiggled a 3200 with a 7mm...
 
No. Last scope I broke was a Bushnell Scopechief - made in Japan in mid-80's. I had two of them - both were about $300 in the day. I put one on a .416 RM and it was dead after ~100 rounds or so. Something fell apart inside and you could hear the chunks moving around.
 
I suppose that depends on how you define "good". I've broken nearly every Bushnell and B&L I ever owned and used on a centerfire, with the exception of the new replacement scopes that got sold before they were mounted. Some took some killing but they eventually died. Others didn't last a day. A few got fired before they could quit, during "The Purge". Changing out the whole fleet was traumatic; I won't wish that on anyone.
 
Dogleg said:
I suppose that depends on how you define "good". I've broken nearly every Bushnell and B&L I ever owned and used on a centerfire, with the exception of the new replacement scopes that got sold before they were mounted. Some took some killing but they eventually died. Others didn't last a day. A few got fired before they could quit, during "The Purge". Changing out the whole fleet was traumatic; I won't wish that on anyone.
Click to expand...

What models were your Bushnells? I find that hard to believe that you broke all your scopes - what on earth did you do?
 
Had a problem with a windriver spotting scope from leupold. When you turned the zoom it would rattle around inside and be all fuzzy. One call to them and I had a new one within 2 weeks.

My friend has a Leupold mk4 on his ar-10 and you would have to take a shot after a turret adjustment to get the scope to register it. Was a funky problem like something inside was sticking. In the end Leupold replaced it with a bit of fuss, but the scope had not a mark on it. Great scope otherwise.

I've always bought pricier glass and I've never had issues that were not either solved through warranty or retorquing :)
 
I personally witnessed a Trijocon ACOG die last weekend from another member on this site. It was mounted on a .308 and after a few rounds the fiberoptic illumination just cut out. Weird. I am sure the warrenty will cover it.
 
Dogleg said:
I mounted them on rifles and shot them.
Click to expand...

So you owned at least 4 Bushnell Elites and broke them doing regular shooting, something no-one I have EVER heard of achieving, and something that your non-Bushnells never have done?

I'm sorry I don't believe you. Just Google Bushnell Elite reviews, and the ratings are almost perfect. My experience with ANY product is that if there is a problem, then it is revealed in user ratings. You cannot possibly have broken 4 Elites just from normal use. There's something else you're not telling us.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/bushnell_4200_3-9x40.htm

12 reviews here, near perfect on all:
http://www.opticsplanet.com/reviews...ite-argon-purged-rainguard-hd-riflescope.html

Compare with this scope - which matches what you're describing:
http://www.opticsplanet.com/reviews/reviews-barska-swat-10-40x50ir-tactical-rifle-scope.html

Ratings of all Bushnell Scopes:
http://www.opticsplanet.com/reviews/reviews-bushnell-riflescopes.html

compared with a bad brand:
http://www.opticsplanet.com/reviews/reviews-barska-rifle-scopes-rating-low-to-hight-2.html
 
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