Told this story on another forum and had quite a few of their members calling me on it. Not a FOAF (friend-of-a-friend) tale, this happened to someone in my group.
My buddy purchased a used Sauer rifle with QD claw mounts, he goes out and buys a brand-new Leupold Vari X-III 3.5X10 and gets it all sighted in. During the moose hunt in Northern Ontario, he manages to drop the scope and ring combination in the middle of a swath of tag alders and bushes, interspersed with potholes. All six of us in the group searched for 4 hours for it, to no avail...
Fast-forward one year later, buddy just can't give up! Armed with a $60 metal detector, it took him 10 minutes to find the scope in a pothole, only about 3 inches deep! After spending a full year in the pothole, the scope had suffered no damage whatsoever. The rings lost all their blueing and are now in the white. After a test-run at the range, the scope was promptly placed on the original rifle and used this year to harvest another moose.
Buddy wrote a letter to Leupold expaining everything that had happened and thanking them for a great product. The company sent him back a standard e-mail advertising their newest products...