Have a Z6 1x6 that was mounted on my 400 H&H. It decided to fail a month before my trip to Zim this August. Send it to Swaro repair and it returned in under 4 weeks. The whole process was simple and prompt.

A near thing, for all that. The problem with the generous, modern warranties is they distract us from the central question: why did a new scope of such a price fail at all?

sambarman338 could not agree more.....
The scope in question probably had close to 500 rounds under it's rings... Why did it fail? Some say it is not IF but WHEN with a scope on a big bore. Friend who shoots lots and lots of Big Bores has had pretty much every scope manufacturer fail on him at one time or another.

I guess everything wears out eventually under hard use but I see the problem as being the articulated erector set now used to make the reticle appear centred.

Until 1957 in America and the mid-'70s in Europe, erector sets were fixed and reticles were either fixed (B&L et al ) or in a smallish washer with little mass, which could be held solidly by a strong spring against the turret screw(s). In the case of a B. Nickel scope I dismantled, this washer could not move 'forward' under recoil because it sat behind a sleeve firmly fixed in the scope body.

In modern scopes the whole erector set is pushed around at the front end by the turret screws against one or more flat or coil spring(s) and 'hinged' at the rear, often by some form of gimbal. The trouble is that with heavy recoil, this system comes under immense strain. Because the mass of the erector tube is many times that of the old reticle washer, recoil inertia pulls forward on the Gimbal and slams the tube down against the body of the scope. As the shooter's shoulder stops the rifle's travel, the tube slams back against the elevation screw and scrapes against the windage one.

Over time this action can wreck the springs, wear the body of the erector tube and cause it to move longitudinally, causing parallax.

Swarovsky claims their four helical springs in the Z5 and Z6 should cope with recoil problems but another AR contributor reckons there is only one scope made recently that can be trusted - and it was made in the USA. According to him, your 500 shots on a rifle of that calibre would take you into territory where you might expect trouble. Research at Leupold apparently suggests rifles of long, heavy recoil are the ones that really give trouble, rather than those with high but quick recoil. Depending on the weight of your rifle, the 400 H&H could fit into the troublesome category.

I have test a lot of scopes on big bores, and read a lot of studies on such..The only scope I havn't seen fail is the Leupold compact 2.5X..that's on the real big bores. Some fail sooner than others but most will fail at less than 250 rounds. Scope failure was not a problem on any of the 400 calibers, but only on the 458 Lott and up.. Your scope should not fail on your 400 caliber..

Most of the "good reports" you read or hear about with the big bores, are based on guns that mostly remain in the gun cabinet because they recoil so bad that they seldom get shot 250 to 500 times.

My conclusion for myself is to use iron (peep sights are great) on the really big gun calibersm 458 lOTT AND UP and since they are designed for shooting under 150 to 200 yards, irons work just fine and irons seldom if ever change their zero..

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
... My conclusion for myself is to use iron (peep sights are great) on the really big gun calibersm 458 lOTT AND UP and since they are designed for shooting under 150 to 200 yards, irons work just fine and irons seldom if ever change their zero..

Yes, I like big-hole peep sights (sans disc) and think that if the stock fits they can work just to confirm your head is in the right place. I think they are just as quick as tangent express sights and less likely to shoot high when you're in a hurry.

However, make sure the peep sight you get is sturdy and mounted on top. Leave the side-mounted, cross-arm type for the target shooters - they are less likely to bend the damned things.