Here's a story of a real inexperienced pilgrim, me, on his first hunt with a center fire rifle, about 1969.

I bought a Model 99 Savage in 300 Savage, it was sporting an old Weaver K-V scope upon it.

My Old Uncle Hans, was the owner of a brine shrimp buisness on Mono Lake California, which sports 2 islands Neget and Pahoa. Neget is very volcanic and dosen't support any life. Pahoa on the other hand, has water and grass to support some grassing animals. It seems sometime in the distant past Kit Carson's daughter decided to put some Spanish Goats upon Pahoa Island, and turn it into kind a farm. Well the idea went south and the goats became wild, with very long and nicely shaped horns. It was decided then, that we should go out and shoot us one of those nice rams. Man was I excited!! Hans, a very experienced shooter said to me,"you did sight that thing in right". I said yes I had shot it at a barrel out in the desert, (some sight in) that's where the pilgrim comes in. Did you hit it he says, yes.

We approached the island by boat, climbed up over a bluff, and there below us in a little valley, was the largest set of horns I had ever seen. We were undetected!. I laid my hat over a Tuffa Tower, acquired the Ram in my scope, and let her fly. Nothing, load and fire again. Now, the scope was very cloudy and I was having a difficult time seeing anything thru it, fired again, next thing you could hear the lenses ratteling around in the tube. I managed to kill a goat, by looking down the side of the rifle, must have fired 20 rounds, and Hans was shooting at them with a S&W Model 29. He may have made the hit, but didn.t want to take credit for it. That's my scope failure story.

Whats yours!!

Jerry

quote:

Whats yours!!

After more than 35 years useing nothing but Leupolds I've never had a failure. BTW I still have my first Leupolds that I bought in 1970 (a 2x7 Vari X II & a M8 4x) in use.

Had a VXIII 2.5x8 on my wife's rifle. After she shot her Oryx in Namiba she slipped on a rock and the rifle side from her shoulder hitting the scope on another rock.

We back to check the scope and it would no longer hold zero. Lucky she had finished hunting. Leupold did fix it. But she had lost faith in it so we sold it.

If you hunt long enough you will have scope failures over the years, I have had Weavers fog quite often and they didn't seem to handle the Idaho cold well...The new ones seem to be fine.

I have had Leupolds fail, but they are still my choice of a scope for all big game hunting..Leupolds guarentee cannot be beat, end of that story..I broke a 2x7 in half on a rock when my horse rolled off the side of a mountain. I sent it back and told them it was of no fault of theirs but could it be fixed with a new scope body..They sent me a new one in less that 10 days...I had a hunter get excited and twisted the adjustment pass 9X on a scope and that ruined it for sure, they fixed it and last but not least I sent a pair of binocs that got twisted by an excited hunted and they sent them back fixed and two weeks later they sent me a new pair, I called them and they said "keep them" as a gift from Leupold it would only mess up our books! I ruined a couple of Leupolds and a bunch of other makes on the 458 Lott I had, only Leupold made them good and after I sent them the same scope back with explanation, they kept it and sent me a new 2.5 compact and I couldn't torture it enough to break it no matter how much I shot that gun. The only thing is they kept my 3X!! dammit..

How can you beat that...all scopes break, they are optics, and they only break at the worse time, of that I am sure!

10X Super Sniper- need I say more?

OK, punishment gluttony, Super Sniper 16X.

Leupolds thereafter, and smallish ones at that.

Luckily, My scope failure was not a hunt failure. My first centerfire rifle was an Interarms MarkX in 308 win, still got it. When it was handed down to me, it had a 4X scope that I think was a package scope with it because it said Mark X on the side. My uncle, who gave it to me, said it was on and I believed him, so I took it hunting that same day without shooting it. That evening I took a nice doe. It took two shots as the deer was scooting on her nose with her back legs after I broke both front shoulders with the first. Later that evening I felt quite a bit of itching in my right eye. I went and looked in the mirror at what it was and it looked like glitter. I had little pieces of glass from the front lens all around/in my eye. I checked the scope and the lens was about to fall out of the eyepiece. I put a weaver V9 on that rifle and it has been good ever since. Wow, That was 20 years ago.

Luckily, I've never had a scope failure - YET!!
Knock on wood. As far as I'm concerned though, all of these stories are good reasons to have a set of open sights on your rifle. I even had this done to the last rifle I bought- my Win. Extreme Weather, .270 WSM. I think manufacturers should automatically put 'em on even if it kicks the price up a bit. I realize that most hunting occurs over a short time frame - weekends? But the way we hunt here in Ak., we're gone for longer periods of time, maybe 3 weeks or so. A sheep hunt charter is expensive in & of itself & if something happens to your scope, you'd really be S.O.L. without a set of open sights.
Ok, rant off.
Bear in Fairbanks

Years ago the front ring on Weaver scopes were metal, then they switched to plastic. I had a Weaver scope protector and when I removed it, it broke the plastic ring and the scope fogged. I sent the scope to Weaver (This was when they were still in El Paso) with the protector in place so they could see what broke it. They sent me a cost of repairs. I sent letter why should I be charged when THEIR "protector" wrecked the scope. After lengthy wait, I finally sent check. By coincident the day the postman picked up the check he also returned my repaired scope. The check was never returned to me and they cashed it. The horror stories I could tell you about Bushnell--let's just say NEVER AGAIN any Bushnell. I now buy Leupold and have been pleased.

When I went sheep hunting in Alaska, I sighted in two scopes, on the same rifle.. kept one in a protective tube in my duffle.. never needed it but made me feel warm all under....

I had one Bushnell on my varmint rifle that will not hold zero, but I bought it refurbed, so I can't really complain. They will still fix it free. The other was not really a scope failure, this year I wounded and never found a deer I shot because the scope mount came loose. My bad for not checking it, but it had been fine for 15 years.

larrys--Bushnell will fix it free? Maybe a new deal but a few years ago they charged $12 or $15 and they did not seem to have the ability to fix them. One came back still needing repair. Made more than one trip back to them before I gave up on them. This was after going through a highly recommended customer service rep and getting "top of the line" service.

I guess I am one of the lucky folks.

Have hunted with Bushnells, Weavers, B&Ls, Optolyths, Unertls, Malcolms, Feckers, Lymans, Leupolds, the old 1930-era Zeiss, and probably half a dozen other makes of scopes...even Tasco. Never, ever, had the slightest failure with any of them on a hunt...no fogging, no reticule problems, no failure to hold zero, nada.

Did have a Weaver objective lens housing bend down toward the barrel when it fell onto a concrete range firing line with a 13+ lb. BR rifle mounted to it...but I fired two sighters, cranked the elevation about 20 MOA to compensate, and still won the match. So I never bothered to send it for repairs...still have it, matter of fact.

I received a rifle in the mail a couple of years ago, and the Leupold 1.75-6 Vari-X III had a bent tube and the verticle cross hair separated where the hair transitioned from coarse to fine. I called Leupold and asked them if they could repair the scope. I was asked to get the serial #, which I did. When I told the guy the hair was broken during shipment as well as the tube being bent, he told me "That cross hair should never break under any conditions. Period."

I got their shipping address and offered to put a credit card number in with the scope. The guy told me they would call me if they found something they needed to charge me for. Two weeks to the day that I shipped it out it was returned with a note that it had been restored to factory new, with the same Leupold guarantee it had the day it was purchased new.

I pretty much buy Leupolds only, but I have had Burris take incredible care of me on one occasion as well. But that story is for another time...

I had a union Dominium scope and a Leupold fail the latter was replaced by the maker.

The Union Dominiun was a pile from the start and the Leupold was my fault and they made it good.


I also toured the factory in Beaverton one time and that was impressive to say the least.


For me Ill buy and keep on buying my Leupolds...



Cal30

Never quite had a failure on a hunt but got close.
While getting ready for elk season about 4 years ago I had been shooting a 9.3x62 for awhile with a 3-9 Nikon Monarch on it.
I really ran it through its paces that summer and fall probably shooting 300 + rounds through it. The rifle is real light weight and kicks like a mule and 2 nights before I leave to elk hunt the scope is suddenly off and adjustments are shot!
Luckily I had a Leupold on the bench swapped it out and was hunting on time.
The Nikon was somewhat of a nightmare to get service compared to Leupolds so I sold it when it came home.
The Leupold factory has treated me exceptionnaly well even when it was 100% my fault. I can't buy anything else and have that peace of mind.

I don't remember what type of scope it was, but it worked for one of the three shots. I was in early teens and hunting with my dad. I shot at a doe and missed clean. Bolted another after she ran about 50 feet and stopped. Second shot dropped her in her tracks. I got mine so now it was dad's turn. Some time later a 6pt came out. (JUST MY LUCK) Don't know where dad hit it, but we tracked it for about 3 hours and never found it. When we put it on paper, every third shot was bullseye. The rest grouped a foot left.

The only scope problem I've ever had happened just after a hunt. I came home and set my rifle down only to have it fall over knocking over a pellet gun, which the rifle landed on top up. It bent the scope housing near the magnification dial. The scope was an old Tasco, so I didn't lose much. Started buying Nikon scopes since then and haven't had any problems.

I took a fairly nasty spill 2 years ago while elk hunting landing on top of my rifle. I put some scares in both the Nikon scope and rifle, with one of the gashes in the scope being about 3/8th of an inch long and about a 1/4 inch wide. Took the rifle to the range the next day and it was still spot on.

I had a Tasco fail to hold zero on a PD hunt last Tasco I brought.

I had a 2 4.5x24 burris fail to hold zero on PD hunts. I have had old weavers fog up on me.

My son dropped a Marlin 336 and bent the cheap simmons 3x9

I buy Leupolds now.

I my years of hunting I have never experienced a scope failure while hunting or on the range.
I had the reticle on a caliber .22 air rifle break while plinking once.

I have experienced that the mounts have failed 2 times while hunting.
I also once experienced that the wood stock crack while hunting.

I was in a bear camp in northern Alberta with several other hunters. Everybody gathered on the first afternoon to check their rifle sights. One guy had a nice Browning BAR with a Simmons scope (now why would someone spend that kind of money on a rifle and put a cheap Asian scope on it?) When he fired his first round, the entire objective bell fell off of the scope -- over 100 miles from the nearest place that might even accidentally have a hardware store with a scope of any kind on the shelf. Fortunately, he was primarily a bow hunter and simply concentrated on arrowing a bear.

My son and I both carried Leupolds, as always. Leupold's advertising hype has gotten to be knee-deep and full of floating turds over the last few years and trys to sell neophytes on features that are meaningless. Too bad they've gotten away from simply representing their scopes for what they are -- the world's best optical gunsights for hunting.

I've never had a scope fail on me. The only scope I have ever seen fail was my fathers Leupold Vari-X III. While sighting in our rifles in from the rest in the back of the bakkie in Namibia, he accidentley dropped his 300 Wthby. It first hit the foot rest and then fell into the bed. Funny thing was, we shot it once to see what if anything had happend and it was still on. A few of misses later, we checked it again and it wouldnt hold zero.

Leupold made it good as new in less than two weeks though!!

Old Redfields.
One broke a crosshair, sent it to Redfield, they replaced it. Next year the replacement fogged up. Sent it back again, they replaced it, and it got traded for a Leupold.

I had a BSA mounted on a 7mm STW. At the 500 round mark the innards came loose and the focus would shift every time I pulled the trigger. But it still held a zero. Good thing I only needed one shot that year. That scope now sits in the junk heap, and it's been replaced with a Leupold.

I had a Zeiss Diavari 1.25x4 long tube 1 inch diameter on a 308. I went to take a shot at a deer and could only see half a circle with the reticle cocked. Fortunately I had a spare rifle so other than a lost opportunity no problem. I called Zeiss and they said return it. Next day I received overnight a complimentary scope to use till mine was repaired. Very impressed with Zeiss customer service. I have a Swarovski on its way back to me now. It started to get very stiff to focus and change magnification. I hunted with it on 6 power so no damage done.

quote:

Originally posted by D Humbarger:
After more than 35 years useing nothing but Leupolds I've never had a failure. BTW I still have my first Leupolds that I bought in 1970 (a 2x7 Vari X II & a a M8 4x in use.

Ditto, except for the 2x7. Interesting similarity.

KB

Just thouht I'd chuck this comment in for whatever it may mean regards scopes.

I have about a dozen or two Leupolds currently on hunting rifles. All work just fine. Funny thing is that I've NEVER bought a new Leupold hunting scope for a rifle (did buy a new one for a pistol). Got all of mine in used condition, from various previous owners. That speaks well of them.

(BTW, one of my favorite scope things is to buy a used Leupold, then send it to the factory immediately for their free updating, cleaning, and any needed repairs. Afterward they seem to work forever and I pay less money in the process.)

Even funnier is that I have at least a dozen or two Weavers currently on hunting rifles too. And, I've never bought a new Weaver hunting scope either...have bought quite a few of their 36X BR scopes new, but no hunting scopes. All of my Weaver hunting scopes still work well too.

Some of my favourite hunting scopes were originally owned by the U.S. Army, where they were used for the hunting of men...mainly 2-legged North Korean varmints when I first began to use them. They are....the old Lyman All-Weather Alaskan 2-1/2X with a 7/8" tube, a built in sliding sun-shade, and plain post (no crosshair) reticule which, IIRC, was called the M-84 by the Army at the time.


To me , the major significance of all this isn't the level of warranty repair available, or the preminence of any one brand, but the fact that for hunting purposes, in America we have long been able to buy good, dependable, optics at affordable prices.

I number of years ago I was hunting with family friends. They had their father's Rem 742 which I remember shooting as a kid. I asked to take out to the field when I went hunting. Once out, I brought the rifle up to my shoulder to practice shouldering. That's when I noticed a C-clip in my field of view....I guess some innards had shaken loose. Luckily nothing walked in front of me that day. Oh - it was an antiquated Redfield.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Leupold's advertising hype has gotten to be knee-deep and full of floating turds over the last few years and trys to sell neophytes on features that are meaningless. Too bad they've gotten away from simply representing their scopes for what they are -- the world's best optical gunsights for hunting.

I couldn't agree more. They are marketing their products like...well, like just about every other optics manufacturer...as if the scopes are to be used for in-depth, hours-long observation of distant hummingbirds.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
I have about a dozen or two Leupolds currently on hunting rifles. All work just fine. Funny thing is that I've NEVER bought a new Leupold hunting scope for a rifle.

That's interesting.

I have bought several used Leupolds, and some were darn near trash when recieved, not as disclosed by seller, however Leupold fixed them.

Most of my Leupolds were purchased new, when they went on sale, such as year end close out on discontimued or upgraded models. Some I paid full retail for.

Once, several years ago, I bought 12 scopes at once from Midway, at a great price. All new scopes 2x7 VXII shotgun scopes, matt finish. It was year end, and Leupold quit making the shotgun scopes in VXII and went to the VXI. I have used those scopes with satisfaction on practically all my rifles.

Over the years, I have sold many Leupold scopes and upgraded, as the clarity of the lenses got better. But I still try to avoid the latest and greatest, because of the prices, which keep getting higher. The best scopes I have are a few of the VX IIIs.

As a side story, in past times I've had two friends (that I can remember) who were using scopes that I could barely see through. These were ancient scopes, but they still swore by them, and at the same time complained of difficulty sighting in. Normal discussion and demonstration of what a clear scope looked like made no difference in their opinion, even though the difference in clarity of a modern scope compared to theirs was obvious.

PS: Oh, I forgot to mention one scope failure, but it wasn't in the field. I noticed it at the range. I had a 1x4 Leupold shotgun scope come unglued inside after I used it on a 458WM. As I remember the edges of the field of view became fuzzy, and it appeared that something had moved inside, whether lens or whatever. Leupold fixed it, of course.

KB

In close to 40 years, I have had zero failures in the field and one on the range. I shoot almost entirely Leupolds. The failure was a Leupold 2.5-8X hand gun scope on a 357 Maximum contender.
They fixed it free and fast.

I share some of the same thoughts as KB on not rushing out to buy the latest thing out and that Leupolds are too expensive.

I have a Burris going on 30 years. Been a great scope. I can also say I have a Japan made TASCO World Class going on 25 years. I have a rubber armored TASCO on a Colt HBAR going on near 30 years. Now the scopes that I have see fail are Simmons and Bushnell. My best friend had the same exact thing happen to his brand new Simmons as mentioned by another poster in this thread and that is the front bell fell off. I believe this was before the scope manufacturers started using the one piece scope tubes. On Bushnell the most problems I've seen were reticle problems and fogging.

I have 1 Nikon ,1 Swarovski and probably a dozen Leupolds ,which should tell you what brand ilike. Have only had 2 scopes fail and one was not really the scope. I had the return spring break on a Unertl 2 1/2" ultra varmint. Unertl replaced it promptly. The Leupold broke while hunting in Africa. A 1-5 Vari X III on a 375H&H. Luckily I was just shooting bait animals at the time. Switched to my spare and kept on truckin. That's in well over 50 years of scope use.

Carpetman, I live less than half mile from the repair facility for Bushnell. That may be why it is free. I just hand it to them. They have been good about providing replacement bino caps when I lose then.

Put a brand new Bushnell on a .30-06. At the first shot the objective lens blew out the end of the bell and landed in the Oregon grape!
Put it in a bag and gave it to a buddy.

The only failure on a hunt I've ever had was when an old Weaver K4 fogged up when a nice bull elk walked out of the timber.

After that I've used a couple of older Burris 4x scopes but on my serious hunting rifles I've used nothing but Leupolds. The VariX-II I have on my old Remington 700 .30-06 has been everywhere from -40 in Alaska to 100 above and has been great for the last 20 years.

While sighting in my Remington 788 in Idaho Falls in 1986, I had an old 3-9X Weaver (bought new in 1975) suddenly fill with black snow. I guess the internal paint came off and the inside of the scope looked like it had black confetti floating around.

I've hunted alot since 1964. Never owned what would be called an expensive scope. Mostly weaver, simmons, and swift scopes. In that time have never had a scope failure, much less one during a hunt. Have had my 06 fail to fire once on a hunt when it was 20 below zero in the badlands. Bolt was a little dirty

I have my Leupold 1.5 - 5x on Talley QR mounts on my 500 Jeffery. My open sights are dead on at 100 yards and are my backup. If I go for plains game with it as well as DG, I'll take an identical scope also sighted in on it's own set of Talley QR Rings so I can swap scopes in a minute or so and still be sighted in. I see it as cheap insurance.

I have destroyed scopes quite regularly over the last few years...Simmons, Bushnell, Weaver, and some other things, I forget the names of.

They fog up, or white out, or in the case of the Weaver 3x, just started taking on water like a boat with a hole in the bottom. Admittadly I have never owned top of the line scopes, but damned if I am paying that kind of money just for a gunsight.

In NZ it rains all the time and the country is rough. Its all backpack hunting and I go for decent periods of time, two or three weeks.
There is a West coast river with three of my scopes in it, where I threw them three years running on the walk out.

I dont go anywhere without open sights, or an aperture sight I can switch the scope out for.
I have lost some deer to faulty scopes, mostly white outs where I coudlnt see to shoot. Two years ago last I shot my best deer ever with a whited out Weaver, shot him at ten years and sighted through it like a red dot with both eyes open. I had spent four days in the bush trying to dry the bastard out before that.

I have used a Leupold M8 I got second hand for the last two years and its the only scope that I have not managed to destroy. Their reputation is well deserved in my opinion. Them and the Nikon Monarchs.

I have never had a scope fail on me, but I have
seen others ruin scopes. One shooter was cleaning his rifle and put the rod through the scope by accident. Another friend was shooting out of a blind with windows and while shooting a deer the window fell and smashed the front bell of his scope.

I've never had a scope "fail," but.......

Before one of my Mexico hunts I had put my rifle inside the guncase (one of those Kalispiel aluminum ones) the night before a trip and left the case open on my bench. My airport ride arrived the next day and I went into my gun room and found the case and rifle on the floor.

Got to Mexico that afternoon and we went out immediately. I wanted to sight it in, but WTF. Anyway I had a shot at a deer that afternoon and just plane missed. Went back to camp that night and found out the rifle was about 6" high and 6-7" left.

Turned out to be a good thing as I missed a 4 x 4 and on my last hunt of that trip shot a 7 x 5.