I'm curious if there are bending or torsional modes that cause failures with the Leupo 6-18x under 'typical' mounting and excitation conditions, but not in certain other conditions
In other words...
Let's say that Ric's scopes are mounted in such a way that these bending and torsional modes do not stress the scope to the point of failure. Certainly this would make him think the Leupo 6-18x is just fine and dandy. Whereas others have the same scope mounted differently (typical) and with a rifle exhibiting different whole-body recoil characteristics which create different bending and torsional modes... and ultimate failure of the erector system. Note that by "mounted differently" I don't mean inadequate or inferior.
The Leupold 6-18x appears to have a reputation for not being durable in terms of zero retention or repeatability. I've heard this from others besides Formi and Boxer. Any scope could fail, and 603C had one that did. It's anecdotal evidence, but I admit that its created a bias in my mind against the 6-18x since I've heard it from several different sources.
Conversely, there seems to be certain scopes where it appears rare that failures occur in comparison. But regarding the Leupo 6-18x, it seems suspicious that it has the reputation that it does which would lead one to believe that durability depends on response to excitation. Make sense?
All that to say... if a scope only survives under certain "ideal" conditions, it might be best to heed anecdotal evidence that seems to point to the fact that failure is a definite possibility
J
