You're very lucky. I've had a Nikon go "sproing" and several Leupold scopes go bad, mostly by losing their ability to track well. I've noted that the 3x9 Leupolds seem to be particularly bad about tracking properly. Up 4 clicks moves POI 2" up and 1" right, things like that.
Although I will admit to having screwed down rings farmer tight most of my life. Since I got a torque wrench and limit tightening ring screws to no more than about 25-26 inch pounds a lot of scope problems have gone away. But even mounted properly and stress free I still see "variable" tracking on some Leupold 3-9 variable scopes.
My fixed 6X Weaver, on the other hand, is dead nuts accurate. 4 clicks on either axis moves POI 1 inch at 100 yards exactly along that axis, all the time.
Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery. Hit the target, all else is twaddle!
