Back in 2010 I made a post on another forum about an odd occurrence I had with Weaver rings...
"I took my dad and son out to the range shooting rifles Saturday. Dad had his Browning BLR ’81 in .308 Winchester out to check sight in and do some practice before deer season. This rifle has a Leupold VX-II 2x7x33 mounted with standard low Weaver bases and rings. Dad has had this rifle for a long time and those Weaver mounts have been there from the beginning. Anyway, he set the rifle on the bags and fired three shots into about an 8” triangle… not normal for either dad or the rifle. The load is a handload I worked out long ago for his gun and if I told you how well the lever gun shot that load you’d give me the raised eyebrow thingy. Pop is no spring chicken at nearly 78 years of age, but he can certainly shoot better than that!
Immediately I suspect something is wrong and I walked around to the bench from the spotting scope. Dad was sitting there and we were both just sorta looking at the rifle and not saying anything as we mulled over the possibilities. Then I realized the nut on the lower half of the Weaver ring that locks the cross bolt to the base was gone on the back mount. It was snapped slick off so there was nothing to keep the back of the scope from shifting left-right. OK, there is the problem! I wondered how that broke off, the rifle hadn’t been dropped or bumped, but the end of the cross bolt was sheared off smooth with the base. Oh well, I had another set at home and could replace it.
So, Sunday afternoon I decided to remount the scope and replace that back ring. After disassembling the scope and back ring (which just fell off because of the broken cross bolt nut) I thought I might as well take off the front one too and go over everything all together. To my surprise when I touched the screwdriver bit to the front cross bolt nut – it just fell off too! It was broken also and had just been hanging on!
I can’t understand how BOTH of those snapped off like that when there was absolutely NO accidental drop, bump, ect on the rifle or scope. There isn’t a mark or mar on either the receiver of the rifle or the matte finish on the scope. I questioned dad and he said he hadn’t taken a spill while hunting. I know that is true because we always stay with dad because of his age. The gun hasn’t been messed with in any way and just sits in the safe. It is only a .308 with moderate loads and the scope is lightweight so I can’t attribute this to recoil. Is it just too weird that both cross bolts would catch a severe case of metal fatigue at the exact same time? I’m having trouble figuring this one out…"
