Return to zero isn't just after an adjustment is made at the caps. It needs to return to zero after recoil.
Ideally - you sight in a rifle once and done. None of these mad rushes the 10 days before season to "make sure it's on" with a couple shots that turns into 6.
Rifles never should lose zero sitting in the cabinet. They lose zero or fail to RTZ after recoil AND turret spinning - should one chose to do so.
For big game hunting out to 400-450 yards max, this is the single most important factor to me.
Old-style Vari-X IIIs (and Burris Signature models as well) have done me well in that regard for the past thirty-plus years. Over that time, one Leupold and one Burris (out of over thirty different scopes) have gone back to the factory, not for RTZ issues, but seal leaks.
It's an acceptable rate for me. Both of them were on large caliber, belted magnum chamberings seeing several hundred rounds through them, and hard use in the field.
