I'll add the things I've seen. I've seen a wood stock rifle fail twice. One broke at the pistol grip after being dropped. The other had a sling stud pulled out. Neither of them mine. Not a fan of wood stocks for serious hunting rifles for this reason.
Trigger issues - 3. I had a M70 trigger sear fail to engage meaning the gun would not cock the firing pin. This was my gun and apparently the sear engagement screw moved. A 1/4" wrench and a couple of mins fixed the issue but had to go to the truck to retrieve my backup rifle - which is why I always carry a backup. I had a trigger freeze on a Ruger Super Bkackhawk after I dropped the warm gun in the snow. It spent half an hour under my coat to thaw out. I also had a buddy do the same with his M700 and the trigger froze.
Scope - I've had zero scope issues - in the field - but have had wandering zero at the range. A Leupold caused me to shoot about $30 in components before I finally sleuthed the scope issue. That was the beginning of the end for Leupold scopes for me. Won't turn this into a Leupold bashing thread but trying to zero a Leupold scope is an exercise in frustration.
I've seen handloads fail to fit in the mag box and/or chamber. Prolly 30 years ago, I loaded some 257 Robts for a guy using one of his shells as a guide. Seems he'd never actually tried the shell in his mag box. He had a single shot for the day...... I also know a guy whose "custom" handloads wouldn't chamber without alot of force. Claimed they were "crush fit" and custom to his chamber. No way in hades was he getting a second shot in under 10 secs.
I've had my share of Leupold failures, myself. For cheap scopes on short-range rifles, I usually like the Zeiss Conquest, but they are only second-hand and hard to come by. So Leupold it is. Unfortunately, not many alternatives in a cheap 3.5-10x scope that doesn't weight 20 oz+. I've had reticles break, lenses come unglued internally, and very expensive "mark" series scopes that wouldn't track or hold zero. I must be a glutton for punishment, but the last couple rifles I've purchased I put newer VX3i scopes on and they've done better for me so far. I'm more of a Bender fan.
