The first new rifle I ever bought was in the early 1990s and it was a total POS Savage 110 in .308 Win. I had all sorts of things go wrong with it at the range and I never should have taken it hunting, but I did, and literally couldn't hit a mule deer standing broadside at 25 yards. We got rid of that rifle. The only other serious failure that I've had in the field was with a Leupold 2.5-8x32 Handgun scope I had purchased brand spanking new and put on my MGM 18".260 Remington barrel that my wife bought me as an ordination gift when we moved to Minnesota and that's what I wanted to hunt deer with. It worked fine in load development and I sighted it in right where I wanted it. Had a good opportunity opening morning at 150 yards. Heard a rock solid hit. As in, like I hit a rock. Deer dropped like a stone. Got back on his feet, shaking his head. I loaded again. He's missing a tine. I line up perfect crosshair placement and trigger pull. Threw dirt behind the deer's head. I went to the impact point of the first shot. Found a broken tine. I threw in the towel and went straight to the range. Wasn't even on a large sheet of butcher paper at 100 yards. I adjust to where it should be on paper. Nope, now it's waaaaayyyy wide left and low - far more adjustment than I had made. And it's all over the place. I packed the scope up and sent it back to Leupold. They sent it back with a note saying "water damage". BS. I remount the scope, go to the range, bore site. I moved the windage to where I wanted it. Then went to unscrew the elevation cap. The whole adjustment turret comes off in my hand when I tried to unscrew the cap. WTF. I sent it back to Leupold, explaining what happened. They sent me an entirely new scope (I checked the serial numbers) of the same model and apologized for the complication, which cost me the deer hunting season that year. This scope has been absolutely perfect for 12 years now on two different Encore barrels. Not sure what that first scope was about, but I grew up shooting Tascos and they were more reliable than that Leupold handgun scope. I haven't worried about the new one for a dozen years, but I never assume that it's held zero and it gets checked every year.
