Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Alaska/Canda working rifle

Here's an interesting Weaver ring failure. I wrapped up a typical Pacific Northwest wet-weather deer hunt last night and was watching TV in the same room where my lightweight Husqvarna 30-06 was drying out after having been drenched for the second time in as many weeks.

It's this rifle, but with a 4x Leupold instead of the VX-R 3-9x40.



I heard something hit the floor and bounce a couple of times. Turns out the cross bolt that goes through the saddle had broken like a button popping off of a fat man’s shirt.



To be fair, I’ve been using this ring for 25 years if not more. It’s been on several scopes and dozens of rifles (including two 308’s, more 30-06’s than I can remember, two 338-06’s, a 270, and a 35 Whelen) for thousands of full-power rounds. It’s also been soaked with rain without being dried out or cleaned countless times.

I had checked that rifle’s zero that afternoon, and it was hitting where it should have out to 320 yards, so maybe it was just time for it to go.

Another good reason to have properly-zeroed iron sights on your rifle plus a spare scope pre-zeroed in rings plus any tools you’ll need to swap them out.


Okie John

Looks like a case of "farmer tight" somewhere along the way and it just finally failed due to metal fatigue.

That's exactly what I thought when I read Okie's post. It's easy to get in the farmer-tight habit with Weaver's.

Obviously anything man-made can and will break, but I still think Weaver's are among the most stupid simple, robust rings out there. Kind of like marrying a Minnesota farm girl. She may not be glamorous, but is someone to build a long life with

Looks like a case of "farmer tight" somewhere along the way and it just finally failed due to metal fatigue.

I am pretty sure I have one of those screws in my parts stash, if you can send me a picture of it, preferably with a set of calipers showing the head diameter, I will take a look and send you one. I am pretty sure that there were a couple of different head sizes/styles so I would need the pic and measurement to make sure I had the right one.

Sending a PM with my cell phone # you can send the pic to.

drover