Scope showed up Thursday, mounted it on a wthby vanguard 22" heavy barrel 308, historically a very tight shooter......

Got down to the range this weekend to boresight and zero on plinking ammo.....also brought along my howa 1500 heavy barrel 308 with a 17 year old zeiss 3x9x40 conquest.......both rifles use B&C Medalist stocks with rear strap pins removed....

Our range is 100 yds, sturdy wood bench. My front rest is an eared champion canvas bag that straddles a common solid brick, the rear rest is a leather eared bag. Why all this detail.....despite the heavy gun weights.....it seems that both guns tried to hop right on recoil when free rested.......by the time i finished range time i transitioned to a hunters hold on the forearm for each to eliminate the hop.

The leupold behaved as i expected, the click adjustments may have been confuseded by the periodic rightward hops.........but altogether id say the scope clicks were responsive.

But something happened with each gun.....each gun while left unattended in the bag setup, took a spill onto the bench, a tumble/roll of 5-8" with the scopes taking the brunt.......

The follow up shot with each were noticeably different. The leupold was waaaay out of synch while the zeiss seemed unfazed........

Once re-zerod the leupold has behaved consistently but i the mini drop test didnt go well.

Figures. People keep buying them.

Burns and his sidekick will be along shortly to set you straight.

The first scope i ever purchased for deer hunting was in '94, a leupold vari-ll 3x9x40 with friction adjustment turrets......that thing maintained zero thru crap for 25 years.....

Handle the finger clicker leupys with care i guess......

Fell on the same model scope in an Alaska stream bed of rocks. It was on the pack and took a much harder hit than an 8 inch drop.

It still is working better than good 12 years later. Verify with little "drama" and go hunt...



I had it on this rifle for a little while....post crash.




Oppsie....




This one took a minor hit on a rock also....Odd it still works as prior....Campfire oddity for sure....




These have been knocked around more than a little....still going strong. I must be one of the luckiest guys here...



Leupold...with a damn 3 minute dot...Post crash.



Luck again....I guess....

OMG, real world experience with photos of dead stuff VS suspect range reports. I'm just not sure who to believe..... You know what, Leupold's must be junk!

Been awhile, but I even twisted up to 358.....Amazing it even came close to the shoulder....Lucky again....

You CLUELESS Drooling Fhuqktards,are a HOOT! Hint.



Fhuqking LAUGHING!...............

Also happens when I forget to rap on the rings after zeroing. Followed by confirmation shots.

Maybe your drop test did the "needful".

I'd make another trip to the range....just to be sure.

Sarcasm, but not entirely.

I've killed a lot of stuff with Leupold 6x42's. To me, they are the most pleasing scope for view that I've used for hunting. They just seem "right" when I look through them on rifles. Loved the light weight as well.

All that said, I eventually became frustrated with "zero" being in a different spot when I'd check zero. Never enough for me to have missed at woods ranges, but a couple inches high or low and an inch or so left or right. Several I used elevation dials with were consistent and repeatable when dialing elevation, though the adjustment didn't match exactly what I was dialing in measurement....as long as they were repeatable it was ok. A few would vary or lag in adjustments and this caused me a lot of grief. Perhaps it was related to how I mounted them or the ring placement or the rings being overly tight. Eventually I moved to the LRD reticle to avoid dialing with them...but the adjustment lag when sighting in remained on many and the wondering zero was still an issue with some and it really showed up trying to use at distance. Perhaps it was my fault for using or mounting incorrectly, I'm willing to accept blame if it was me.

Again, that said, when I started using the SWFA 6x42, all of those issues disappeared. Zero was the same every time I'd check and adjustments matched, with no lag, every time I'd adjust. It made it hard to keep the Leu 6x42's that were consistent....I just always had it in the back of my mind. I still use a few Leupolds, but only in fixed powers and only on set and forget scopes. Most of the ones I use now are M8's as they seem to have less wondering zero for me. Just my observations and experience. I killed a lot of stuff with them, love the view/user characteristics, and I'm not aware of them ever causing me to miss game...but there was a lot of game killed that the impact didn't seem to match up with my hold at fairly short ranges.

I've heard good things about SWFA 6x Fixed Fhuqkers. Hint.





Not that The Whining CLUELESS Kchunt Velvet Glove Cries,ain't funnier than fhuqk. Hint.

Fhuqking LAUGHING!..................

Works fairly good up close also.....The pic was taken a little closer than the shot....but not by much...





However, to show I am willing to be open minded.....It is a shooting and dialing piece of work. However, I haven't lugged it around all that much. Reason being, when things are slow and you are wondering what to do next...You can pass the time doing one arm curls until a decision is made....Seen a bunch of Deer with it, none of which the Leupold wouldn't have worked. Makes me think many of the Leupold bashers shoot more paper than game. Lot of words about tapping on targets and few of something that tapped out. Odd...Maybe not.

Now you've messed up and made it a "used" scope. I'll expect a heavy discount when you sell it to me.....at least $5-$10 knocked off the price.

Ha!!!!...You most likely will have to wait. I really like it....other than carrying it up a power line cut.

Some tell me I should be hunting from my Alamo....If and when, it should be about perfect.

Well, i did decide to slide the scope back a bit in the ring setup to addtess some eye relief concerns. So i did go back to the range to rezero......no mishaps this trip....and as always based on my benchrest skills my range reports can only be taken as "suspect".

I plan on killing a deer or two under 150 yd conditions.....if it dont work out, i got a spare meopro variable to plug in.....

So to be clear, following adjustments one should rap on the rings.......not the turrets?

No… you have to drop it. Had a step on a stand let loose and went around 20 feet to the ground. Took an hour or so to decide it was time to hunt again.

Beer can at around 75 yards. Dead nuts into the red dot….it’s a Burg thing. 8 inches? You can do better

Shot a Deer later in the week.

The gun rolled off the rest.....entirely on its own...paranormal like...i dropped nothing....

Maybe an angel was sent to deliver a mssage....

An Angel most definitely rode me and the rifle down. Cousin watched the crash. We will pay for the lie detector test. You pay the bet.

If Schidt & Blender added parallax control,a meaningful reticle and more erector travel,they'd have gotten a few things right...yet alas. Hint.





Not that the Velvet Glove Chronicles aren't "compelling". Hint.

Fhuqking LAUGHING!.............

It's a Leupold, so always figured rapping on the rings might be safer, while generating an impact load.

The other trick, mentioned less often, is dialing one click past the intended setting, then coming back that one click. Heard back in the '70s. Did it lots, but shoulda asked...."self, why do I need to do that?".

I read somewhere that the reticle on the model was located just forward of the rear bell.....which had to be darn close if not within the footprint of my rear ring, and so another reason why i moved the scope back a bit. I now have 3/4" of exposed tube between my ring edge and the threads for the rear eye relief.......

Sam H- I have to agree with you. I had heard a good thing to do was to twist nobs all way left than all way right and settle back at zero- before ever using it.
I had a M8 friction and a few other Leopold's that had friction adjustments. Still have a VX3 with clicks I actually really like. It has fallen over and been slightly knocked about with no ill effects. I wish the Leupold 'clicks' were a bit tighter though. I still tend to adjust past desired click and then back just out of old habit.

No plans to replace the Leupold. Nice lightweight, bright, trim scope with the screw in covers. Tons of eye relief.

SCgman1- yeah I like some space away from the rings too. Eye relief on the FX3 should not be an issue. I also smear a bit of silicon caulk to the rings before mounting.

Never heard of the silicone smear trick. Interesting. What is the goal? Glue the scope?
Thanks

A few years back, John Haviland did a piece featuring an interview or discussion with a Leupold guy, O’Connor IIRC. One of the things he said was that the adjustments on a new scope should be run end to end a number of times before trying to zero it. I tried it a couple of times and one scope, a new VX-3i, worked fine afterwards, though I didn’t keep it very long. It also seemed to “settle” a flaky VX-2, so perhaps there’s something to the notion. What wasn’t explained is why so many other scopes work just fine without the gymnastics, even ones that cost a lot less: Burris, Trijicon, Tract, SWFA, Weaver Classics. So have some old scopes I’ve picked up used.

My guess is that the single bias springs in some Leupolds simply don’t have the tension required to move the erector reliably, or keep it in place. Two dual-spring models, the VX-3i mentioned, and a VX-5 HD, adjusted well, though I didn’t test them hard, merely used them. A number of dual-spring Burris scopes have worked fine, as has a coil-spring Hawke 30mm Endurance model. Another Hawke with presumably a single spring adjusts okay, but on a Mini-14 couldn’t hold it. Worked fine later on a 10/22. Small sampling, maybe anecdotal, but still what I experienced. I like a lot about Leupolds, but not the adjustment drama I’ve experienced, so I buy other stuff. I honestly wish they’d get their schitt together.

Funny that a Swarovski rep told me the same things a few weeks ago with a Z3 4-12x50. I ran out of adjustment with the scope at the range, ran it end to end and counted the clicks and then centered it and fixed it. It has a single leaf like that Leupold. My Z5 does not require that , in fact it is a flawless point and shoot scope that is easy to zero and it maintains it.