Scope field evaluations on rokslide

[Huntnful]

Buddy went to Montana then Colorado, made out to a 450yd kill which is great. We were shooting steel at 440yds a few days ago and his impacts were a little high and about 4" right of where they grouped last time. Rifle rode in a cheap padded hard case the entire time in the truck…but he knows already why it was off haha. We listened to that podcast on a 4 day deer hunt and in the tent he already decided he needs a nightforce for next season. Current scope is a vortex pst Gen 2, which hasn't been terrible but this guy hunts a ton. Rezeroing every season is mandatory…at minimum.

What are your thoughts on forms test of the 4.5-28 March scope that you've ran? My out take is similar to his trijicon tests. 36" drops eventually start to show something. Otherwise it's solid. I know you've had great experience with it and like you've stated it gets strapped right and isn't babied.

The March seemed VERY well built. And his tests of it look promising so far. The initial shifting of the scope during zeroing was probably due to those ****** ARC rings. Hate those **** things lol.

I never touched my zero through the entire 3 months season, and that thing took a lot of abuse and never budged. So I'm assuming it'll pass the remainder of the tests also.

 

[Small Lady]

Haha what an unrealistic post. Give me a break.

Ever slipped and fallen? Not that hard to do on a rough country hunt. And your rifle goes down with you.

Setting a rifle down on its bipod when you eat or glass, and then a friend not seeing it and knocking it over on accident.

Sling studs pulling out of a stock. Sling connections failing on the sling itself.

There's more than one way to impose an impact to a rifle scope. The drop tests are just that, TESTS for durability to impacts. We're not talking about dropping babies from waist high do to stupidity.

It seems how some talk, it isn't a random act to drop their rifles.
Maybe once in a lifetime happens, if really bad luck twice in 50 years. But if someone is banging their rifle around so badly it's frequently needing to be reset to 0, then they should be blaming themselves, not the scope. I'm far more likely to drop my work radio, or cellphone, than a rifle. Yet haven't dropped them in years and years. But some people seem to drop their phone annually, or more. Maybe they just don't care, I do.

 

[WeiserBucks]

It seems how some talk, it isn't a random act to drop their rifles.
Maybe once in a lifetime happens, if really bad luck twice in 50 years. But if someone is banging their rifle around so badly it's frequently needing to be reset to 0, then they should be blaming themselves, not the scope. I'm far more likely to drop my work radio, or cellphone, than a rifle. Yet haven't dropped them in years and years. But some people seem to drop their phone annually, or more. Maybe they just don't care, I do.

Real question, how many times have you slipped and fallen down on a hunt?

 

[xsn10s]

I had a sling swivel break sending my rifle muzzle down in the snow. Pretty un-nerving because I was tracking two cougars which had back tracked me. Luckily I was able to get the ice and snow out of the bore right then. I had another rifle twist on the rings from all the weight I had in my drag bag. Driving down a washboard road caused that issue. RS testing is pretty useful. I wouldn't say you couldn't pick a scope off their list because I shoot often so I'll see a zero shift. And if I fall or the scope takes a bump I'm going to test it prior to hunting with it. But the test has influenced my future picks for scopes.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

What's eye opening is how many scopes fail the drop test and how few pass it. Even really high end stuff.

 

[xsn10s]

What's eye opening is how many scopes fail the drop test and how few pass it. Even really high end stuff.

Yes it is. I had the SWFA 10X side focus long before reading the thread. And recently got the coveted 6X Milquad cheap used. Not the best glass but completely serviceable. I'd really like a NF or Trijicon now. I got the 6X on my PSS right now. But debating putting it on the 7mm RM or my AR15 20" build.

 

[cooperjd]

What was nuts to me was how fast the vx5hd lost zero from riding in the back seat!

 

[Hydra6]

Scary. He is somewhat dismissive of "PRS/NRL" scopes but active PRS competitors put thousands of rounds through their rifles/scopes annually and not uncommon for PRS matches to be held down bumpy logging roads after hours of driving on the interstates; plus the rifles/scopes get knocked around on props. Very surprised that the Vortex G3 fared so poorly.

 

[xsn10s]

I agree it was dis heartening to see so many scopes fail the riding test. but I have Leupold VariXIII's that would have been deemed a failure in their tests. When I lived in Bend I'd take a rifle to work and take off down China Hat Rd 3X's a week after work. That road in notoriously washboarded. I never had a zero shift from the reticle. I didn't have a scope twist in the rings but that was for weight leveraging on the tall capped turrets. The reticle didn't shift, the scope just twisted in the rings. So I pay attention to their results. but still consider some of the scopes that failed, depending on how bad they failed.

 

[cooperjd]

The reality is also that even though this is LRH, the huge majority of hunters shoot their rifle a couple times a year, sit in a treestand a few times a year, and maybe kill a deer or two at 100 yards, where they will never notice a 1moa shift anyway.

And, if your scope lasts 10 years before it has a failure, well then you had a great scope for a long time. IMO the tests are there to shed light on the fact that our optics for the most part can and will fail at some point, so make the best purchasing decision you can based on these small sample sizes of data. For me i want a scope i can take off the rifle, throw across a parking lot, put back on and it'll work. Not everyone wants that i guess. Most of my hard backpack hunting is with a bow, so my cams and limbs have way more dings than my rifles do. But I have taken some nasty spills, one time i took a chip out of my muzzle i hit a rock so hard. dang root i couldnt' see down in the snow... luckily i had a piece of paper with me and made a makeshift target and checked zero. i was a bit off. shot a buck at 425y a few days later, good thing i was able to check!

I don't really know anything about PRS/NRL matches...but do you get sighters? So could you be making small adjustments all the time so you wouldn't really notice a small shift or if you do you correct immediately? Only a catastrophic failure would pop up? I really don't know there.

 

[sndmn11]

I do have to wonder why these people are all so ridiculously uncoordinated, that they are constantly dropping their rifles to?
Thank God they don't have babies, or carry eggs in from the car!
But I wouldn't let them use anything of mine, and I'm usually an extremely sharing person.
But no way I would lend them anything, not my ATV, snowmobile, guns, rangefinder, dishes, laptop, cellphone, or anything else, because they are incapable of being at all careful, or even coordinated enough to carry, or ride anything.
I was in Nursing school with a guy like this years ago, he was always dropping stuff, tripped while walking, and I soon distanced myself from him. If I ever drop my rifle, it would make me do some deep self evaluation. It would likely make the decision to never have kids easier to, because it would seem logical that I would also be dropping my baby.
Hopefully you droppers have a great case on your phone, we all know how delicate iphone screens are. I've seen them break even from a gentle fall.
When I get so old that I'm dropping my rifles, I will know that its time to stop hunting, and take up bingo.....

The evaluation isn't to learn if a scope holds zero while being dropped, it is to determine the likelihood of it losing zero in normal un-stressed conditions. Such as riding in a vehicle, being shot, etc. The person who came up with the testing realized a strong correlation between scopes that in everyday life held zero and those that did not, and scopes that would "pass" when dropped. Seven shots in a controlled environment is far more efficient and predictive than a random point on a hunt or match.

Think of the procedure as a cardiac stress test; one might not "exercise" in a similar fashion to the test, but it is predictive and designed to figure out if there's an issue right then and there.

 

[Hydra6]

I don't really know anything about PRS/NRL matches...but do you get sighters? So could you be making small adjustments all the time so you wouldn't really notice a small shift or if you do you correct immediately? Only a catastrophic failure would pop up? I really don't know there.

Typically opportunity to confirm zero and chrono (get velocity in that area's conditions) before the match starts then off to the races. Not "sighters" like some other long range competition.

 

[Ckleeves]

It seems how some talk, it isn't a random act to drop their rifles.
Maybe once in a lifetime happens, if really bad luck twice in 50 years. But if someone is banging their rifle around so badly it's frequently needing to be reset to 0, then they should be blaming themselves, not the scope. I'm far more likely to drop my work radio, or cellphone, than a rifle. Yet haven't dropped them in years and years. But some people seem to drop their phone annually, or more. Maybe they just don't care, I do.

It's not really people dropping their rifles just randomly. It's rifle being strapped to packs and people slipping, trips and falls and random rifle tip overs. Ever been in a fresh burn after rain or snow? There is a good chance you won't be on your feet the entire time. Last year hiking in the dark I somehow had a little 8" tall burned out oak stob go up the cuff of my pants on a steep downhill. The rifle was in my hands and when I went to take a step and that foot was more or less cemented in place. I went down HARD and the rifle (unloaded) flew about 6' down the hill onto nothing but rocks. I checked for barrel obstructions and then shot a bull 2 hours later because it was a scope I had drop tested numerous times and I have TONS of faith in that scope.

Before my next hunt I did a quick zero check. Having faith in your optic is a great feeling.

 

[Axl]

It seems how some talk, it isn't a random act to drop their rifles.
Maybe once in a lifetime happens, if really bad luck twice in 50 years. But if someone is banging their rifle around so badly it's frequently needing to be reset to 0, then they should be blaming themselves, not the scope. I'm far more likely to drop my work radio, or cellphone, than a rifle. Yet haven't dropped them in years and years. But some people seem to drop their phone annually, or more. Maybe they just don't care, I do.

As has been stated, the drop test isn't about dropping your rifle. It is about scopes that can be USED and retain zero. The effects of recoil are cumulative, and scopes that pass the drop test will pass the normal extended use test.

The reason a lot of scope companies do not make a useable scope is because their customers think it is normal to "sight in" every year. Or the owner doesn't know what a real zeroed scope is. These are the week before hunting season, it hits a paper plate shooters. Either way these customers never complain to the manufacturers.