Ever Had a Scope Failure?

I hav had Leupold and Vortex fail but both companies did right so no worries. They fail far less than cheap scopes had cheap one fail during hunt but reall it was just old lost gas fogged. Leupold failed was bought used so who knows what original owner did only have Leupold and Vortex now. Do have great Weaver target scope. All brands can and will fail better ones hold up and warranty takes care of you.
Roc1
 
I have seen a number of scope failures, and they happened on newer better quality scopes. They were internal failures, and not a result of hard use or abuse. Anything can fail that is made by the hand of man.

A number of years ago I went Caribou hunting to Alaska, and when I got my rifle at baggage claim, the case looked like it had gotten waylayed by some big bears. The Nikon scope and Leupold rings held up and it shot just fine. Good thing because that rifle was equipped with only the scope.

I do have a M70 375 H&H that has iron sights as well a scope with Leupold QD rings and bases. If I have a problem with the scope while hunting big bears or Moose, I have the irons to fall back on.

I have seen a couple of rifles that got rolled over by some horses, but when the stock is broken, the sights are a moot point.
 
I had a Simmons that wouldn't keep it's zero and Bushnell Banner who's reticle stopped adjusting. All my rifles now wear Leupold or Vortex.
 
My second ever scope, a common BSA el cheapo, broke apart on a #5 Enfield wacking me on the head. Literally broke in two.

My Simmons, Leapers and other misc crap also had the common courtesy to fall apart on the range.

Mostely use Leupold, Nikon and Vortex these days.......
 
I had an aimpoint compM recently go kaput. I had it on my 12gauge and shot about 20 slugs one day and it just couldn't take anymore. And neither could my shoulder.
 
I had a Weaver 4x Handgun scope fail on my 460xvr in under 10rnds. Leuopold VX on that gun since then. No problems.
Weaver sent me new scope.
I think this depends a lot on what you expect from your scope to begin with. Some scopes will never stack up. All brands will fail. Failure rate of Nightforce is much lower than Barska.
 
I somehow once came up with a Konus, maybe 1.5 - 5 or so. They are Chinese, practically free used on Gun Broker, so I didn't have high hopes, but I liked the diamond reticle and I was just doing load development, so I put it on a 9 lb Mauser in 404 Jeffery, which may have bucked hard enough to launch a Titan missile. The scope lasted almost 50 rds before it started throwing bullets all over the place, and I thought that was pretty impressive. It all seemed quite amusing, but I realized later I could have shot my cronograph. All I have now are Leupold and Nikon - I do like Nikon - and I think a Burris handgun in the forward mount on a rifle.
 
I had a Redfield Tracker Scope go bad after about 15 years. Wouldn't hold zero. I have a Leupold 1.5-5x on my primary rifle, with Talley QR mounts. I have iron sights as a backup and plan to buy another Leupold 1.5-5x with rings and sight it in as well. This way if the current scope goes TU I can replace it within minutes and it will be within 1/2" of zero at 100 yards.
 
I had a Simmons Pro50 fail on my Rem 700 30-06. I didn't drop it or even shoot it a whole lot. One day at the range my group opened up for no apparent reason. I let my barrel cool off completely and shot another group. It was even bigger. The next shot wasn't even on an 8.5x11 piece of paper at 100 yards.

Replaced it with a Burris FFII and have never looked back. At the time, that was a BIG purchase and by far the most I had spent on a scope. Now I can't think of many situations where a FFII would make the cut, haha. It's a solid scope, don't get me wrong and if that's what the budget can afford they are worth a look.

An interesting story is when my dad bought his 30-06 back in 1978 it came with a Bushnell 3-9x. He used that until probably1995 or so. Its bounced around to probably 4 other rifles since then including my long range 260 Rem for a while. I shot to 625 yards with it and did a lot better than I expected. The thing just won't die. It's earned the nick name of "partly cloudy" because of how foggy the glass is, but it's strangely clear (as in focused) and easier to shoot with than my Vortex Diamondback HP.
 
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I've had a few:

Had an EOTech mist over on a rainy day making target acquisition impossible. The BUIS were on the same plane and by the time I got the scope off I had missed my shot. After that I switched to 45 degree offset BUIS. This is much faster and just as accurate as same plane popup BUIS.

I have had several Sightmarks fail on me. Never had a Sightmark scopes on a serious gun but even a .22 will bang up a Sightmark to unshootable. But if you have kids and they are still learning to shoot giving them a cheap scope to bang up made sense at the time. They last a few thousand round, sometimes longer.

I had a Simmons fail me on a Mini-14. The glass came undone inside the scope and began to rattle around. I think I had fired about 200 rounds that day rapid fire.

I have never had a quality scope fail on me.
 
A scope can and they do fail usually at the wrong time
Almost all my rifles also have iron sights, the ones that do not
have a mounting system, that I can change the scope in
the field, saving the hunting trip
( the scopes have already been zeroed for that rifle and
ammo )

Nothing worse than a waisted trip and money
 
I was stalking a coastal blacktail buck one morning in northern California to get within range for a sure shot with my 44 MAG carbine. But my 40 year old Weaver K2.5X fogged up on me rendering it useless. I waited about an hour for the inner fog to clear and eventually downed the forked horn buck. After that I bought a new Bushnell scope and never looked back.

Jack
 
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