Anh experience with Vortex Strikefire II? I think it lost zero and screwed me...

[Buelrdr29]

Curious on any experience with the Strikefire II. I have it on my muzzleloader. Zeroed at the range off the bench and had good groups at 100. Could hit paper with a pie plate group at 200 with hold over.

Well I went elk hunting and missed a 140 yard shot. It was locked into a tripod and felt like a nice clean shot. Shot the gun in camp and it was 1.5 feet low and a foot left, this was at 90 yards! So then I shot a second to verify and same. So that explains the miss.

I had the gun in the truck on gravel roads getting bounced around and also a bunch of hiking. Do you think the zero will not hold on this budget optic? We are limited in WA on the sights we can use so I upgraded to a leupold. Lost confidence in the vortex.

 

[hereinaz]

Sucks!!!! That happened to me, and it was the scope after bouncing around on sxs and 4 wheeler. It was an old style PST, which is a terrible design...

But, don't just assume it is the scope. There are other points of failure. Loss of zero could be scope rail, scope rings, or scope. I see rails and rings slipping far more often than even cheap scopes.

You'll have to test it, or just buy a better scope and ship it to Vortex to get inspected and sell it.

Its why I use quality components and blue loctite on the screws, and even under the rail and inside the rings to prevent slipping. I've never had anything slip since, even when I am stuck with the most basic components when zeroing scopes for friends.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Nearly certain that the system lost zero and screwed you. Very likely that the scope shifted, but rings, mounts and bedding could all be adding additional errors.

 

[Buelrdr29]

Sucks!!!! That happened to me, and it was the scope after bouncing around on sxs and 4 wheeler. It was an old style PST, which is a terrible design...

But, don't just assume it is the scope. There are other points of failure. Loss of zero could be scope rail, scope rings, or scope. I see rails and rings slipping far more often than even cheap scopes.

You'll have to test it, or just buy a better scope and ship it to Vortex to get inspected and sell it.

Its why I use quality components and blue loctite on the screws, and even under the rail and inside the rings to prevent slipping. I've never had anything slip since, even when I am stuck with the most basic components when zeroing scopes for friends.

I am going to the range this morning to dial in the new leupold red dot. I have a 2nd muzzy for back up that was also in the same truck all week with the same vortex. So I will check to see if it is still on or not. Will be a good 2nd piece of data. Also had my 270 with a viper hs that I will check.

I did verify scope rings were tight and so the scope did not move. Bases were checked as well. So I feel I eliminated those common points of error. It was on a cantilever mount that it came with, I wonder if that could possibly be tweaked, but it seems well built so I doubt that is the issue.

 

[hereinaz]

I am going to the range this morning to dial in the new leupold red dot. I have a 2nd muzzy for back up that was also in the same truck all week with the same vortex. So I will check to see if it is still on or not. Will be a good 2nd piece of data. Also had my 270 with a viper hs that I will check.

I did verify scope rings were tight and so the scope did not move. Bases were checked as well. So I feel I eliminated those common points of error. It was on a cantilever mount that it came with, I wonder if that could possibly be tweaked, but it seems well built so I doubt that is the issue.

Hope you can figure it out. Remember, it takes so little to move a scope, like less than width of a hair, even in "properly tightened rings" that you can't see it even if it moved feet. Look at all the drop tests that Form does.

 

[RyanT26]

They have a great warranty though.

I understand they are considerably more but if you’re looking for a red dot I would recommend Aimpoint.
There is no reason not to buy quality optics and rings. Yes it’s more money upfront, but you have to factor in having one shit the bed on you while on a hunt. How much money, time, and energy that sucks out of you.

 

[Buelrdr29]

They have a great warranty though.

I understand they are considerably more but if you’re looking for a red dot I would recommend Aimpoint.
There is no reason not to buy quality optics and rings. Yes it’s more money upfront, but you have to factor in having one shit the bed on you while on a hunt. How much money, time, and energy that sucks out of you.

I fully agree with all of that! I have trusted vortex on other optics and overall have been satisfied. Washington had a new rule to allow red dots for the first time and I had 2 of these strike fires for an AR and a 22. So it swapped them over to try on the muzzys. Really sucks to blow the one shot I had on a 7 day hunt. This is year 5 of hunting and first good opportunity shot on a bull. A huge bummer. If I could pay $2000 to make that shot connect I would, lol.

My friend that was hunting with me has an aimpoint patrol (I think that is the model). We checked his gun and it was on and perfectly dialed after the same bouncing around for a week.