DIY drop tests

noKnees

FNG
Joined
Dec 6, 2023
Messages
15
If this has been covered before please forgive me. I am a FNG guy here and don't always find everything with a search.

Do you any of you drop test your rifle/scopes before big/expensive hunts?

Pretty much all the cool features of a scope are totally secondary to being zeroed after getting carried around for a week. of hunting. So I have followed Forms drop tests, but of course they are sample sets of one and don't necessarily cover all the scopes I own.

A have about 45 days before I leave out on my first hunt this year and have a second rifle worked up and ready. so I am wondering is it worth it for confidence and peace of mind to try the 36" drop tests on my primary rifle? The 36" drops wouldn't take too long nor use much ammo. But of course a bad result would destroy my confidence in my #1 rig.
 
It’s a very small percentage of people that buy into actually drop testing your hunting rifles. It’s fun to read Forms tests, but I’d be livid if someone did that with one of my rifles.

What I find amusing about drop tests are the claims that scope that don’t pass just willy nilly change point of impact just ridding around in the backseat, or while shooting at the range for a week. If that is true wouldn’t it be an easy thing to simply write down any adjustments you have to do to the scope and over time if something isn’t reliable it would show up with no drops required. Without a well bedded rifle folks are just guessing issues are scope related when they are quite often the action moving in the stock. If someone hunts year after year, shooting every month of the year with no problems I fail to see how a drop test has any relevance. Simply paying attention to what the scope is doing.

If the idea is to have a reliable scope I find it curious how many people don’t track small changes to their zero. Just a simple tiny log book so you aren’t relying on memory will show more issues over time.
 
Yes, it's as much a part of getting a rifle ready to hunt as establishing a zero or validating trajectory. Not sure why people are more willing to hunt with an unproven system than they are to drop a rifle. It's a shooting tool, not a Porsche.
With proven components, a quick set of 18 or 24 inch drops should be sufficient.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
 
I can see the virtue in conducting a drop test, even if I tend to baby my rifles all the time.

Edit - upon further review, I think simply shooting your rifle often and recording your data is sufficient. If you are using a reliable scope that is properly mounted to your rifle, then you shouldn’t need to conduct extraordinary tests like a drop test. A drop test will never replicate "what might actually happen in the field." It will always be controlled. As such, it can only prove a negative, not a positive. If your rifle shifts zero with a controlled 18" drop test, then you need to figure out whether you need a new scope or a better mounting system. But passing that test won't tell you that your zero will be fine if you drop it 18' down a mountainside.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”
 
I think it depends on what you honestly should expect out of a certain setup. I do drop mine, out curiosity, to see what happens. Its not nearly as systematic as Form though. I bed/bond all bases, and I almost exclusively use rings like Burris Tactical, SWFA, that style of ring. I did a chest high drop on a Burris Droptine 3-9 last month, just one drop, scope facing down so that the full weight of the rifle (Winchester XPR .350 Legend) was on it. It shifted around an inch with the next three shot group. I adjusted an inch and it put three more 3 shot groups where they need to be. I'm ok with that on a $130 scope on a $400 rifle that's never going to shoot at anything past 250yds max, and 99% of it will be within 150 yards.

I did the same thing on the same rifle with 3 different Leupold 3.5-10 scopes.....a VX3, a VX3i, and a VX3-HD. All of them shifted inches, the oldest scope shifted the least, about 2.5 inches, the other two both moved 6 inches. I'll add the caveat that they were all bought used, so there may have been undisclosed issues pre-existing. They all got sent to Leupold, they were sent back with the normal "basically replaced all internals" and then sold with that disclosed. After other issues with multiple scopes of the brand over the last 20 years, it's safe to say, I am not a Leupold fan, though I would like to be.

Now if I was going on a upper four figure or a five figure hunt that's been planned for good time in advance, I wouldn't wait until right before the hunt to start drop testing scopes. I would be doing that months out, at a minimum, in case there are issues to be resolved.

You've got to take the drop tests with a little bit of a grain of salt, they're all mostly examples of one, although there tends to be a trend with certain brands of reliability and unreliability. Of course there can be a lemon in any brand or a unicorn in any brand. Nothing made by the hand of man is perfect or infallible.
 
Yes, it's as much a part of getting a rifle ready to hunt as establishing a zero or validating trajectory. Not sure why people are more willing to hunt with an unproven system than they are to drop a rifle. It's a shooting tool, not a Porsche.
With proven components, a quick set of 18 or 24 inch drops should be sufficient.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Would 3 18” drops and 5 shots inside the original come be what you’re looking for?

Curious about people’s personal test. Thanks.
 
One more reason to never buy used scopes here. Lol
I'm about done buying used scopes anywhere. Most of what I've bought have been on eBay. I'd say that 80%, regardless of brand, got sent into the manufacturer and replaced/repaired after they got delivered and examined.
 
If this has been covered before please forgive me. I am a FNG guy here and don't always find everything with a search.

Do you any of you drop test your rifle/scopes before big/expensive hunts?

Pretty much all the cool features of a scope are totally secondary to being zeroed after getting carried around for a week. of hunting. So I have followed Forms drop tests, but of course they are sample sets of one and don't necessarily cover all the scopes I own.

A have about 45 days before I leave out on my first hunt this year and have a second rifle worked up and ready. so I am wondering is it worth it for confidence and peace of mind to try the 36" drop tests on my primary rifle? The 36" drops wouldn't take too long nor use much ammo. But of course a bad result would destroy my confidence in my #1 rig.
Heck no., but I don't piss on electric fences either.
 
Yes, it's as much a part of getting a rifle ready to hunt as establishing a zero or validating trajectory. Not sure why people are more willing to hunt with an unproven system than they are to drop a rifle. It's a shooting tool, not a Porsche.
With proven components, a quick set of 18 or 24 inch drops should be sufficient.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
So if I understand you correctly, if you do not perform drop tests on your rig, you have an unproven system? Is that what you're saying?
 
If this has been covered before please forgive me. I am a FNG guy here and don't always find everything with a search.

Do you any of you drop test your rifle/scopes before big/expensive hunts?

Pretty much all the cool features of a scope are totally secondary to being zeroed after getting carried around for a week. of hunting. So I have followed Forms drop tests, but of course they are sample sets of one and don't necessarily cover all the scopes I own.

A have about 45 days before I leave out on my first hunt this year and have a second rifle worked up and ready. so I am wondering is it worth it for confidence and peace of mind to try the 36" drop tests on my primary rifle? The 36" drops wouldn't take too long nor use much ammo. But of course a bad result would destroy my confidence in my #1 rig.
This will be my 54th big game hunting season, and no, I've never performed any drop test, or know anyone who has.
 
"This will be my 54th big game hunting season, and no, I've never performed any drop test, or know anyone who has."

This is the correct response. I cannot imagine intentionally trying to break my scope before a hunt. I have been big game hunting for nearly fifty years and know better. Properly mount a quality scope on a quality rifle, zero with good ammo, and go hunting.
 
"This will be my 54th big game hunting season, and no, I've never performed any drop test, or know anyone who has."

This is the correct response. I cannot imagine intentionally trying to break my scope before a hunt. I have been big game hunting for nearly fifty years and know better. Properly mount a quality scope on a quality rifle, zero with good ammo, and go hunting.

Yeah, upon further consideration, I think it is sufficient to have someone else test the general reliability of the scope. If you have set it up properly, then your system should work.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”
 
Thanks for the replies. Still quite a bit to think about. The two rifles, primary and back up for my September hunt both have been holding a consistent zero through a bit of shooting this year so I will forgo drop testing them this year.

Like some shooters here I have been shooting and hunting for 45+ years and never intentionally drop tested a rifle, but I certainly have had rifles that need zero adjustments from time to time. Never recorded which ones needed adjustments from being used and ones that needed zero adjustment because I had a new load or did a scope swap. In retrospect this was a mistake. I am going to start recording that for each rifle so I can start to gauge zero retention.
 
Thanks for the replies. Still quite a bit to think about. The two rifles, primary and back up for my September hunt both have been holding a consistent zero through a bit of shooting this year so I will forgo drop testing them this year.

Like some shooters here I have been shooting and hunting for 45+ years and never intentionally drop tested a rifle, but I certainly have had rifles that need zero adjustments from time to time. Never recorded which ones needed adjustments from being used and ones that needed zero adjustment because I had a new load or did a scope swap. In retrospect this was a mistake. I am going to start recording that for each rifle so I can start to gauge zero retention.
I think that shooting often and recording all possible data is simply the best policy. I've started trying to take notes on all my shooting sessions, with pictures whenever possible. I find that using apps like ShotView (for my Garmin) and Ballistic-X together works really well. If you have sound data of previous engagements with a sufficiently large sample size, then you don't need to conduct extraordinary tests.

A drop test will never replicate "what might actually happen in the field." It will always be controlled. As such, it can only prove a negative, not a positive. If your rifle shifts zero with a controlled 18" drop test, then you need to figure out whether you need a new scope or a better mounting system. But passing that test won't tell you that your zero will be fine if you drop it 18' down a mountainside.
 
I am a believer—or lets call it a supporter, as I dont see it as a perfect solution—in the drop evals here after having had several scopes definitively lose zero (ie proven to have been the scope and not a bedding or gun issue) exactly as seen in the evals here, but have never intentionally dropped my rifles. However, I do slip and fall while hunting and during field practice at least once a year—the combination of relatively steep slope, wet leaves, slippery downed logs, a few inches of wet snow, all interspersed with deadfall, lends itself well to unpredictable footing and surprise slips. And I try not to get new equipment shortly before hunting season. I dont think a drop onto the padded surface used in the drop tests is an especially harsh test, so while I have not personally conducted these drops I would have no problem doing so. I have always taken the approach outlined at the end of post #2, ie I have a rock solid zero that is recorded and I check it fairly frequently so if something shifts during the course of the year I will see it. The elephant in the room with this is that ime the vast majority of people who claim to never have had an issue are only shooting at short to relatively moderate range and dont actually establish or track their zero religiously, and hence are not realistically able to say so one way or another, despite what they think…I have no choice but to extrapolate what I see at the range to the people on the internet and the general population.
 
The elephant in the room with this is that with the vast majority of people who claim to never have had an issue are only shooting at short to relatively moderate range and dont actually establish or track their zero religiously, and hence are not realistically able to say so one way or another, despite what they think…I have no choice but to extrapolate what I see at the range to the people on the internet and the general population.
Obviously you're just guessing what these supposed short range shooters do, as you've got no way of knowing. The fact of the matter is 95% of big game animals are killed 300yds and under in spite of what the internet says.
 
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