Have you ever unintentionally dialed your scope on a hunt or otherwise?

[Qholum37]

It has never happened to me thankfully, but I have seen others forget to dial back down after dialing for long shots and then miss up close.

 

[canyonhunter47]

Does a kid reaching over from his car seat to twist the windage a mil or two count?

 

[voltage]

Does a kid reaching over from his car seat to twist the windage a mil or two count?

I only let my child play with guns without scopes in his car seat.

 

[voltage]

I have never had a dial turn unintentionally. There was a time I shot a whitetail at 650 in Missouri. Following that shot, I put the rifle into the case, took it to Montana, hunted for a couple days, and then shot at a mulie buck at 225. I missed it three times. Fortunately for me, he was significantly more interested in the couple hotties he was hanging out with. After the third miss, I realized the problem, and dialed back to 0. That buck made it back to Missouri with me. I’m very grateful for that experience as it was a good lesson learned with no consequences besides a couple wasted rounds.

 

[actionshooter]

Yes.... Brooks Range float trip for moose/caribou. When I am rowing, the rifle stays tucked between my seat and a dry bag, barrel pointed down toward the front. We had already been on the river for over a week (17 day trip) and had taken 3 caribou previously. As we rounded a bend there was a herd of 20 or so crossing the river but only had 2 bulls, got to the bank and my buddy was out shooting 1st, took an awesome bull. I jumped out, layed over the bow and shot a smaller bull at about 80 yds.... or so I thought. Our other hunting partner was a few hundred yards down river in a raft solo and heard him shot a minute later, I thought there must have been another bull that we hadn't seen. Nope, I looked for blood for a bit while following the direction the heard went and it took me straight to my partner who was downstream with my bull.... well actually it was his. I missed it clean and couldn't believe it, I was 100% sure I hit it. Took me a few minutes but I figured out my VX3 4.5-14 dial had spun a full revolution pulling it out..... that was the LAST time I have hunted with a dial without a lock.

 

[Marble]

I just check it as often as I check my safety. I've had those get hit too.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[Firestone]

I missed a buck getting a rev off on my windage. Was packing out a bull and saw it moved a few clicks, so I zeroed it and forgot about it, well a few clicks was actually a lot and now I am zeroed a foot right at 100 ended up taping the turret for the rest of the season and never used that scope again

 

[LFC911]

I haven’t personally, but have seen dials get turned while going in and out of scabbards while guiding. I can think of one deer we killed that had several poor shots on it before we figured out what had happened.

I had this happen to me running around CO one year on an ATV and the bouncing around in the scabbard or pulling it in and out would dial elevation on the scope. It didn't have a zero stop, so i quickly sold that scope after the hunt.

 

[limpet]

Yep. I noticed my turret was off by a mil so I put back to zero, well it must have been off by 9 mils and I didn’t know it because there is no rev indicator on that leupold. Long story short I put 2 slugs below the brisket of a charging bear at 6-8 yards. Thankfully the shot had her abort anyways. After I settled down I went after her thinking I must have wounded her when I ran into her at 20 yards and missed low again. I couldn’t find any blood and went back and found impacts in the dirt right between skid marks from her paws. I went and checked zero and I was a full rev low at my zero distance of 50 yards (slug gun). The gun spent the rest of the year with tape on the turret.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

I haven’t but I only hunted capped or locking diallers. Murphy and I have always been on first name basis.

My buddy was a rotation out on biggest whitetail of his life but had loaned it out previously and didn’t verify it came back to rotation it required just on zero.

Dialling turrets without locks or caps fail safes are Murphy’s preference. All the proof required is here inside a couple pages but much more will come lol.

I would not hunt with a scope that didn’t have Murphy approved fail safes as it simply wasn’t a hunting scope. Zero stop is only half way there, Murphy likes them too. Murphy also approves of 100 yard zeroes.

 

[Shortschaf]

Murphy also approves of 100 yard zeroes.

Help me understand this

 

[Macintosh]

Yes, elevation turret had spun about 2moa just carrying the rifle around on a sling, back when I was shooting an moa scope. I noticed it before needing to make a shot. This is why I would strongly prefer a capped windage and locking elevation turret if it meets my other criteria, or fully capped turrets if dialing isnt on the menu.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

Help me understand this

There's no helping those that don't understand this, Murphy will guide you via empty tags. Or hunting with others who are done shooting before you even found the rangefinder? That may help.

Can't really explain how many tags we fill that wouldn't fill without being on mpbr zero's(200 usually, unless really fast set up then 250) but faafo as you must. We break out the rangefinder after the shooting more than the other way around lol. Oh, and always hold fur first shot.

I suspect many just assume it's natural to 'not have had enough time' and don't even realize they missed opportunity to fill tag trying to range something. The window of death shortens in time as it shortens in distance and ignoring the mpbr cone of death is silly af. It's a 250 yard 'no think' (maybe 300 with something really quick) THEN you start worrying about solutions and applying them when there is more likely time to do so. It's linear thing (including with volume of animals killed closer to you than not, ie; most inside mpbr and less the further you go) and boil it down with Murphy in mind. 'Removing variables' right? Hope that helps.

 

[WyldGoose]

No….but I’ve dialed, shot, killed, and forgot to reset back to zero.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

We can add to the list of reasons rifles don't hold zero.

Dialling turrets.

Where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there lol. Rub on anything due to general field movement and handling, the nut behind the wheel leaving it anywhere but where it should be.

We can remove the variable though right?

 

[Bfish22]

Years ago I was walking in to my blind with my rifle slung over my shoulder. I had a gen 1 razor with exposed turrets. When I got to my blind I realized that the windage had turned a half of a turn on the way in, but I wasn’t positive which direction it turned. Not knowing which way I needed to correct it, I just walked back out and to the range to check the next morning. After that experience, I made a plastic cap that attached with an elastic hair tie that covered the knob to keep it from turning.

Since then I’ve converted to capped windage knobs.

 

[JakeSCH]

I have had it move off zero 2x during pack outs, had a buddies turret slip up (looks like it was multiple revolutions off) once, and the worst was when I was off by an entire revolution from shooting before my hunt though that was a user error.

 

[Fireflyfishing]

No. Check your equipment. If you make it a regular habit, it doesn’t become a problem.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

Poll suggests already 56% error source on 90 votes that is a variable to easily remove and I voted no but my buddy could have voted yes. And somewhere up to 45% potentially finding Murphy the hard way at some point they will remember.

In that are a few buck of lifetimes and a 370 class bull, a near mauling, a face shot, multiple unintentional sighters, a buddy got the other buddies bull and kid in car seat using turrets as fidget spinner. Oh and many scopes sold off.

Playing Russian roulette. Great discussion. for the candid responses.

Now to list all the ways to remove the variable?

 

[Beetroot]

Never elevation but multiple times with windage.
My issue is I never dial for wind so always just assume it's not been moved, I try to check frequently that it's zeroed but have been bitten multiple times in competitions.

I know only use (where possible) capped windage scopes, or atleast locking windage.