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

[redchinviking]

Another thread made me wonder where everyone sits on this. I feel some think it’s a non-issue and some think it’s a potentially big issue. I have found my turret off a few clicks only a few times in my hunting career but now it makes me prefer a scope with turret locks.

This is really only important when having to take faster shots at shorter ranges because you should or could have more time to check your turrets at reasonably longer ranges but sometimes that’s not a luxury we are always afforded. But in all honesty I would say I usually have time.

Rare as it may be, in my case, this is mostly caused from turrets rubbing on backpack straps as I prefer to use a gun bearer on my pack for long approaches but other times it just happened somewhere along the way with heavy brush and branches.

I guess the next natural question is did it affect the outcome of your hunt? Luckily I can say no to that but a locking turret on a few of my scopes (and a capped windage) now almost always prevents that. Something tells me I’m not alone. Does a turret lock matter to you?

 

[alecvg]

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.

 

[LookinforDirt]

Found my windage off 2-3 clicks my last hunt. I’m a lefty and sling my rifle over my left shoulder sometimes when hiking. The dial must have rubbed against my pack. Glad I noticed it because I took a quick offhand shot at a deer a couple hours later.

 

[MCS]

I had the windage turret turn on my old mark 4 when putting a stalk on a deer. I still got the deer but he got hit in the head instead of the chest.

 

[Shortschaf]

Yes they have spun. No I've never been burned. Check your turrets before shooting if you choose to have exposed ones

But yes, it would be better if scope manufacturers would just make them locking though

 

[waspocrew]

Nope, never had that happen. If I was packing in a ways or using scabbards, etc, I'd just make a habit of checking your turret when taking it out.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Yep. Missed the biggest buck of my life because of it, a giant nontypical.

 

[Colterw]

Intentionally? I was showing off the cool zero stop on my scope to a buddy and forgot that I had set the zero stop on my 6.5 rifle's scope and not on my 300.

Oops.

Had to re-zero because I also hadn't reset my turret.

 

[butcherboy]

Nope. I don’t shoot scopes with turrets. My go to rifle is zeroed at 200. Next mark in the reticle is 300 400, 450, then finally 500.

 

[sstank]

Yes, but noticed it before the shot. My scopes now have locking turrets, lol.

 

[SLIVER]

I forgot to dial back down unintentionally...... Had a 100 yard shot and was dialed up to 735. Missed a 370" bull about 2 feet over it's back!

Hard lesson learned!

 

[AndrewMT34]

I have also forgot to dial back down unintentionally, thankfully it was just at the range.

couldn't figure out how i went from ringing steel at distance to missing at 425 haha.

Need to add that as a conscious thought in my shooting process.

 

[Megalodon]

It’s the importance of having a shot process and following it. I check or have just dialed my turrets before every shot. On the shorter distance quick shots each click is a smaller physical distance on target so I’d imagine it’d have to be a big spin to mess things up.

 

[Maverick1]

Not the turrets. The magnification ring, though.

New scope. Animal came through at close range. Had magnification set at 6x. Intended to adjust magnification down to 3.5x. Turned up to 18x. Was kind of hard to find the animal at 55 yards as it was walking. Managed to find it in the reticle and get the shot off, even at 18x. Just a youngster.

 

[elkguide]

Pulled my rifle out of a tight case and hiked into a basin where I proceeded to shoot over the back of the biggest mule deer that I have ever seen. Now I check my scope turrets several times a day.

 

[TaperPin]

I’ve primarily dialed on silhouette or varmint rifles - every once in a while what should be an easy shot is wide and the first thing I’ll look at is what I’m dialed to. Usually I forgot to dial back to my zero distance, but sometimes it’s just from who knows where. If it doesn’t lock it will eventually rub against something and move.

Sometimes looking at what the scope is dialed to just doesn’t compute and that causes a malfunction - silhouette scopes are just marked with a sharpie for C, T, P, or R to reduce odds of it being on the wrong number.

 

[ktm450]

Yes….windage moved on a backcountry hunt. 3-clicks right

 

[atmat]

My scope has unintentionally dialed coming off my pack before, as well as in/out of scabbards.

It’s never cost me anything, but I’m also relatively new to dialing the last couple of years so I find myself internally talking out my shot process.

 

[pbroski]

After several days into a backcountry hunt while using a scabbard, I noticed my zero was about 2.5 moa high. Then it happened a few more times on that same hunt but only a click or two each time. I was aware of what was happening after the first time, so was checking it often. That was with a VX-3HD with Zerolock. I never missed an animal because of it, fortunately.

 

[Oldrifle]

Had a few close calls with my turret getting knocked off zero, especially when bushwhacking or wearing my rifle on a pack. Luckily, never lost an opportunity, but it's a stress I don't need. Now, I look for scopes with locking turrets or capped windage.