How many have missed animals due to a failed scope?

[sierracharlie338]

Why is your turret cocked to the left? I can see the reticle is not inline with the turret but what's with the scope.

Possibly an illumination control as seen on the early Vortex lines. They sat at a 45 angle on the ocular housing.

 

[bigsky_hunter]

In 2020 shot at my PB whitetail with muzzleloader and 3-9x40 vortex viper. Scope was zeroed prior to season and no noticeable drops or hits to it.
Deer was at 100 yds broadside and I hit it in front knee. Stumbled away on 3 legs. I was able to track it down and finish it thankfully. I wasn’t sure if it was buck fever or equipment. Confirmed a week later scope had shifted the same as my POA to POI on the deer.
In my opinion it was a miss and led me to re-evaluating my gear and making changes. Also got me reading on this forum that my experience with vortex is not an isolated incident.

 

[S-3 ranch]

In 1982 I had a used rem 700 .270 with a redfield wide field 3x9 my dad had my uncle buy as a Xmas present and it never held zero ever, missed a few deer with it and then the reticals broke
Replace it with a leupold 3x9

 

[TxLite]

Why is your turret cocked to the left? I can see the reticle is not inline with the turret but what's with the scope.

That’s the illumination knob on the gen 1 pst

 

[ChrisAU]

In 2017 I had one of my target bucks step out at last light around 150 yards. Had the ol trusty Leupold 3-18 VX6HD on 3x, went to zoom in a bit and a lens shattered internally turning the image black. That was the last primary use Leupy I had.

 

[hunterjmj]

That’s the illumination knob on the gen 1 pst

View attachment 795314

I see

 

[Seeknelk]

Yep...drew a nice muley tag finally back in 18. Ended up hitting a nice buck way too high...barely clipped his back I think. Checked zero and it was no longer zeroed. Was hitting high. Vortex PST. Absolutely loved the warranty that day! Came in so clutch. Never used it again.

 

[robtattoo]

I had a Vortex diamondback on my last Savage .223. It fell over in the safe & by fell over, i literally mean the muzzle shifted 6" before stopping against the rifle next to it. I never gave it a second thought.
I hunted with it the next day & wound up missing 3 deer with 10 shots, the furthest being 80yds.

Took it to the range & I was hitting 4 FEET left at 100yds.

That was the last Vortex I had & I didn't even mess with the warranty (id already sent 4 or 5 things back) I tossed the damn thing & I've been SWFA all the way ever since.

 

[roadrunner]

Zero failures, zero misses.

 

[Thegman]

I (mostly) missed a black bear once with one of my Redfield Revolutions that was on my Tikka 30-06. I say mostly because there was a little blood, but nothing fatal apparently. Got home and checked it and it was about 3 inches off at 100 yards from where it should have been. Sent it to Leupold to check and they said it was fine and returned it.

I put one of my Leupold 2-7s on the Tikka, none of which have ever lost zero in 15 years or so. I've long since lost track of exactly which Revolution scope that was (I have a few of them) but I still use them and that hasn't ever happened again with any of them...?

 

[JDBAK]

Me, 4 deer on 2 hunts. Shot about 2-3 MOA low, missed and had to correct. Leupold 1.5-5.
Partner, zero shifted 6 MOA right. Weaver K-4
Partner, zero shifted about 12 MOA high. SWFA 10x.

In all cases zero was checked after the hunt

 

[JDBAK]

There are probably more, but those are the ones that come to mind that I actually went back and confirmed zero on after being baffled. All shots were prone with rest.

 

[RockAndSage]

A heck of a lot more people have probably missed game because of scopes shifting than they actually realize.

 

[Skerhunter]

Not flat out missed but poorly shot and had to be tracked down YES. Grew up with a hunting budget of $0 so had to borrow guns for the first few years where I learned killing a deer with a Simmons scope was messy and lot of work.

 

[Reburn]

leupold vx-3. Lost zero and was hitting 24" right 6" high. Rump shot that deer. Luckily it took out his hips so he wasnt lost. gun was never dropped. Never figured out what the cause of it losing zero.

 

[JGRaider]

3 1" tube Swaro A 3.5-10x42. They suck.

 

[Jake Larsen]

Another Leupold for me. Missed what would be my PB mule deer at 280 yards. 190”+ deer. Shifted 4” low at 100 when tested.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BBob]

The last one I remember was helping a guy on a late Dec cow elk tag. Slipped one evening in the dark and slippery mud and landed on his butt/back. Later that evening looking at the scope (Vortex) it had a small ding scratch on the objective bell. He didn't want to check it the next morning (nudged him several times to run out down the road at daylight to check) so off we went to hunt. We got into a herd of cows early morning and he dinged one somewhere on a front leg. Shot again and missed and they ran off. Didn't kill it. Tracked blood for several miles till it quit. He later verified at the range that it was off a lot. Can't remember how much but it verified that the scope got knocked out.

 

[roadrunner]

@The Guide

Let me spell this out for you in crayons: no scope failures meaning no misses because of it. Doesn't surprise me you thought I referred to it as never missing since the very topic of the thread is about misses due to scope failures.

Complete flyby on both, wasn't it....

 

[robby denning]

Just curious with all the drop testing and scope talk lately, how many have actually missed an animal due to their scope losing zero. Buck fever doesn’t count.

Be honest, I emptied my gun in a giant buck once at 200 yards and never even grazed him. Took the gun back and rang steel at 600. My boys were both sitting next to me and will never let me live it down. I think it was karma for not letting them shoot! They were 13 & 10 at the time and both told me they would have easily hit it. Lol

My kid also missed a buck at 150 twice a few years back shooting off a tripod. He said the gun was off, I took him to shoot the next day and acted like I was making some adjustments and he shot perfect. That night he killed the same buck he missed after I re-zeroed the gun

Interesting POLL

To my knowledge, it has never happened. And there’s been more than a few animals I’ve missed and then I went back and checked my rifle and it was fine.

I love all the drop testing going on around here, but it’s not made me paranoid enough to switch scopes yet ( don’t hate me Form)

So I answered your POLL as no.

However, I did witness it happen with a friend once, it was back in 2004 so I can’t remember what scope it was but he always had great gear so it was a good brand name scope (whatever that means by today’s standards lol ). Missed a buck and when we checked zero he was off at least the width of an 8 inch diameter quakie at 100 yards.