How many have missed animals due to a failed scope?

[Spence14]

As a teenager I had a Nikon 3x9 on a browning .270. I can't remember which model Nikon, but it cost me a few whitetail. One that would be a personal best to this day.

I didn't know much about proper scope mounting at the time, so I couldn't tell you if it was the rings, base, or the scope, but I know on the big whitetail it was hitting a foot high at 50 yds when I got back to the truck and shot paper.

It finally ran out of erector travel after sighting it back in a couple times. Pawned the gun and scope, but wish I would have kept the gun!

 

[Pilsner]

I might have the best scope failure story of the thread. This last fall I was in Kansas on a private land hunt with some buddies - one of whom is the best on-the-hoof-field-judge of bucks I have ever seen. I was shooting a 6 creed that has become the rifle with which I train new shooters to shoot on. Ol' Trusty so to speak. So i'm shooting at a 160-class buck at around 110 yards - the buck is rutting hard chasing a hot doe and doesn't even notice the bullets missing him or the noise (thank you suppressor) and my buddy finally notices a splash from my shot - I'm off by 6 FEET or so! So, my buddy yells to get my attention, tells me to drop my rifle, and throws me his rifle (with which we have already harvested an animal, so we know it's on). In the time that this takes to transpire a new buck comes into the scene and my buddy is now yelling at me SHOOT THE NEW BUCK ON YOUR LEFT! THE BUCK ON YOUR LEFT! Bang, flop.
This might be the only time in my life that I'm grateful for a scope failure and missing a 160-class buck. The "new" buck green scored 186 6/8"!
Upon later inspection my rifle had sheared off both screws on the rear mount and the scope wouldn't hold zero. I have no idea what happened to it. The week before I'd used the same setup to coach a new shooter out to 700 yards on our private range without issue and the rifle was transported in a hard sided pelican case. Leupold replaced the scope after testing but that is kind of a moot point as it failed me when I needed it most.
At least my broken scope story had a happy ending.