279 posts later... good closure to this butt hurt train wreck for both sides.
If only . . . For whatever reasons I read this entire train wreck of a thread and am now contributing to it. About halfway through I began wondering how one joins the Form cult and whether they have cookies, offer door prizes, or if you have to pay dues, attend services, or brand yoruself or something. Same questions for the anti-Form cult. I'll consider joining either cult for good cookies.
I get a kick out of seeing Leupolds on the Rokslide Riihimäk rifle (correct term for Tikka), so thanks to anyone that uses them. Lol
I hesitate to ask, but why is "Riihimak" the "correct term for Tikka"? I ran a google search but only looked for about 10 seconds. Is that just the town in Finland where they are made or is there something more clever behind this quip?
I'm one of the guys who still runs a Leupold VX5 on a Tikka. I'll even include pics to brighten your day. It's chambered in 30-06 if helps/hurts the comedy factor for you here.
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In all seriousness, I often ask myself essentially the same question posed by the OP: If so many Leupolds are used and recommended by so many folks, are they really all that bad? If top-level competitors and the .mil use them, surely they must be okay/good enough for me, right? Surely if I buy another one I'll get a good one, right? (My questions are rhetorical. I understand what the drop tests are supposed to show and others' reasons for why they don't use them anymore---don't flame me.) I really WANT them to be golden because I really WANT to get a Mark 4HD 2.5-10 FFP. But I haven't yet.
Because I'm also one of those guys who checks his zero before every hunting season and after every long road trip with the rifle. And I DO have to re-zero sometimes when I get there after I zeroed just before leaving. Anecdotally, my VX5HD seems less prone to this than the VX3HD. I've made multiple trips out west and up mountains and back with the Tikka/VX5HD with it holding zero the whole time. But that one time I had adjust it when I got there, and adjust it again when I got home, with the same batch of ammo. That one time is enough to put nagging doubt in a person's mind. The VX3HD has seemed to shift after a much shorter ride in the pickup in a padded hard case.
Now, I'm not willing to say that I've ruled out othe things causing the apparent shift. I use lightweight Talley rings that I (some random guy who drives a desk for a living) installed; and I haven't bedded either of these rifles. And, somewhat embarrassingly considering how OCD I am about taking notes on other things, I haven't really tracked my zero methodically. That's something I plan to do over the next several months before next season. But that brings me to another point/question.
One of the reasons I have never really thought much about having to tweak the zero on my rifles over time is that I'm constantly changing loads or batches of components or whatever. I buy components in bulk for my "target" rifle, but I may only buy 50 or 100 Nosler Accubonds or whatevrer at a time for my 30-06 or other hunting rifles. When I switch lots, I expect it to shoot to a slightly different point of impact, and so I expect to have to re-zero my rifle with this year's load before heading out. Same thing if I buy factory ammo---I expect different lots of the same ammo to shoot to slightly different POIs, so I expect to have to re-zero. Is that something you experience? If so, I guess the cure is buying in bulk so all components are in the same lot (or just re-zeroing every time something changes, as I'm doing now).
FWIW - My non-Tikka rifle with the VX3 took a nice buck this year. Of course, that was at a meager 75 yards and I zeroed the week before, so I'm not making any claim here other than there's now meat in my freezer.
