hibernation
Lil-Rokslider
That was me, every year. I was always told that was normal, just part of the deal. In hindsight, I can't believe that I never stopped to think... if my zero is off before hunting season and needs adjustment, when did it shift? Sitting at home in a case for the off season, or sometime during the last hunt?How many times have guys sighted in and hunted through the season and then pulled there gun out prior to the next season and had to "re-zero"??
I wanted to get more serious about shooting a few years ago, took the standard hunter advice and bought a nice Leupold VX. Had the most frustrating experience with it, searched everywhere to see what I was doing wrong, eventually ended up finding the scope evals. Re-mounted it a few times, even sent it back to Leupold, they signed off that it was fine, but I couldn't ever get it to shoot consistently.
I put a known scope on the rifle and the issues all stopped. Shoot, measure, adjust, and that was pretty much it. I don't know if that makes me a convert, but it was pretty eye-opening seeing those results against all the usual fudd advice I'd been told over the years: tap the turrets, dial past and then come back to your adjustment, the first shot after an adjustment "settles" the turret, etc.
For sure, but for myself, why not eliminate one variable? I'm working on being a good shooter and that takes time, but it's sure nice eliminating a major source of error and frustration during practice. Especially when it's not strictly about spending more money, some of the tested scopes are way more affordable than a comparable Leupold (or whatever else).I'd take a good shooter and a "good" scope versus a nervous Nellie with a perfect scope any day of the week