The Phenomenon Of Guns or Scopes Shooting Loose

[Castle Rock]

There is a lot of traction here about thread lockers, and I am guilty of contributing for sure, but have you personally experienced this?

Looking back for the first probably 35- 40 years of my life I never did anything but lightly oil scope mount and ring screws, and this was so they wouldn’t either corrode or gall and I can’t remember one instance of finding them loose .

For sure I am/ was using a lot of torque but that is who I am, and to this day I don’t own a torque wrench but I have used quite a few over the years.
I can honestly say I have never stripped a screw, but am guilty of making the odd cheap scope a bit egg shaped.

Maybe it is a climate thing with extreme temperature fluctuations causing the problem, it is pretty mild here, gets a bit hot but never cold

 

[Macintosh]

Are you asking if anyone has ever had a scope shoot loose? Im not clear what the question is.

 

[Castle Rock]

Read the thread title, it might give you some insight

 

[Macintosh]

Ya, ok, no question in the title. Not trying to be obtuse, I just thought this had been addressed in the multiple threads. So thought maybe I was misunderstanding the question.

Yes, I have had rings shoot loose several times, including those torqued with a torque wrench. Once I started using threadlocker I havent had one loosen since.
I don’t think it’s an issue of massive recoil, of the guns I’ve had shoot loose the most frequent is actually a 22 rimfire, I’ve had a couple different sets of rings shoot loose on a pic rail on that gun. Also a 30-06 that was my only rifle for many years. The 22 does get shot quite a lot (for me), several thousand rounds a year. I do shoot in highly variable weather, it’s often in the mid 80s in the summertime and below zero in the winter, and we shoot in all conditions.

Edit: i said “shoot loose”, but obviously that is in question. The fact that my 22 has come loose significantly more than other guns, despite it being used with multiple different rings and scopes, tells me that shooting does have something to do with it, because I don’t carry that gun a ton, I don’t drive far with it. It’s basically a range gun. So it could be the shooting. But it could also be weather and vibration, I certainly never shot my 3006 much.

 

[DiabeticKripple]

i have never had a scope ring come loose on me, but i use blue loctite.

i have only ever had my action screws work loose once, and it was the only time i didnt use blue loctite.

 

[Grundy53]

Yes, I've had them come loose. Whether it was from shooting or riding in the truck on logging roads, I don't know.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

 

[Sandstrom]

Three weeks ago I had a tikka that I was working on getting the stock to fit me better for F class, so I didn’t loctite it. I was planning on taking it on and off to do some adjusting, hence no loctite. The action was torqued to 65 in lbs. somewhere between shot 30 and 40 it shot loose.
Ryan

 

[MallardSX2]

Never had a scope come loose in 35 years. Every time I read about it, I shake my head and wonder how that is even possible.

I remember when I was a kid my older cousin and I were shooting beer bottles in the dump and as we were standing there, his scope randomly fell off the gun and landed at our feet. I remember his words to this day. 30 yards later.... "What the $hit!?" lol

He is a creature of habit, I am pretty confident that it happened to him again in life.

 

[2531usmc]

I’ve never had gun/scope shoot loose. But I did read every post in the loctight thread and have taken it to heart. My next scope mount will use a tiny bit of loctight and I will buy a decent torque wrench to tighten it down.

My past practice was to tighten the screws “by experience” and I’ll never go back to doing that again.

 

[AZ_Hunter]

I’m sure I have but can’t think of a specific incident off the top of my head.

What I have seen/experienced more often is scope slippage in the rings. Subtle slippage over time. A few years back there was about a 3-4 year period where myself with a group of guys shot almost every weekend and that type of frequency accelerated the issue.

Dude 1: “Man, I’m just off today, suckin…”

Dude 2: “Look at your scope dude.”

Dude 1: “G-dammit!”

Lapping rings, using rosin and witness marks became a thing. I always used blue locktite and a torque wrench.

 

[rayporter]

i have never used loctite and never had a scope come loose.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Yes, I’ve experienced this.

 

[5811]

I think it would be cool if people could specify where something came loose if it has, i.e., rings/base/rail.

I have not experienced something coming loose using loctite and a torque wrench, but I am nowhere near the avid shooter some are.

 

[5MilesBack]

I have rifles and scopes without Loctite that I've had for decades that never had loose action screws or scope slippage, but I'm also not shooting 1000's of rounds every year.

 

[wind gypsy]

I've had action and trigger screws loosen up on personal rifles. When working the public rifle sight in days at my local private range I've seen a lot of loose scope mounts/rings.

 

[sconnieVLP]

I've had action and trigger screws loosen up on personal rifles. When working the public rifle sight in days at my local private range I've seen a lot of loose scope mounts/rings.

I volunteered at the public sight-in at the range I belong to the last few years. After the first year of it I get my gun vise and torque wrench out immediately upon arriving, I basically spend all day re-mounting and properly torquing scopes. The number of scopes that show up loose is staggering.

 

[mt terry d]

I don't think I ever had in over 5 decades of hunting. That said, I was your typical
hunter who generally took the rifle out two weeks before season, shot a few to see that
"she's still on" and went hunting, always careful to not bump that fragile aiming device.

Those days are over.

I've shot more in the last year than I probably had shot in my whole life
and have learned better. Paint and torque on a non-fragile aiming device from now on.

Never too old to learn.

 

[Wapiti151]

I’ve had two come loose, which isn’t bad considering the amount of rifles/scopes I’ve mounted/owned/shot. 30-06 and a 300win, if I recall correctly both issues were the ring-base connection on a weaver style system. Both were noticed at the range when I lost zero and could not hold a group with known ammo/rifle combo. Whether it was from shooting, something else, or me having a brain fart while mounting…I’ll never know. Switched to high quality PIC systems and haven’t had an issue since.

 

[wind gypsy]

I volunteered at the public sight-in at the range I belong to the last few years. After the first year of it I get my gun vise and torque wrench out immediately upon arriving, I basically spend all day re-mounting and properly torquing scopes. The number of scopes that show up loose is staggering.

Yep, ready with the torque wrench and a 223 to allow shooters to prove they are capable of hitting a 5 MOA target from a bench..

 

[Coopsdaddy]

Are you all using it on action screws?