Podcast Episode · Modern Day Sniper Podcast · 11/29/2024 · 1h 3m
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This guys may have things figured out in regards to the drop test validity in his talks with some industry experts. Anyone care to spend 20 minutes of their time to give this a listen then give your thoughts? Skip ahead to 38 minutes and listen to about minute 55.
@Ryan Avery @Formidilosus what do you guys say? Get him on the podcast then let’s get this “significant wager” on video??
-If this is the wrong place for this I’ll gladly move it.
I don't think he gets it on a very basic level. A bunch of stuff is popping out to me as I listen to it indicating he fundamentally doesn't understand what's going on and has the worst possible attitude towards it. To be fair he might just be gaslighting to cover for Leupold given his affiliations with them.
1. You'd have to do it hundreds of times to be valid.
I don't think he understands the underlying statistics of the failures. A pass isn't necessarily a guarantee that the scope model is all good for everyone. But a failure (normally they test a replacement as well if the first fails) is something to be concerned about because sure maybe the failure rate is 1/1000 or something but hitting that twice in a row is wildly unlikely.
2. If your rifle gets bumped you HAVE to check your zero (ignoring scopes losing zero from riding around in a truck)
The point of putting together a rifle/optic system for zero retention is to avoid having to do that. Accepting that it's just how things work is defeatist and sad.
3. His friend from Leupold, who also happens to be affiliated with his business, thinks it's dumb.
The guy from the company whose scopes get bashed for failing droptests thinks the droptests are dumb?
4. There are too many factors to blame the scope.
So make an attempt to control those factors? The testing procedure aims to control those factors as best it can. Throwing up your hands and declaring that it's not possible to improve things is, again, defeatist and sad. He's basically just conceding defeat and moving on without trying.
1. Bed your stock and stay on top of your action screw torque
2. Loctite/epoxy your scope base as needed
3. Use good scope rings and install them properly
Suddenly you can start narrowing things down then. Saying "Oh it's all just too complicated I give up" is such a weird attitude for a long range instructor.
Especially one who spent awhile during this exact podcast episode extolling the durability/reliability of AI rifles. You're just cool with having an unreliable optic on top of your AI?
5. Scopes and scope rings aren't designed to withstand side impacts.
As far as the scopes, maybe that's something we should push for then. Also clearly some scopes are designed to withstand that. Hence why NF scopes get smacked against a hard surface from a bunch of different directions before they're sent out. That's one big point of the drop-testing.
As far as the scope rings, I don't know what he means. Nothing about the design of the premium rings I'm familiar with indicates a weakness to side impacts. Just no idea what he's talking about there.
6. If you're not dryfiring every day and shooting very often, your zero is moving from you not shooting well.
Then why does it stop when people move to better scopes?