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scope recticle failure?

  • never had one fail

    Votes: 7 63.6%
  • one cheap one died

    Votes: 3 27.3%
  • one expensicve one died

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • this ain't a problem

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • it is a BIG problem

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • forget the scope buy more ammo

    Votes: 2 18.2%
  • don't ask me i am a democrat

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • they didn't teach this in school!

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • get a leupold!

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • get a NC-star!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

scope failures?

3K views 13 replies 4 participants last post by  j427x 
#1 ·
this is a poll about rifle scope cross-hairs breaking, falling and or failing in any way.

the reason i'm asking if you had a scope lose hit cross-hairs is because of all the newer etched glass scopes that are now on the market.

personally i have never had one lose the cross hairs or get loose in my 40 years of shooting. i'm certainly not a good cross section cause for at least the first 25 years few if any scopes were used by me. i haven't bought many cheap scopes and even fewer expensive ones.

cheap scopes i do have

1 old gibson --remember gibson story before wally-marts?? 4x fixed power scope on a 22 --just a re-branded "tasco" from their japan days , i have felled many a rodent with it when i was a kid . she still works like a charm.

1 very old bushnelle fixed power 4x --this one is really beat up , got some serious dents in the tube and the forward bell--nothing cracked and she still shoots true. these two are probably nearly 40 years old. the bushnelle might be even older --

1 old simmmons 3x9 32mm el-cheapo scope bought in the early 90s way back when i had that bushmaster m17 it was mounted on top --was pretty accurate , it had an episode of moving zero--this was caused by the mount not the scope though.

it is setting on a 7.62x39 upper and it is accurate and holds zero perfectly well-- but the glass is getting very yellow--LOL! i got my $30 out of it--LOL!

i planning on replacing this one--

one bushnelle 3-9x 40mm of recent china make, this one seems fine is fairly clear and bright came on a savage edge 308 , it holds zero well . if i was 20 or 30 i could live with this scope well enough, however i have some damage to my eyes and as i get older these little lense issues are getting harder for me to cope with . i may pull this one and put it on the scoped 7.62x39 where it will never see use @ 9x it should be OK with the lower settings--(LOL) then maybe not--this is probably the same scope they sell in a blister pack in box stores for about $60

the rest of my scopes are the older american made burris fullfield 2s with the old style thing where the entire rear-bell turns when you change mag--

they have been good scopes still very clear --though i am itching to try some new glass and i have a number of rifles that are--err naked--LOL!

anyway out of this bunch of scopes none of them have had the crosshairs fall , get lose or break and some of them have been abused for going on 40 years--

now that i'm looking for new glass i find out natchez is having a blowout on old and discontinued stock --like get a $300 glass for $170 and so on. they got some interesting nikons,redfield burrises and weavers for close to 1/2 price --

now here is the glass etched recticle comes in -- the newer scopes have this--that is why all the old stock from 2010-2012 is on sale.

so in this instance there is a big price jump just to get that modern etched glass.

the etched glass is supposed to prevent the cross-hairs from falling. now i know that some of the el-cheapo scopes have had the crosshairs fall--

i haven't had this issue so far-- then again there are some big gaps --like decades when i didn't buy scopes--

i don't THINK it is a problem with the higher end scopes -- what do you all think?
 
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#2 ·
I had an NC-Star LER 3x9 scope crap out on me. It was installed on the rear sight base of a Finn M39.

I was hunting whitetail in some rough country. As I was climbing down a hill, I took a tumble (no round in chamber) and whacked the rifle hard as I fell. I was climbing down to field dress a doe my dad took. When I finished gutting her I saw a buck approach. I think the doe scent on the doe and me was twitterpating the buck.

The scope zero was all over the place after that. I had a 40 yard shot at the buck and missed 5 of 5 shots. Dummy just stood there. I finally bagged him by sighting down the barrel for a lung shot.
 
#4 ·
did the cross hairs fall out or get loose? would a etched glass cross hairs helped in that situation?

i am not too shocked that were going to find some of the china knock-off scopes having problems -- i got a brand new BEC 42mm "gold line"compact 3-9x that has never been mounted-, yea its THAT bad---LOL it has horroible yellow glass, very cloudy and has like 0" eye relief-- other than that is looks to be well made would have been an OK scope had they used real glass to make the thing-- i wouldn't mount this POS on a air-soft though--LOL

a
 
#3 ·
I haven't had the recticle fail on any scope yet, but I have had 3 scopes go bad. The first was a tasco shotgun scope back in the 80's. First time out after buying it, the windage turret fell off. Then I've had two simmons scopes have the inner tube with the cross hairs in them lock up so that you couldn't adjust them anymore. One was a replacement to the tasco scope on my 12ga 1100, and the other was on a mini14. Both were also back in the 80's when they failed.
 
#6 ·
sounds like you got some of those first off the boat from china ones? sounds like some of the discount store scopes had some problems other than a etched glass would fix---

my el cheap-o simmons from the early 90s has held up ok --other than the glass yellowing and it light transmission is "not good" but it was OK for a few years when it was newer-- not leupold,nikon, burris,redfield great--just OK for a cheap POS--

so far no crosshairs breaking???---
 
#7 · (Edited)
double posting bad today---LOL

ok i forgot another 'jive-turkey" scope -- a few years ago i bought a nikko-sterling from CDNN for --around $60-$70 IIRC , epic reason not to buy a no-name scope.

it was a 1.5-6.5x 44mm i think --looked nice on the outside . but the glass!!

the glass was like looking through and empty coke bottle! i believe that was the worst scope i ever came across, so bad it makes the box store $30 simmons and bushnells look like leupold XXXXXivs in comparison--

me and CDNN went around a bit before they gave me a store credit on that one too as it was a no-deposit no return item-- they sure didn't want it back!

ironically i see people on the internet bragging on nikkos --maybe they have improved --but once was enough for me! i wouldn't pay the postage for one if they were giving um away.

this is another one that didn't get a chance to break cause it was never mounted on a firearm--but i did threaten to bash it on the shop floor a few times!


this is the worst scope i ever bought -- the BEC compact scope that was gave to me is a far better scope than this one and the 44mm BEC is not fit for a rifle either.
 
#8 ·
but when was the last time a crosshair fell in a leupold? a burris? a vortex? a weaver" a redfield? a nikon?

the first place i ever saw the etched stuff was the cheap scopes --they probably really do need the technology , as they haven't even got the old stuff right yet--

would a etched NcStar be better than a old leupold?--

burris e1s have the etched glass , i don't recall the older line of them having any problems though- i do see etched glass as a improvement --but i don't see it as a big improvement for the higher end scopes that didn't need much help in that area anyway.

i ca see a low $ scope as it being a bigger improvement --as they were the ones with the problems to start with.

i haven't heard of a crosshair falling out on a weaver super slam dangerous game ? they mount those things on rhino guns---
 
#9 ·
The crosshair looked fine, else I would have suspected something was wrong immediately. I have no idea if etched glass would have been any better. The scope simply completely lost zero. At 40 yards I was sending bullets everywhere but into the buck!
 
#10 · (Edited)
from what i understand--and that could be wrong , the moving,falling, breaking cross-hairs is what the etching fixes. supposedly the wires break and even fall off . can't recall that ever happening to any i have been around. it might have become a bigger problem from the late 80-to today with the flood of cheap china made stuff. some of that has got to be bad news--

--seems like when i was a kid i had some toy 20mm or maybe even a 14mm airgun scope that the cross hairs fell on. but that is so long ago i am not even sure that happened IRL???--LOL i might have just dreamed it up--

seems like i did hear of a nikon doing something like that long-long ago --back when they were like new in the scope biz--but even that is questionable because it might have been people talking they were afraid the nikon might do it rather than that actually happening?

so i am not sure that happened either.

i figure if there was an epidemic of scope failures with the cross-hairs breaking --as much as gunco members shoot we should be hearing about the event???--
 
#11 ·
I've had 2 fail in the past, a cheap 3-9 Tasco and an expensive Leupold. So cost doesn't seem to be a factor. But then ,, most of my guns/scopes have shot more ammo off than most people have ever even seen before, so that could be it too.

Back when I was competing 2-3K rounds a week wasn't unheard of at all, and pretty much the norm so they got lots and lots of use. I only have 2-3 etched ones so far and I like them, the scopes seem to be brighter sense there's no "ring" to hold the cross hairs in place and the x hairs are finer and sharper it seems. I don't know if that holds true for all but mine do seem to be a bit better.

I should do a side by side someday just for shits and giggles.
 
#12 ·
which leupold failed?

i think the etched glass is better too. the question is how much better is the etched in scopes of equal value and build quality?


lets just say " you in the shop and you find a very nice nikon for $200 and you find a newer nikon with etched glass for the same price---

BUT the newer $200 nikon is a couple steps down the pecking order , like the new one is the base model and the old one with the wire is a monarch--(LOL)

i'm just picking nikon --as a base could be any brand scope--
 
#13 ·
You know ,,, it was so long ago I don't recall the exact model of the Leupold that failed to be honest, that had to be 20 years ago or so at this point,,,,,,

SHIT,,,, I can barley remember what to hell happened yesterday fir Christs Sake!!!!! You honestly expect me to remember that far back,,,,, you funny,,,,,, short term memory loss ya know,,, Not sure what causes that????:lol:

The Tasco was one of the wide view ones, I only know that cause I moved it around a couple days ago, never did send that one back,, not worth it, it was junk to start with.
 
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