Just listened to today’s man cast. Good episode good work.
When I heard you describing your issues with the loss of zero I was immediately reminded of two separate occasions I dealt with a similar thing. Two separate vx-6 scopes, two separate rifles, at least 6 months if not 12 months separated. Several range sessions with each rifle.
Gun #1 was a Element in 308. I forget which rifle was #2.
Shooting at the range at usually 100 or even 200 yards. All of the sudden without any warning the POI would shift by exactly 2 MOA up or down.
Always perfectly up and down, absolutely no windage shift. And on every occasion it was exactly two Moa not close to it or a little above it. But exactly 2. And this would be confirmed with multiple three shot groups. Not just a single shot or even a single three shot group.
I would then reset the zero stop with the gun perfectly zeroed again. And then anywhere from 2 to 4 range sessions later it would move exactly two MOA in the reverse Direction. It never went up twice or down twice in a row.
I’ve got other Leupolds on other rifles and this is not happened to any of them. That does include a vx5 on my 7 PRC (knock on wood)
Really curious to see what you find with your testing.
$2000 scopes are doing that? Seems like sending to Leupold for warranty would be warranted. What does Leupold CS say? Curious because I have. VX6. I have not used it enough to say if happening.
I did that with one of them. They sent it back. Their communication isn’t the best in the world. It looks like they did replace something in it but I can’t tell what from the description that they returned with it.
I’ve got it on a new gun now but haven’t had a chance to actually shoot with it and see how it works.
I ended up selling the other one because I had someone that wanted to buy the gun that it was on right then and there. I gave him full disclosure. To the best that I know he never had trouble with it but I’m pretty sure he sold that gun himself now
Just saw the YouTube video last night. And I read the responses today.
I’m glad you’re happy to be a YouTube persona, because I couldn’t do it. I would have read those comments and blown my top. Okay, to be honest some of them were actually decent
Can’t wait to see what you figure out with this problem
Yeah, the whole episode was super frustrating. Cost me a nice buck and I still really don’t have any answers as to what happened. That gun is now cursed.
What if was not the scope but a foreign object between the chassis and barrel effecting the barrel harmonics? I see the same type of shift when adding or removing a suppressor. Just a thought.
I have mounted scopes to the torque specs for the rings and have had them shift on an 06. Cost my son a deer. I tried again on same rings and same problem. They were vortex rings and I did not lap. So I just went to a different ring brand and problem solved. I also torqued a bit higher than spec. 15 inch pounds is not much.
In your pod cast I didn’t hear if you checked the zero stop lock screw - I was wondering if this loosened a bit and the zero was inadvertently adjusted.
I have never had a Leupold Scope lose it’s zero after sighting it in.
Also, what was the temperature difference between when you sons killed their Elks and you took the shot at the Buck?
Some ammunition is temperature sensitive and will throw off your POI based on ambient temperature changes.
I do agree with you that this mystery is frustrating.
I also agree that the striations on the SCOPE RINGs was disturbing. It was obviously not a solid connection.
Well I hope you have a great thanksgiving and get a second chance on a buck.
I did check the zero stop and other Allens on the scope. Didn’t find anything off.
Good thought to check the temperature effect on the powder. I did check that and it couldn’t have changed more than a click and I’d already adjusted for it anyway.
It’s an odd one, but I really want to figure it out. I’m changing the scope and rings out, and sending in the scope to Leupold to check for good measure.
Any follow up? I am placing an order for new rifle in next few days and had decided on a VX-6HD but found many web complaints about the loss of zero and had discovered the Rokslide drop test. May wait to hear what you find. I have 1500-2k glass budget so trying to figure out if I should just go another direction.
With a budget like that I think I would be looking toward something else. I feel like Leupold shines up to about $1,000 and then the competition with the finer European scopes just outpaces them. I have VX Freedoms, VX-3HD and VX-5HD, but I also have some nicer scopes from other vendors that I like more in that price range. Look at Swarovski Z5i, which just had an update, or the Steiner Predator 8, or Zeiss V6, or even Schmidt & Bender (if you can afford it, why not?).
Yeah I hear you, and not as many reviews out there on YT of the more expensive stuff. All of them are top tier quality though. I think if you narrow down by certain preferred features (illumination or no, capped or exposed turrets, second or first focal plane, preferred zoom range, parallax adjustment or no, subtensions or clean reticle, etc.) then that will eliminate some choices automatically. Like for example almost all the Schmidt & Benders are FFP, which might either eliminate or move them up a bit for you. Some vendors don’t offer plain reticles or some only offer more plain reticles, etc.
If you know some of your preferences in general from other scopes, even cheaper ones, then that can help, and then no matter which of those high end brands you go with, it’s going to be a great scope at the end of the day.
