The gun is my new TC Black Diamond. It had a Leupold FXII 4X33 scope in Weaver rings. This scope gave me fits the first time i tried to zero the gun. After the last session i checked the scope mount and rings-nothing wrong there: The rings had been honed previously. Centered the scope reticle and laser boresighted the gun.
Today i went to the place in Garvin county. i fired the first round at 50 yards: It was not on the 50 yard target. Brought the target back to 25 yards. Fired another round. Bullet hit 4.5" to the left of the bull and about 4" low. Fired a three shot group; all bullets went into about a .6" hole.
Made my scope adjustments and fired a fourth round that went into the same hole as the three previous ones. After each round the scope was dinged on with a golf ball. Made some more adjustments in vain. Bullets kept going into the same place.
This scope has friction adjustments. i have other FXII 4X33 scopes and they have never given me any problems. They were bought 3-5 years ago. The adjustments on this scope do not feel like those on my older scopes. Additionally, when the ocular piece
is adjusted for my vision it's all the way back at the end of its adjustment. There is a blurry spot in the scope at 6 o'clock.
It became obvious to the most casual observer that this scope was trashed. i anticipated this problem and brought along the only other new scope i had handy: A Nikon 4X ProStaff. Yep, it's a .22 rifle scope. Had one of those on my CVA StagHorn for several years before it went bad.
Installed the Nikon scope. The fifth round went one inch above point of aim at 50 yards. Fired a three shot group that measured just under 3/4" and was centered about 1" above point of aim. Called it quits.
I install a few dozen riflescopes for folks every year. It's been decades since a new scope failed to zero for me. This scope is going back to Cabela's. The ProStaff will stay on the gun. It looks kind of awful because its woodland camo on a blued gun but who cares.
It was otherwise a gorgeous day. Before shooting i went for a long walk and kicked up two coveys of quail. Saw the resident 12 point monster buck eating oats in a game plot-at 10 a.m.. He has two long drop tines like the big buck my friend killed there in 2004. His non-typical score is 180-190.
I was told by a store employee that restocking shelves with returns happens a lot more then we might know. Whether this is the case who knows. Glad you figured out the problem and got things working.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
Dang falcon, a Leupold that's bad. I must be lucky as I have never had a bad scope or one go bad. Cabela's is great with returing things as long as they dont tell you that you have to send it to Leupold for a repair and warranty work.
I only have 1 Leupold, a Ultimate Slam MLer Scope, I love it, I dont use the S.A.B.R.E. on it, I did but now I just us it as a regular scope, it's my favorite.
(BP)
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Those who hammer their Guns into plows will plow for those who do not. Thomas Jefferson
It doesn't surprise me. I've had 3 out out of the 6 Leupolds I've owned go bad, and I've never used the other 3. Another friend bought one and his was bad right out of the box. One of the ones I've owned has gone bad twice, and the other one I sold after it got fixed. To be fair, the 3rd one had a large spec of dirt or something internally, so it wasn't really bad, it just was a major annoyance. The one good thing I can say about Leupold is they do have pretty good customer service. I know some guys have great luck with Leupold, but I just haven't had it, no matter how much I've tried to warm up to them.
That said, I may have just gotten the bad ones. Who knows. I think you will enjoy that Prostaff. While I'm not crazy about the glass in them, they are pretty good scopes. Mechanically very good. The one I had was super durable, and always held zero even thought the rough abuse I put it through.
At least you know that your new Black Diamond is shooting great.
It sure is.
The scope i bought appeared to have never been out of the box. There were no ring marks on the tube.
Many of my center fire rifles wear Leupold scopes, some are 25 years old. Never had any trouble with any of them. Having said that; i started hearing complaints about Leupold quality several years ago. Leupold says their VXII and FXII scopes have click adjustments. That's true as far as it goes: An optical repairman says these scopes have friction adjustments with "clicks".
Muzzleloaders account for over 90 percent of the animals i kill. i am very hard on muzzleloader scopes. The gun bounces around in the cab of my truck uncased. When you drive the roads and trails hunting hogs you have to be prepared to shoot hogs. Scope failure is not new to me; been through a bunch of them. Scope failure right out of the box is new to me.
Made my scope adjustments and fired a fourth round that went into the same hole as the three previous ones. After each round the scope was dinged on with a golf ball. Made some more adjustments in vain. Bullets kept going into the same place.
I know you said you have installed many scopes in the past, but this quote tells me the scope rings screws are probably too tight! I have see this a thousand times. These screws only need anywhere from 12 to 16 " pounds of torque. That is not much. Now for heavier recoil guns I would make all my adjustments and give a little bit more torque to keep it in place. Remember that different scope are more sensitive then others! Maybe this is your problem?
I can only give you this advice from my past experiences. Hope this helps!?
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Just Another Voice in the Crowd!!!
New Scope Is Bad-Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
