I might have broke a Pro Diamond Scope
 

As many of you know, I really enjoy pushing equipment such as a cheap scope. Well I might have actually broke a Simmons 4x32mm Pro Diamond finally. It was mounted on a .45 caliber Green Mountain Barrel. That barrel rested in a T/C Renegade Stock. After braving the deep snow to set up a target, and taking a good spill, I brought out some 300 grain Hornady XTP's in .430 diameter. These shoot great out of this right. I was using 100 grains of Schuetzen 2f black powder.

I need to apologize for the confusing target first and then explain.. You can see some numbers in red, low left under the bulls eye. Well the target was set at 50 yards. The scope is sighted in at 50 yards. And the first three hits you could have covered with a quarter. I was pleased and pumped. I was swabbing between shots with MAP. Then shot #4 came along, way up in the gray tape. And I thought.. what the heck. That shot felt great. So I fired #5. Again, up in the tape and now I was confused. The other week shooting this rifle with powerbelts it was dead on.

So into the house I went. Checked my notes. And grabbed some of the 280 grain Powerbelt Aero Tips I had left and used 80 grains of Schuetzen 2f. Before it was super accurate.

Not wanting to confuse the shots.. I aimed at the bullet top in that orange sabot. And now with a load just two weeks before that was shooting quarter size groups I shot numbers.. 6-9. I mean face it, that is not even a group. So I decided to quit shooting the .45 caliber for the day. I would clean it and try it again and see if I really did break that Simmons Pro Diamond scope. I just can't understand how a rifle can go that far south at 50 yards.

The reason the center of the target is all shot to pieces.. like I said, I walked through that snow to set that target up and I was not about to do 9 shots and call it a day. So I went in the house and got my Traditions Woodsman percussion 50 caliber with the 1-66 twist. I'd found some roundball the other day I had made a long time ago. They were completely oxidized. But that normally does not hurt accuracy. So I was shooting 85 grains of Schuetzen 2f and holding six o'clock just into the bottom of the bulls eye with the open sights of the rifle.

Needless to say that Traditions made me feel a little better about myself that day. I never swabbed. And the last three were REALLY hard to load. I shot them at the BlackHorn 209 powder picture in the top left corner of the target. You can see the group is opening up.

So then I went and took the target down. And fought the snow again. In my back yard the snow is still 10 inches (the front yard is cleared through with the heat wave) deep and its the kind where you take a step and your on top. Another step your on top. And then suddenly you break through. Really hard and for men with bad knees, dangerous to walk in. It resulted in the knee giving out on me, and of course the snow then tripped me and over I went.

But I got the target down and was going to quit when I spotted two paint cans trying to get my attention to mock me for my graceful tumble :wave: out there at 86 yards. So I swabbed the barrel clean, held right on the top of the can and knocked them off their perch into the snow.. made me feel better anyway..

So it will be interesting to see if next time out, that Simmons sprays all over the target.

You may have a first Cayugad. All five of my ProDiamonds are still going strong. The one on my little Omega X7 takes the most pounding with 300 grain bullets. It has around 500 shots out of it. Before to check the mounts before you next shoot with it.

I checked them today. They seem fine. But I will take a wrench to them just to be sure.

The Pro-Diamond is a good scope. i managed to trash one after 3-4 years banging around on my Old CVA StagHorn uncased in the truck. It tied with the Nikon ProStaff for longevity on that gun.

cayugad

It does happen... I ended up breaking that less expensive Swift that I had also... but the Swift Preimier is still working like a champ.

Well the wife took me shopping today, we spent the day dodging from shady spot to shady spot. It was very bright and sunny and over 80 degrees we seem to have went from winter to summer. What happened to spring.

We never really had a true winter this year. But we did get some snow. The knee tonight is all swollen. I should have known better. But I wanted to shoot so much. I will double check the bases and rings tomorrow. But I really do suspect that scope. It was in the 60's today and for this time of the year that is not bad. Now comes all the yard work.

Same here. My tomato and pepper plants are already in the ground and growing like crazy. Been mowing the lawn since the end of February. We didn't have even one night of freezing weather in New Orleans this Winter. Shorts, sandals and T-shirts are the order of the day.

It has really been nice in Arkansas. The last 2 days I've had to spend inside taking a trauma class, got one more day to go. I'm off the weekend and hoping to plant lettuce, radishes, and green onions. This has been a very unusual winter.

My friend had a pro diamond that he used on a 12ga slug gun that shot very well... right up until it gave out on him. Same story. Great groups one day and then all over the place. I believe it lasted him about 3 years. I hope the knee gets to feeling better!
rw

Ain't that the truth. Most years I'm finishing up my ice fishing season about now. I actually got both of my gardens tilled and ready to plant this week. I usually can't do anything with them (too wet) until late April-Early May. My wife and I saw a Buck still carrying both of his antlers last week and that's the latest I've EVER seen that happen.

BPS

I had a Robin in the yard the other day. That's always been said a sure sign of spring in Wisconsin. He's a few weeks early for up north here. I have not worked the gardens yet. They are still snow covered in the back yard here. I do have 72 tomato seedlings growing. But where I am at we usually don't plant until the first week in June. And have had frost even then. So this is strange weather.

Now I have 10 logger cord (4' high x 4' wide x 8' long or 24 face cord for the city people) of maple firewood delivered and waiting to be cut. I have an addition to build on the garage, and the orthopedic surgeon wants to replace my knee.. I have better things to do.

The weather man out of Duluth MN said we have a week of above average temps coming. That should melt all this snow in the yard. The snow piles will take a while. But to give you an idea of how early this spring is.. there was one year I went snowmobiling in the last week of April and even a short run, the first week of May. The snow was bad, but there was enough to get the machine out. Still it was cool enough this morning, that I needed a fire to warm the house up.

Be interesting to see if the scope is really broke. I have 2 and haven't broke one yet (despite dropping one of them on concrete 2 times), but I don't think I have 500 shots through either of them. The oldest one maybe has 200 shots or so....

Yeah, this "winter" has been really strange. Not that I'm complaining too much, normally we're freezing our butts off all winter...