Is this scope stuffed?

[andym79]

Hi guys about 3 years ago I got a savage MKii and Tasco scope. The combo would drive one bullet through another at 50 and group nice at a 100!

Well its slowly been getting worse. I took it to the range yesterday and its almost unusable! At 100 I had it grouping at 4-6"

So I took it back to 50, elevation knob down as expected, but the rifle is shooting about a foot to the right! So I move it over 28 clicks. I get two shots touching then it moves over 3 inches one way, two or three shots grouping then it moves 3 inches in a another direction!

The rifle must be fine or no shots would be touching!

The scope is nice and tight are the internals just stuffed? Should I have lashed out some more cash and bought better optics?

[Apollo]

There are ways to test a scope both on or off a rifle to see if the internals have failed to hold true.

You can use a short range target circle big enough to see the whole image through the bore and centred, check that it also centred in the scope then hit the scope hard witha rubber mallet and see if the image has moved.

You can take the scope off the rifle and centre the cross hairs with the objective lens sitting on a mirror, strong light source from the side and you will see two images so adjust the windage and elevation so they agree and are inline with each other. Lift the scope and again hit it hard with a rubber mallet at various spots like front, middle and back sides then put it back on the mirror and see if the cross hairs have moved. This is also done in the scope factories with very precise measuring equipment and you won't believe how hard they hit that scope.... There is a video somewhere from Zeiss that shows them testing scopes for faults. They even drop them at great force onto a hard surface.

[von_klitzing]

hit it hard with a rubber mallet .

Is that from the Tasco repair manual??!

[Apollo]

Really with a Tasco I would substitute the Rubber Mallet for a 10lb Sledge Hammer and be done with it....

[Chronos]

Chornos

[Apollo]

Okay, fair is fair.

An old Tasco "Made in Japan" isn't that bad, not flash but reasonable.

Modern day "Chinese" I wouldn't give to my worst enemy. Hence the test hammer method, steel.

[tom604]

i had a millett scope that i tried to sight in at 50,moved it two clicks and it was off paper,so i would say that your scope is stuffed on the bright side if you followed the advice to hit it hard with a mallet it would of been stuffed after that anyway im sure thats what all the zeiss owners do to check their scopes when they are a bit out a mallet,you guys cut me up a dodgy scope/tv ? just give it a bash with a mallet,she'll be right

[Apollo]

It is quite plain you do not know how strong a "good" quality scope really is.

Go search the video and you will change your mind.

No, it's not a joke as you suggest. Just a plain lack of knowledge.

[tom604]

i wonder how many scopes they broke making the video? and im sure that they sell them afterwards as im also sure that you would bash your $1000 dollar scope (not a Tasco ) with a rubber mallet to find out if it was holding zero. have you done it? post that video as i need a good chuckle,and do it at a range so that i can see other peoples faces when you do but really, what they do in the factory is not what you should suggest that other people do in the real world unless your rich

[Apollo]

I'll see if I can find the link as it has been some time since I saved the file but it does not show the source.

Pretty sure it's called "rifle scope impact testing" and following is a description of how the test is done. When one watches the test being done you will see the "tap" they describe is more like a wack, they don't muck around. When I say rubber mallet I mean rubber, not the hard plastic type I and some others carry in their range kit. The whole idea is to duplicate the impact put on a scope from a round being fired not to physically damage the scope tube. Might be called a "Shock Test".

Impact Testing....

"The Impact of impact: Even if sport optics do not have to necessarily be military-hardened, they should be able to handle the impact of hundreds of rounds without problem. The firing or impact resistance tests are done on the scopes before they are mounted on the collimator. Four taps with a rubber hammer - on the objective lens, on the adjustment mechanism, on the right of and down on the main tube. Manufacturers allow a deviation of a centimeter at elevation and windage, but even at twice that, this is probably ignored when considering marksmanship or ammunition variation."

[Chronos]

Tom, if you'd ever seen the slow motion film of a rifle being fired and the flex and distortion that happens you'd under stand the idea of building a scope to take an impact from a rubber mallet, I'll see if I can find it for you.

Chronos

[AusC]

I'd say try shooting a square test with it too.

Get it on paper, 50 metres will do.

Aim on the bullseye and do 4 shots then 20 clicks right. 4 more shots then 20 clicks down. 4 shots then 20 clicks left. 4 more shots then 20 clicks up.

If all is working well you should get a little square with the groups in each corner, and be back shooting over the top of your original group.

[Jessie]

It is quite plain you do not know how strong a "good" quality scope really is.

There is a bloke from some US shooting place that does a whole bunch of the drop tests.

Drops zeroed rifles down typical hills of rocks and hard earth. Drops it scope down on the ground. Knocks them over onto concrete, drops them from bench height onto concrete etc. The works.

You get some bent dials and stuff, but the good scopes are still zeroed or only need a click to sort out in most cases.

[tom604]

I agree that scopes are built to take hundreds of rounds, if not thousands, and they are built tough, an expensive scope more so, but to give advice to whack it with a rubber mallet, on a cheap scope which may not be the same build quality as say a nightforce ,is ,imo wrong.

Also there is no way I'm spending a lot of dollars on a high quality scope and doing the same thing not because the scope wont take it but because it may not or it could hasten its way out.

As I said before, what they do in the factory is fine, they break it its no big deal, in real life you break it your out of pocket. just my two cents

[andym79]

I have taken my Burris full-field off of my 223 and put it on my rim fire, and put the Tasco on the 223. Next weekend I will take both to the range and see what happens!

[Jessie]

Good that you've got a second scope for testing.

That'll be the easiest way to tell

[AusC]

Post back and let us know how you went.