I've had a VX3 on a 25 WSSM for several years with nary an issue. It was mounted on a Leupold pic rail with Seekins rings. Everything was torqued to spec with a gun specific torque wrench. It wasn't repeatable, but once set it stayed pretty close to zero; year to year.
Most hunting scopes can be found to wander a little if you keep track. I had no problem killing deer for years and years before I shot enough and kept track closely enough to notice that. It must be good enough.
This year I moved it to another rifle that usually wears a peep sight. I happened to have a cheap pic rail I used on that rifle with a cheap high mag scope in cheap rings for load testing. Mounted on that rail with the Seekins rings, the scope vertical scope adjustment started jumping. Adjustments would make no change, then make too much change. I dealt with it to get the rifle zeroed and shot a group to confirm.
An atv ride later, in a gun rack on the front, my son missed a chip shot; high. We checked it at home, it was 3" high at 100 yards. I tried to rezero, tapping turrets and bumping the stock on the ground and it just kept jumping. Horizontal worked normally. I got no time in my life for that.
While removing the rings I found one ring slightly compressed the tube. I have no way of knowing when that happened. I would like to think it was the cheap rail. I've noted in the past that one of the issues with picatinny is you need quality stuff to avoid putting your adjustments in a bind.
Regarding the atv, I only recently bought one. I kinda hate them a lot, but hunt club life makes them handy. So far I've been asking around and people who have had scope trouble from them fix that by using a padded rifle case strapped down or carrying them across their back. I had assumed people were just being cheap.
So that's how to ruin a Leupold and probably most other hunting scopes. Use a cheap rail and take it 4wheelin'. If I get the scope back from Leupold it'll go in a one piece unitized mount.
Most hunting scopes can be found to wander a little if you keep track. I had no problem killing deer for years and years before I shot enough and kept track closely enough to notice that. It must be good enough.
This year I moved it to another rifle that usually wears a peep sight. I happened to have a cheap pic rail I used on that rifle with a cheap high mag scope in cheap rings for load testing. Mounted on that rail with the Seekins rings, the scope vertical scope adjustment started jumping. Adjustments would make no change, then make too much change. I dealt with it to get the rifle zeroed and shot a group to confirm.
An atv ride later, in a gun rack on the front, my son missed a chip shot; high. We checked it at home, it was 3" high at 100 yards. I tried to rezero, tapping turrets and bumping the stock on the ground and it just kept jumping. Horizontal worked normally. I got no time in my life for that.
While removing the rings I found one ring slightly compressed the tube. I have no way of knowing when that happened. I would like to think it was the cheap rail. I've noted in the past that one of the issues with picatinny is you need quality stuff to avoid putting your adjustments in a bind.
Regarding the atv, I only recently bought one. I kinda hate them a lot, but hunt club life makes them handy. So far I've been asking around and people who have had scope trouble from them fix that by using a padded rifle case strapped down or carrying them across their back. I had assumed people were just being cheap.
So that's how to ruin a Leupold and probably most other hunting scopes. Use a cheap rail and take it 4wheelin'. If I get the scope back from Leupold it'll go in a one piece unitized mount.
