Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/554642
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 4 9 courtesy leupold optics Ron Spomer i f l e s R A rarely stated truism is that a riflescope's most important job is staying zeroed. The optical resolution of an astronomical telescope is nice, and the brightness of a surgical operating theater is wonderful, but all is lost if the reticle points two MOA left for one shot, three down for the next. Historically, scopes stayed on target because they were zeroed via external adjustments. The mount bases themselves turned right and left, up and down. The advent of the spring-loaded, turret-dialed erector tube weakened all that. Internal adjustments simplify zeroing and permit dialing corrections for long- range trajectory curves but at the risk of the whole system going down. Out-of-sight and usually out-of- mind erector springs can weaken through an insidious decline some withstand 100,000 shots atop a .375 H&H, their customers should have no trouble with any smaller caliber. Bad assumption. According to David Archerd in the engineering department at Leupold & Stevens, Inc., recoil stresses are a lot more complicated than energy alone. "The force is also affected by time," he told me during an inside peek at his testing facilities in Beaverton, Oregon. "The duration of the energy exerted into or onto an object is a major factor in our shock-testing." That prompted me to say: "I'm sure you don't sit here with a rifle and actually fire 10,000 rounds with every scope you test. So do you clamp one on a steel block and drop it like I've seen at some test facilities?" "No, we use purpose-designed machinery and some specially developed materials that induce the correct sine wave of real rifle signatures." "Purpose designed?" I lifted an eyebrow. "You're starting to sound like a politician here, Senator Archerd." "That's because I'm keeping secrets like a politician," he replied. "There's The scopes with the gold rings are put through the ringer before they hit the shelves. shooters fight and puzzle over for years as their scopes inconsistently wander. Galling and sticking at the turret pressure points can complicate adjustments. Square reticle shifts in a round hole introduce inexplicable inconsistencies at the edges. A broken spring, of course, crashes the hard drive, so to speak. Scope-makers combat these challenges with ever-improving erector systems, more durable materials, more precise construction, and tighter tolerances, but little or none of this can be seen and assessed by purchasers. How do you know if your scope, if any scope, has the guts to go the distance? M anufacturers go to some trouble to advertise the durability of their products, usually by subjecting test samples to hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of impacts designed to duplicate the recoil pounding of something big and scary like a .375 H&H Magnum. This isn't a bad upper limit option since most larger cartridges are fired through open-sighted rifles. Scope-builders assume that if their product can