Scope damaged by fall?

[ChuckInOhio]

So yesterday I woke up, got the coffee, and sat down to plink some starlings from my three season room. I extended the legs on my Harris bipod and settled on the window ledge, took a couple shots, and sat the S510 down on the floor, which is bare concrete as we remodel the room. I started to walk away and heard something hit the ground, and the left leg had de-telescoped, sending the rifle onto its left side. I picked it up and looked it over for any obvious damage, and decided to quickly confirm my zero on some spinners at 60 yards. The pellets were going way too the right so I took it into the basement and set it up at 10m and sure enough it was shooting around 18MOA to the right. I dialed in the windage and noticed the knob seemed to be sticking (it's on the right side, so didn't hit the ground), but got it back on target, albeit without much adjustment left.

The scope it one of the Millet TRS-1's which has served me well, but there's something amiss. Has anyone else had this happen with a scope, i.e. getting knocked that far out of alignment and the windage binding?

BTW, the Harris (S-BRM with notched legs) had something wrong with the locking mechanism where it would catch but not fully engage. I played around with it a while and it seems to be working as expected again but it definitely shook my confidence a bit, although I've been using these for years with no issues until this incident.

 

[Richieg]

I had a similar thing happen to me. My Regal was leaning against a bench and the butt was on a piece of carpet because the floor is gravel. I walked by and hit the carpet with my foot and my Regal slide down the bench and landed on the top of the scope, luckily the gravel broke its fall. Wiped the gravel dust scope off and it wasn't even scratched, it looked ok. Put it on the bench to check it out, about 1 inch high and 1 inch left of previous zero. Redialed it in, shot the match with zero confidence in the scope. Removed it and sent it in to be checked out as it has a lifetime warranty. It was all checked out, optically centered, and they said everything checked out ok...SO....something happened, the base and rings were all tight, I checked those before sending it in. Got it back and remounted it on my Regal and seems to be doing great.

 

[bandg]

Probably not likely but possibly torqued in the rings? I'd remount it and see if that helps.

 

[marflow]

I hate to say it but you have to assume something bad will happen at all time and so with said lay the rifles down flat or where they can't fall down

this is the third post on falling rifles in less then a week with scope damage or something else

if not I will keep read posts about falling rifle and just shake my head

 

[frank320]

I would un-mount the scope(remove scope mount from rifle, remove and remount the scope rings), re-center both the windage and elevation turrets - i.e make sure they both have almost equal turns in either CW and CCW direction. Then re-mount the scope and re-zero. If it re-zero easily with existing windage and elevation limits, and holds its zero after several shots, i say you are probably ok. If not, probably not much good news.

The fact that you mentioned the windage knob is currently binding is a concern. If you can't get it to unbind, track and rotate smoothly, it is broken.

 

[Leo234]

Unfortunately, I had something similar. Several years back I fell while hunting in ice and snow. When I fell the rifle & scope struck a rock . When I got back to camp I checked zero and found it was off very similar to what you described. Unfortunately, I could never get the scope to hold zero again no matter what I tried. The silver lining was that it was a Vortex and after contacting them I had a brand new scope at my doorstep one week later.

 

[ChuckInOhio]

I hate to say it but you have to assume something bad will happen at all time and so with said lay the rifles down flat or where they can't fall down

this is the third post on falling rifles in less then a week with scope damage or something else

if not I will keep read posts about falling rifle and just shake my head

Understood, but I've been leaving my powderburners and airguns up on the bench and on the ground with the bipod extended for years without an issue; this was an equipment failure, not negligence. As I mentioned, I've had complete confidence in my Harris products for around 30 years, so this was a first. With the locking/notched legs I would never expect this, but will now.

Probably not likely but possibly torqued in the rings? I'd remount it and see if that helps.

Great advice and after thinking about it I pulled the scope out of the mounted rings and checked everything out with my alignment kit, but the rings were fine.

I would un-mount the scope(remove scope mount from rifle, remove and remount the scope rings), re-center both the windage and elevation turrets - i.e make sure they both have almost equal turns in either CW and CCW direction. Then re-mount the scope and re-zero. If it re-zero easily with existing windage and elevation limits, and holds its zero after several shots, i say you are probably ok. If not, probably not much good news.

The fact that you mentioned the windage knob is currently binding is a concern. If you can't get it to unbind, track and rotate smoothly, it is broken.

I had thought about doing that after I checked the rings, but the binding made me think it's something else. I did actually go through the full windage left and right to see if it would smooth back out but it continued to alternate between good click/mush/hard click. I agree with you that there's something probably broken/askew in the internals.

Thanks for all the feedback, I really appreciate it. At this point I think the impact shock must have damaged the internals as the tube itself doesn't show any damage. On the bright side it is holding windage at this point, or so I believe. What's sad is I had just started playing with a dope sheet for windage as well as elevation, so I will have to continue using Kentucky windage at this point until I get a new optic. Too bad, it's actually been a fantastic scope for what I've been using it for...

 

[Tweeter]

I hate to say it but you have to assume something bad will happen at all time and so with said lay the rifles down flat or where they can't fall down

this is the third post on falling rifles in less then a week with scope damage or something else

if not I will keep read posts about falling rifle and just shake my head

Harris is a battle proven bi-pod. I wouldn't blame the OP for trusting a Harris bi-pod to keep his gun upright. Stuff happens sometimes...