Thread: Dropped rifles ( in gun case )

With an oversea hunt to materialized, junior dropped both rifles ( in their separate case each) from the top of the check in baggage while negotiating a corner to get us checked in. No visible damage was noted but deep down, there was an Oh, Shit! from me. Anyway, a sight in was arranged and my first shot at 118 yards was not on an A4 paper! Moving to 25 yards, I was on the money. Back to 188 yards I was 2.5 inches high on the third shot and a fourth shot was dead level but 1 inch to the right. Will, I came away quite happy, thinking that after the bump, the rifle/scope just need a few hot to settle down and I put the last shot as my "pull" shot. My rifle is a Sako with Optik Rings. Junior brought along an R 93 which was broken down and he checked in the scope with mount separately. Anyway, after putting the rifle together, he only need one shot and he was on the money.

Hunting commence the next day and we use that as an look around day. Me and my mate decided not to take our rifles bu let one other guy and my son took theirs. Nothing was shot on that day but enough was seen that we all packed our rifle the next day. A deer was spied at over 300 yards and my mate A-Maxed it while my son ready himself should the shot flush out another one. Well, one showed itself at 360 Yards and junior "VLD" it. Two deers before 9:00am, good stuff!

Afternoon hunt got me a deer 450 yards away. It was bedding down, front on quartering. "VLD" it under the neck and out the other side of the shoulder. Next few days were spend getting the other hunting companion his deer. To cut a long story shot, he got his deer too. Anyway, when it was my turn to nail another one, an opportunity raised at 525 yards. With he scope dialed in and double checked, I proceed to follow through with the shot. The shot felt good but I did not hear any impact sound! Deer moved another 20 yards uphill and junior was calling my shot high. Moved elevation down and fired another shot. Again, shot felt good but still not connecting! This time, the deer decided to bugger off, not finding out if I will be third time lucky . The ballistic program was scrutinized and there was no fault there. 1 test shot was allowed ( too many would frighten the deers) and I adjust my scope accordingly. It printed 1 inch high and half in to the right.

Another opportunity came up at 625 yards and same shit happen, it went high! Anyway, I came back with one animal each for me and junior. With such failure of my last 3 shots, I went testing last week. Five shots was done without tweaking the rifle and scope. Well, it did not hold zero. Allen key came out and guess what? I was able to further tighten the scope ring screws with little finger pressure! Tighten all screws as evenly as possible and 3 shots was fired, this time the group was good and further 3 shots by my mate proved similar.

Lesson learned :

The Optik Ring with its plastic sleeves sitting in the concaved ring must have moved when the rifle was dropped. Also, may be the plastic sleeves were compressed but the drop altered the compression. As we were told to bring only 20 rounds of ammo each and the fact that shooting there to re sight in my rifle would frighten the deers. Also, without my Allen key with me at the time, I could waste ammo by tweaking with the scope which the fault were the scope rings. For the record, I am not rubbishing the scop rings or any particular product. It is just one of those thing in life. Shit happen and at least I am dealing with it and learned my lesson.

Buy an R93 and you will never have the problem unless maybe you drop the scope from a great height

Funny you should say that, but this has happen three times already. Twice were wallaby hunt down south and this recent oversea adventure. For the wallaby hunts, all our rifle that have scope permanently mounted on rifle has some degree of movement ( there were 5 of us) whilst the saddle mount maintain zero after assembly. Ummmm......

What sort of hardcases?

Picatinny rail and QD mounts....

My hard case was Italian which was bought oversea. Very well padded and heavy. My rifle with scope in the case weigh 10.4kg. R 93 was factory case and factory rings. Now, for the previous wallaby hunt, all case were stronge and well padded. Rings were Night Force alloy with titanium jaws and Barnard alloy rails. One guy had a integrate rail ( Surgeon action ).

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

Funny you should say that, but this has happen three times already. Twice were wallaby hunt down south and this recent oversea adventure. For the wallaby hunts, all our rifle that have scope permanently mounted on rifle has some degree of movement ( there were 5 of us) whilst the saddle mount maintain zero after assembly. Ummmm......

Ive heard Goats cheese is the way to stop this from happening.
Liberally applied to all metal work, mounts etc.

The up side is you will never go hungry while hunting but you may find yourself lonely

Heeelo

Iv had optilocks on a 85 and it had been subjected to all sorts of abuse including being flicked off a bluff(it was me or her honest)and never moved one little bit and this was with a Big dent in the scope tube.
After a while I stopped checking after a knock cos it never moved. Nec minute
Easy neck shot miss
half an hour later another easy neck shot.........miss
On inspection later it was 2" out in windage and the windage cap had a dent in it that was pushing on the adjuster wheel. As soon as I removed the cap it was bang on again.
Make sure the split in the(plastic) ring lines up with the gap in the two halves of the ring so it can collapse and clamp. work your way round the 4 cap screws and dont be to shy and it should never move.
Id be willing to mount someone else's scope and hit it with a hammer and be sure it wont move.

+1 What Vietnamcam said. I have had the same experience with optilocks although i haven't throwen any of my Sakos off a bluff! Fully endorse his description of the mounting with the plastic inserts. All mine are mounted like this and i am yet to have them move.

Originally Posted by RUNAS

Ive heard Goats cheese is the way to stop this from happening.
Liberally applied to all metal work, mounts etc.

The up side is you will never go hungry while hunting but you may find yourself lonely

Heeelo

Eh-low! Did you buy the goat cheese from the cheese shop in Mercer?!

All advice noted and thanks for your input.

Originally Posted by lost

Eh-low! Did you buy the goat cheese from the cheese shop in Mercer?!

VAT ! U swinehaut ! I'm going to cover my self in zinc unt mud and go for a very loud march in zee bush now in my zuper black camo, u won't even know I'm there, Heeeelllo
Pity Blazer don't make cheese ! BWHAHAHA !

Originally Posted by Tussock

Perhaps your not doing them up tight enough? Im almost as rough as Vietnamcam and Iv never had an issue.

Maybe buy a torque wrench.

Iv got one but I dont know how to use it......

You swing on it till your elbow goes click

Torque wrench? Now, that's another story! One of our team member brought one but due to excess weight of his checked in luggage, it was put in his carry on cabin bag. Upon security screening, the torque wrench was deemed a weapon and confisticated by the airport security! There goes our torque wrench for the trip! All in all it was an over sight for me not to even check the screws with Allen key which we did have.

Originally Posted by Tussock

Price of a torque wrench, I would have paid excess baggage.

Price of any of my torque wrenches (or any other decent one) they would be traveling 1st class and I'd be checked baggage!
A tq wrench that will go low enough for rings and cross bolts is not much bigger than a large egg (axial wrench)- excess weight?

Need one that does low inch/lbs
Just like the forums Wheeler lapping kit has