Lesson Learned!

[Shaun_300]

Rifle season opened on Monday, unfortunately I couldn't get any time to get out this week, but I'm taking part of next week off to hunt. Anyway, it's a tradition for all my uncles and everyone to go shooting the rifles the Sunday before the rifle opener, just to make sure they're still shooting straight. I was debating on not shooting because I had just taken a couple shots out of my rifle before moose season and it was dead on. Something told me to shoot though, so I did. We had a target set up around 85-90 yards, my turn to shoot at the 2x2 target. I aim for the bullseye and let the .300 WSM roar. It roared alright, my uncle went up to check the target and said "Didn't even hit the target!" I was like "WHAT?!:confused:" So I shot again, missed the whole target again. So we moved the bench up to 25-30 yards, shot again. Missed the whole freakin target again. One of my uncles noticed it hitting the dirt about 2 feet over the target. So I knew something was obviously wrong, looked down at the scope and noticed the back ring was sitting on TOP of the base, not clamped around it. All the screws had managed to loosen off on me and sheared the edges off the rings. Boy am I sure glad I shot that gun, even though I had just made sure it was shooting good less than a month ago for moose season. Just had a gut feeling to shoot it. Tonight I headed into Ottawa to get some new rings, just remounted the scope onto my rifle. Now I have to take off work early tomorrow so I can get to the pit and get it zeroed in again so I can hunt on Saturday.

Oh well, moral of the story, always make sure your scope rings are tight!!!:o:rolleyes:

[Lead Poison]

GREAT ADVICE!

Thanks for sharing it.

[WaCoyote]

Happened to me once too. I had worked up a bunch of new loads and the groups were about 6-8 inches. I couldn't believe it. Then I tried the load I knew I was getting MOA groups and more of the same. Turns out the rear mount had worked loose and the scope was moving at every shot. Wasted a lot of ammo and reloading time before I figured it out.

[OJR]

I have seen that happen several times!

It is best to shoot the whole year around, then you will also get practice and know the gun is in good shape for hunting!

[Leo]

I've seen people curse rifles, loads and scopes when in the final analysis of things the rings and bases were the culprit.

Cheap rings and bases shoot loose or work loose very easily. These things are cheap because they are made with the cheapest metal and lowest strength screws available. Making sure the cheap ones stay tight is a loosing battle. The metal to metal contact stretches and you have to keep snugging things up. Inevitably, something goes POP! Loctiting the cheap stuff doesn't work either, it just prevents the screws from turning but they still stretch and that causes problems. The other bad thing is on cheap screws the removable type loctite provides enough hold to strip out the screw heads when you try and remove them. On good high grade screws this is not an issue.

Even the good stuff (Leupold, Sako, Burris and Talley) will work loose if not installed correctly. The Blue Removable type thread locker Loctite makes works just fine with high grade screws. You can still remove everything without stripping out the heads. And Loctite really does cut down on those loose screw surprises.

[wtnhunt]

Good advice Shaun, we like to shoot some year round with our guns and make sure that they are all ready well before seasons open up. Never hurts to get practice in whenever you can.

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

Our rifle season is 2 months long, and I like to shoot some throughout the season to make sure I'm still on, not just before. You just can't be too careful.